Polifrog Blog

Newt on Anti Catholic Bigotry During New Hampshire Debate...

2012-02-13T10:36:00.000-05:00

polifrog

Newt was absolutely correct here and hits a theme I have returned to numerous times, the intentional displacement of religion by governance:

Given the current debate over the contraception mandate and the fact that such a mandate would force religious institutions out of the services they provide if they are to stay true to their beliefs, Newt was spot on.

However, Illegal Insurrection draws further conclusions of possible collusion between media and liberal governance. Just why did Stephanopoulos bizarrely ask about contraception month ago? Romney was clearly baffled by the question, as it seemed at the time to be entirely hypothetical.

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Palin -- I've Created More Jobs for Impersonators Than Obama Has Created Jobs...

2012-02-13T00:07:00.000-05:00

polifrog

Let's watch. (Must we?)

Via GatewayPundit

Is This Where Western Civilization and Democracy Both Begins and Ends?

2012-02-12T22:42:00.001-05:00

polifrog

Is is a sad thing for a society to vote itself into dependancy for all the right reasons.

Athens:

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Nugent vs. Piers Morgan on That Gun Thing...

2012-02-12T22:17:00.000-05:00

polifrog

Never enter an interview without stats and sources:

Via MoonBattery

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Our Future of Un-American Mandates, Edicts, and Decrees Via the Affordable Care Act...

2012-02-12T15:41:00.001-05:00

polifrog

The Obama administration issues an order, a decision, a mandate, an edict, a decree, via HHS --- the recent contraception mandate, for example.

Think about that.

Why does our nation debate this? Is this a decision up for discussion? Is it part of a bill that is working its way through congress and is vulnerable to the support of our representatives and, hence, us? Do we have even indirect influence over this edict?

Admittedly, we once had influence over an amorphous something as a bill but we had to pass it to see what was in it.

What was in it? Something decidedly unAmerican. Law by edict. Law by decree. Law that can be changed by the president to "accommodate" the Constitution.

Yet, we get gibberish such as "the morality of modern conservatism focuses on the crotch: abortion, contraception, homosexuality, premarital sex, and on and on " when conservatives are forcing none of this on America.

And this is our future: we will be free to discuss issue after issue just like this one, each a one-size-fits-all solution for our diverse nation of individuals. And we will each time hear the cries of diversity sheered from America as individual liberty is lost. And throughout we will be free to discuss and discuss issue after issue until we feel the placebo of influence on one another. But discussion and influence on one another is not influence over governance and without control, without influence in governance, who gives a rat's ass?

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Brave Man Breitbart ...

2012-02-11T14:46:00.000-05:00

polifrog

Occupy enslaves each and every one of us when they collectively feed off of our individually earned productivity.

So, yes, I love it and I live it.
Embrace the brave.

Breitbart to Occupy:

Behave yourselves. You are freaks and animals. Stop raping people. You Freaks; you filthy freaks.

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PPP - Santorum Takes the Lead Nationally and in Michigan...

2012-02-10T21:20:00.001-05:00

polifrog

Only tweets until morning:

Nationally Santorum seems to have captured the lead. But beyond the margin of error? "Healthy" would suggest so:

We're going to have our new national GOP poll, showing a pretty healthy Santorum lead, out tomorrow morning

And in Michigan:

Santorum topping Romney on the first night of our Michigan poll. This may be the biggest surge yet

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Will I Stop Poking the Corpse of Occupy? Nah....

2012-02-10T18:54:00.004-05:00

polifrog

...these clowns are simply too much. Trucking in the protestors at $60 a head is not a movement. There are, however, "movements" that occupy does represent:

USAToday:

Future political operatives might view it as a case study in how not to organize a lasting movement.

...

... after successfully tapping into this vein, the Occupiers chose a course best described as doing nothing. They did nothing day after day, week after week, under the mistaken belief that camping in public plazas would prompt some kind of action from others.

...

The Occupiers lacked identifiable leaders and clear goals. And they presented bewildering messages to the public, epitomized in the irony of people sitting idle to protest those who had made fortunes.

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It Sucks That There is no Utopia and it Sucks That We Conservatives Must Expose That Liberals are Utopianists That Trade Liberty for Free Stuff...

2012-02-10T14:26:00.002-05:00

polifrog

Bill Whittle:

There is no free in liberty.

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All Your Moral Are Belong to ObamaCare -- Welcome to ObamaCare...

2012-02-10T14:11:00.001-05:00

polifrog

We are not a one-size-fits-all nation.

WSJ Editorial:

The entire thrust of ObamaCare is to standardize benefits and how they must be paid for and provided, regardless of individual choices or ethical convictions.

...

...But the rule is already final. HHS tried to sell it as a compromise when it was announced, and in any case HHS would revive this coercion whenever it is politically convenient some time in Mr. Obama’s second term. Religious liberty won’t be protected from the entitlement state until ObamaCare is repealed.

Welcome to ObamaCare...

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Obama Conceded Nothing on the Contraception Mandate....

2012-02-10T13:20:00.001-05:00

polifrog

Washington Post:

Seeking to allay the concerns of Catholic leaders,President Obama on Friday announced an adjustment to its health-care rule requiring religiously affiliated employers to provide contraceptive coverage to women.

Women still will be guaranteed coverage for contraceptive services without any out-of-pocket cost, but will have to seek the coverage directly from their insurance companies if their employers object to birth control on religious grounds.

How is this an accommodation? Employees of the church will go to the same insurance company that their employer, the church, uses to receive "free" birth control that is paid for by the customers of the insurance company, the churches included.

Can a church choose a different insurance company that does not dispense contraceptives? No. All insurance companies will be subject to this decree, therefore churches will have no options.

This is ObamaCare.

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The Contraception Mandate is Really About ObamaCare Awfulness...

2012-02-10T07:10:00.033-05:00

polifrog

We repeatedly hear words to the effect that the Contraception Mandate is an Obama administration decision, decree or executive order. Huh? Under what authority?

The authority comes from ObamaCare. That means, simply put, this "contraception issue" is not about contraception, but rather a fundamental clash between ObamaCare and 1st amendment rights. ObamaCare is imposing one-size-fits-all solutions that does not fit all and never will. Catholics by definition are restrained by religious belief from supporting contraception yet ObamaCare is forcing the Catholic church to break its own religious doctrine.

We are a diverse people in this nation. Why does Obama repeatedly disrespect our diversity?

There is this contraception mandate. (Forced Contraception)

The Obama justice department attempted to force religious institutions to hire and fire without regard to the employee's religious beliefs. (Forced Hiring)

Catholic churches were not allowed to opt out of ObamaCare based on conscience clause due to abortion. (Forced Abortions)

All your moral are belong to us.

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Our Atheocratic Media is Blind to the Religious Conflict With ObamaCare...

2012-02-10T01:00:00.000-05:00

polifrog

This is not a contraception issue, it is an ObamaCare issue.
Watch ObamaCare in action.

'Explain this religious freedom thing to me, no really, explain it to me.'

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Amity Shlaes on Half Time in America...

2012-02-09T17:09:00.000-05:00

polifrog

Amity Shales:

Rather, the Super Bowl ad infuriates because Eastwood, like so many others before him, gets the story backward. What’s wrong with the auto industry isn’t that it failed to create jobs. What’s wrong is that it emphasizes jobs over general growth itself.

There is iron in these words.

Jobs for the sake of jobs does not create productivity.

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More of the Failure of Economies Driven vs. Economies Ridden...

2012-02-09T11:02:00.001-05:00

poifrog

Nicole Gelinas:

Because Europe has ignored the market’s pleas, and refused either to assume countries’ debts or to allow them to default, it has increased the chances that the euro will disintegrate. That could trigger a credit crisis more severe than the 2008 meltdown. It would be a reminder that the longer governments repress market discipline, the more painful a return to it is. But despite the pain, such a correction looks increasingly likely—and necessary. Greece, for instance, could then create a new, devalued drachma and pay back its debt more easily in the cheaper currency. That cheaper currency, coupled with the measure of certainty that comes with cutting losses, would soon attract investment and jobs. And the departure of the hated technocrats could help Greece look within and achieve the labor-force and tax reforms that it needs.

The American financial crisis was no more a failure of free markets than the European crisis was. Just as investors tried to signal that something was wrong with the euro, they tried for decades to show that something was rotten in American finance. The rot remains, but Washington has spent the past two years demonstrating that it would rather distort or block market signals than rely on them. This strategy thwarts economic recovery.

[Welcome Daily Pundit Readers]

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No Backdown on the Contraception Mandate...

2012-02-08T22:07:00.002-05:00

polifrog

[Added]
On Hannity:

When religious freedom was weighed against access to birth control -- why did freedom loose?

ABC:

President Obama “reinforced” his stance on the controversial contraception mandate while speaking at the Democrats’ annual retreat at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C. today, Senate Democrats said.

The retreat was closed to media.

Following President Obama’s speech at the retreat, a small group of Senate Democrats, mostly women, left the retreat early in order to hold a news conference on Capitol Hill to counter the Republicans’ news conference today at which they called for the mandate to be overturned.

Democrats said they will “fight strongly” to keep the mandate in place.

Interesting.

On the one hand the discussion is no longer the economy, but on the other hand this brings to the forefront another looser for Democrats ... Obamacare. Forcing Americans into a framework of limited choices is a looser every time.

There is also this:

“The power to decide whether or not to use contraception lies with a woman – not her boss,” said Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y. “What is more intrusive than trying to allow an employer to make medical decisions for someone who works for them?”

Actually the power of where a woman chooses to work lies with a woman. The real loss choice is the diminished choice available for all as one size for all solutions are foisted on a diverse society.

American diversity simply does not matter when it comes to social solutions.

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An Economy Driven as Opposed to An Economy Ridden...

2012-02-08T19:26:00.000-05:00

polifrog

Nicole Gelinas:

In the years leading up to 2007, the rules necessary to govern a flourishing market economy broke down, producing a financial and economic crisis. Rather than responding to the crisis by fixing those rules, the West aggressively repudiated market economics, and the repudiation continues to this day. Through their actions, which have lately involved everything from European debt to the American financial system to house prices in Britain, government officials around the world have revealed a disturbing assumption: that they can decide how to allocate resources better than markets can. No longer, it seems, do Western governments use investor signals as valuable feedback in devising effective policies; instead, they ignore those signals and plow ahead with their policymaking, leaving chaos in their wake. Often, in fact, public officials actively mute market signals in a vain but destructive attempt to impose their own will on struggling economies.

The rejection of markets helps explain the strange inertia of 2011. Across the free world, the year went out just the way it had come in....

H/T Politics et al

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12 Weeks Old, Human, and Pleading for Liberty Defended...

2012-02-08T18:00:00.004-05:00

polifrog

Liberty was once denied by Democrats based on color, now it is denied based on age...

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Oh, That Trendy Justice Ginsburg...

2012-02-08T16:22:00.000-05:00

polifrog

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Santorum Trifecta...

2012-02-08T01:09:00.001-05:00

polifrog

Yep! He got Colorado!

Final numbers to come.

Update--
40.2 Santorum
34.9 Romney

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Renee Ellmers Finally Produces Some Political, uh, Heh...

2012-02-07T23:41:00.001-05:00

polifrog

I believe Rep. Ellmers has grown comfortable in her new role:

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Now it's Reason's Turn to Parody Half Time in America....

2012-02-07T22:51:00.000-05:00

polifrog

Did Clint accidentaly help turn an election?

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Minnesota Also Called for Santorum...

2012-02-07T22:38:00.001-05:00

polifrog

Two out of three states for the night have gone for Santorum over Romey. That makes two big wins for Santorum. Especially so for Minnesota which went for Romney by 19 over McCain in 08. Consider also that Romney is well behind Ron Paul on Minnesota.

In the case of Missouri, Newt was not one of the choices. This proves that Newt's votes will go Santorum rather than Romney when he is not included on the ballot.

Bad, bad night for Romney.

Interesting night.

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Missouri Called for Santorum --- Entered the Night With Momentum...

2012-02-07T22:28:00.000-05:00

polifrog

It appears that Santorum went into the night with momentum. The expectation of 45% turns out to be 55%.

Although not called, in Minnesota Santorum also leads with 45% but entered the night with the expectation of around 35%.

This bodes well for Santorum in Colorado. Although he currently leads in Colorado, high population areas have yet to be counted.

Word for the night Momentum...

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Watch the Returns on Google...

2012-02-07T21:36:00.001-05:00

polifrog

At top right there is a pull down menu of states one can select from. Below is Missouri showing Santorum in the lead with 52% and Romney at 26%.

Nifty.

It is google, so watch your privacy.

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Some Santorum Polls...

2012-02-07T18:31:00.001-05:00

polifrog

Via PPP, in Missouri Santorum has 45% to Romney's 32% and Paul's 19%. With Newt not on the ballot in Missouri the anti Mitt vote is less divided and we get a glimpse of Romney's soft conservative weakness. Romney seems to gain little from Newt when Newt is absent from the race.

Newt is, however, in contention in Minnesota. But there too Santorum leads but only with 33%, followed by Romney with 24%, Gingrich at 21% and Paul at 20%.

In Colorado Romney leads with 37%, Santorum with 27%, Gingrich 21%, and Paul 13%.

Then, of course, there is excitement or momentum to consider:

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What Clint Eastwood Was Expected to Say ...

2012-02-07T16:43:00.000-05:00

polifrog

Rush:

It may be halftime in America but we're down by 16 trillion...

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There Is No Free In Liberty...

2012-02-07T13:37:00.000-05:00

polifrog

Via iOwnTheWorld:

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There is no Defense for Abortion --- None...

2012-02-06T18:10:00.003-05:00

polifrog

A woman's right to her body extends only so far as those rights do not infringe on the rights of her child. That we do not recognize the right of the unborn to have life as more immoral than slavery speaks to an American rot. In the final analysis slaves were, at least, granted life.

I am less infatuated with any woman's uterus than the fact that the American uterus is more deadly to Americans than Iraq, as well as the fact that the the left that is apparently okay because it's a woman's choice rather than Bush's.

George Will - The DC Caller:

...historians will marvel that American liberalism in the first part of the 21^st century is defined as defense of abortion.

Marco Rubio:

[Edited for clarity]
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Why Keynesianism is Wrong...

2012-02-06T15:17:00.000-05:00

polifrog

It created the Great Depression, Japan's lost ~~decade~~ two decades, and now it is back in America. We are living through America's Second Keynesian Depression...

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There is No Free in Liberty...

2012-02-06T14:57:00.000-05:00

polifrog

McNaughton Fine Art

H/T Daily Pundit

There is no free in liberty.

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Smile File Frowns...

2012-02-06T14:10:00.000-05:00

polifrog

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Where Once Chrysler Lead the World, They are Now an American Dependent...

2012-02-06T12:48:00.002-05:00

polifrog

Compare and contrast the two videos. The first is an example of a strong forward looking corporation leading the world but forced to turn away from a possible future by regulation and future union costs, the second of the same corporation latter struggling within that regulation as well as abusive unions and dependent not just on overt and misplaced appeals to American patriotism, but the American government itself when it claims "we rallied around what was right and acted as one".

Witness American exceptionalism :

and its embrace of socialized failure:

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How Stupid is Richard Burr? So Stupid as to Reject an Anti Insider Tradeing Bill for Congress...

2012-02-05T20:22:00.001-05:00

polifrog

How many bad votes can a single representative make? There was his vote on DADT, his penchant for earmarks ($105,803,000 in fiscal year 2010 ranking 61st out of 100 senators) and the Food Safety Modernization Act, but with or without an election around the corner, why make a stand on this?

Big Government:

The third dissenter to the ban on congressional insider trading was Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC). According to Sen. Burr, the STOCK Act “does no more than codify what existing law says. It’s ludicrous.“ Sen. Burr called the legislation “insane,” equated the measure to passing a law requiring citizens to get a driver’s license (which already exists), and called himself and Sen. Tom Coburn “brave” for standing up against the ban.

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Marco Rubio on the Constitutional Immorality of Abortion...

2012-02-05T18:54:00.000-05:00

polifrog

A woman's right to her body only extends only as far as the rights of her child. That we do not recognize the right of the unborn to live as more immoral than slavery speaks to an American rot. In the final analysis slaves were, at least, granted life.

Marco Rubio:

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Romney's Nevada Win?

2012-02-05T10:26:00.000-05:00

polifrog

Last night (early morning really) with around 40% of the count in Romney was "winning" with 42%.

In 2008 he won Nevada with 51%.

Whoopee!

(I put off this post, though, in hopes for a complete count being in by this morning. It isn't . What's up?)

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Pop Keynesian Solutions for the Euro Via Zero Hedge...

2012-02-05T00:17:00.001-05:00

polifrog

H/T MaggiesFarm.
ZeroHedge:

No. An economy can withstand the cost of only so much socialization. Whether that economy is a city, a nation, a group of nations or beyond, the high costs of socialized economies are invariably pushed to higher and higher bureaucratic levels in the search to socialize their unproductivity to the productive. Eventually they run out of the productive.

And where once there were boarders that effectively contained the costs of a socialized economy to a single nation, the euro perforated those boarders allowing nations like Greece to appear more solvent than they were. As a result we are witnessing the absurdity that is the socialization, across national boarders, of the failure of individual socialized economies. We are now not just witnessing a nation helping a locality within its boarders, or Germany lending a hand to a member Euro state, but the United States helping socialize the cost of the failure of the European experiment in Social Democracy.

Why support the promotion of failure?

Later in the cartoon we the the nonsense of the deflationary spiral argument raised ... People get nervous and stop all spending? BS. Spending falls to the minimum necessary level. If that is a crash, it is a crash to reality. Only from that point, the point at which prices once again accurately convey demand information, can growth begin again.

And that is the answer. Let the market work, let the failure that is socialism die.

There is no free in liberty.

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Allen West on That BLS BS....

2012-02-04T20:51:00.000-05:00

polifrog

Via Ace:

West said:
"Can someone tell me how employment in the black community has improved at a rate three times the national average in just a few months?? With numbers like today, urban communities should be well on their way to economic recovery then! There is something suspicious about the job numbers released today and it has me very concerned," West wondered Friday. "Is this dramatic supposed decrease in black unemployment a result of job creation or is someone playing around with the census numbers??"
But economists immediately shot his suspicions down as "unfounded" and "paranoid."
Wait, no they didn't.
Economists reached by The Hill for comment couldn't fully explain the unemployment rate change for the black community. William Darity, a professor of public policy at Duke University specializing in African-American studies and economics, wrote in an email to The Hill that the decline could have been due to a smaller labor force. He called the drop an "unbelievably dramatic drop" but didn't rule out the possibility of someone tampering with the numbers; he said there was no evidence one way or the other.

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Bill Whittle - The Grand Jihad...

2012-02-04T18:56:00.000-05:00

polifrog

The world will be ordered in some fashion; Capitalist (secular), Statist (Atheocratic), or Islamic (Theocratic).

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Zo on Juan's Baseless Accusations of Racism...

2012-02-04T18:30:00.001-05:00

polifrog

When the charge of racism lacks proof, the charge of racism is, itself, racist.

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Just Sayin'

2012-02-04T00:35:00.000-05:00

polifrog

I am less infatuated with any woman's uterus than the fact that the American uterus is more deadly to Americans than Iraq, as well as the fact that that is apparently okay because it's a woman's choice rather than Bush's.

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"Canada? No, that's a state." -- The Failure of Universal Education...

2012-02-03T18:48:00.000-05:00

polifrog

These kids show us that when knowledge is offered without cost to the recipient, it is devalued by the recipient. And when knowledge is devalued by the recipient no amount of spending on education can solve the resultant ignorance.

One wonders if there is not an efficiency in teaching the only those interested.

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Just Sayin'...

2012-02-03T17:53:00.001-05:00

polifrog

Illegal alien is to undocumented resident,

as

Drug pusher is to undocumented pharmacist.

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More BLS BS...

2012-02-03T14:11:00.004-05:00

polifrog

Too poignant to post in part.

By Bill Wilson

Once again, the civilian labor force participation rate has declined, from 64 percent to 63.7 percent in a single month. Since January 2009, it has declined from 65.7 percent, resulting in approximately 4.7 million people no longer being counted towards the unemployment rate. If they were included, the real rate of unemployed working age adults would be 11.01 percent, and the underemployed would be 17.6 percent.

Overall, that includes the 12.7 million people that BLS says are actually unemployed, and then 4.7 million who have given up looking for work, plus another 10.5 million who can’t find full-time work. All together, there’s 28 million working age adults who simply cannot find work in the Obama economy.

It is hard to separate the continued obfuscation of this harsh reality by the government from the fact that we are now in an election year.

Government lies. That is what it does.

Charts via ZeroHedge.

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I Think Therefore I Am...

2012-02-03T13:02:00.001-05:00

polifrog

Descartes walks into a bar.

"Can I pour you beer?", the barkeep asks.

Descartes replies, " I don't think so."... and disappears.

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And he'd be in more trouble if the single conservative alternative ended up being Santorum:

2012-02-03T11:34:00.000-05:00

polifrog

If Romney were a conservative in the national sense, not just the Massachusetts sense, this would not be a problem.

PPP:

-In Missouri Santorum leads Romney 50-37 and in Ohio Santorum leads 45-38.

-In Missouri Gingrich leads Romney 43-42 and in Ohio Gingrich leads 42-39.

Two takeaways from those numbers: if this ever came down to Romney, Paul, and just one out of Gingrich and Santorum, Romney would be in a lot of trouble. And he'd be in more trouble if the single conservative alternative ended up being Santorum.

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Ruth Bader Ginsburg - Comments From a Self Loathing Justice...

2012-02-02T14:30:00.001-05:00

polifrog

Memri (video at the link)

Ruth Bader Ginsburg: It is a very inspiring time - that you have overthrown a dictator, and that you are striving to achieve a genuine democracy. So I think people in the United States are hoping that this transition will work, and that there will genuinely be a government of, by, and for the people.
[...]
I met with the head of the elections commission. I think that the first step has gone well, and that elections have been held for the lower house that everyone has considered to be free and fair. So that's one milestone, and the next will be the drafting of a constitution.

I can't speak about what the Egyptian experience should be, because I'm operating under a rather old constitution. The United States, in comparison to Egypt, is a very new nation, and yet we have the oldest written constitution still in force in the world.
[...]
Let me say first that a constitution, as important as it is, will mean nothing unless the people are yearning for liberty and freedom. If the people don't care, then the best constitution in the world won't make any difference. So the spirit of liberty has to be in the population, and then the constitution - first, it should safeguard basic fundamental human rights, like our First Amendment, the right to speak freely, and to publish freely, without the government as a censor.
[...]
You should certainly be aided by all the constitution-writing that has gone one since the end of World War II. I would not look to the US constitution, if I were drafting a constitution in the year 2012. I might look at the constitution of South Africa. That was a deliberate attempt to have a fundamental instrument of government that embraced basic human rights, had an independent judiciary... It really is, I think, a great piece of work that was done. Much more recent than the US constitution - Canada has a Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It dates from 1982. You would almost certainly look at the European Convention on Human Rights. Yes, why not take advantage of what there is elsewhere in the world?

[emphasis added]

Presented for your consideration.

H/T Legal Insurrection.

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Old Advert, Current Charge...

2012-02-01T21:02:00.000-05:00

polifrog

So, it's a Rick Perry advert. I like it and either Santorum or Newt could have run it...

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Examples of Leftist Racism...

2012-02-01T20:34:00.002-05:00

polifrog

Example 1

After 5 minutes of being relentlessly berated by this fellow Charlotte Bergman who is running for district 9 in Tennessee politely throws in the towel on this "interview". On the way out she offers her hand to the interviewer but he won't shake Charlotte Bergman's hand for fear that her "whiteness" might rub off on him:

Example 2

Rep. Moran:

People like Mr. West, and Governor Brewer and so on, particularly Mr. West, is not only not representative of the African-American community or of the Republican Party, let alone of the American public. So what he says really is of little or no consequence, but it’s unfortunate.

Video here.

Example 3

Least we forget racism on the left is most frequently practiced as the accusation of racism were none exist.

Juan Williams:

The language of GOP racial politics is heavy on euphemisms that allow the speaker to deny any responsibility for the racial content of his message. The code words in this game are "entitlement society" - as used by Mitt Romney - and "poor work ethic" and "food stamp president" - as used by Newt Gingrich. References to a lack of respect for the "Founding Fathers" and the "Constitution" also make certain ears perk up by demonizing anyone supposedly threatening core "old-fashioned American values."

Juan gives examples of racist "code" such as "poor work ethic", "entitlement society"words", "food stamp president" with no proof of racist intent. It is, in fact, Juan Williams who, when presented with a choice between defining words by the context in which the words are used or defining them in the terms of his own racist assumptions, chooses racism.

Absent proof of racism, the only racism is Juan's accusation.

According to Chris Matthews even Juan's name is racist when Matthews applies his own racist assumptions to the use of Juan's name:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

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Compared to Obama Even a Liberal Like Romney May Seem Conservative....

2012-02-01T19:24:00.000-05:00

polifrog

...but Romney has a record and it ain't good.

H/T Guarino

Santorum did reject ObamaCare, Cap & Trade and TARP.

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This Chart Hints Many Things, But Romney Inevitably is Not One of Them...

2012-02-01T16:54:00.000-05:00

polifrog

Granted the most recent Romney bump does not yet show.

RCP:

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Lying Leftists and Their Lying Lines...

2012-02-01T16:26:00.002-05:00

polifrog

Romney said:

I’m not concerned about the very poor; we have a safety net there. If it needs a repair , I’ll fix it. I’m not concerned about the very rich…. I’m concerned about the very heart of America, the 90-95 percent of Americans who right now are struggling.

But lying leftists lie and claim Romney said:

I’m not concerned about the very poor.

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Debunking Reich's Myopic Statistic That Americans are Worse Off Today Than in the 70's...

2012-02-01T15:39:00.001-05:00

polifrog

Don Boudreaux:

I personally tend to avoid statistics in arguments, as they can be skewed by, not only the data input, or chosen to be observed, but in the inferences derived from the results. (Krugman's playgrond)It is a fact the statistics can appear very scientific when they are not. We frequently sense this when the announced results simply do not comport with our experience.

Who honestly feels worse off than they did in the 70's?

H/T International Liberty

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Of Approvals and Referendums...

2012-02-01T15:12:00.001-05:00

polifrog

Approval is no measure of electoral viability, but if it were:

Update:
Almost forgot the H/T to Althouse...

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How About Some Free Chocolate With That Free Debt? No? You Say Why Now If it is Free Later? Huh.

2012-02-01T14:46:00.003-05:00

polifrog

Gonzalo Lira:

Suppose that I promised to give you free chocolate for the next three years: How much chocolate would you eat today? A pound? Half a pound? A few ounces? Or would you not eat any chocolate at all, once I made the announcement?

...

In point of fact, if the chocolate is free, you might not eat any chocolate at all. Every time you make the decision as to what to eat, you might well find yourself repeating the same mantra: “Chocolate is free—I can have it any time I want. So I won’t have any now.”

...

This is the problem Ben Bernanke and the Federal Reserve currently have—and it’s their own stupid fault: They have promised to maintain interest rates at effectively 0% until at least the end of 2014—they have in fact announced this zero interest-rate policy (ZIRP) as the hallmark of their strategy to reignite the economy—

—but then they’re surprised when businesses aren’t borrowing more. They’re surprised when lending is in fact contracting. They’re surprised when the American economy doesn’t start borrowing—and thus growing—like crazy.

So the American economy obviously doesn’t benefit from ZIRP. In fact, it stagnates because of ZIRP.

Click through to see who actually does benefit.

Pushing strings through Keynesian levers benefits none over the long run and the operators over the short run...

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Santorum and Newt Lead in the Mid West...

2012-02-01T12:59:00.001-05:00

polifrog

TheStateColumn:

Two Public Polling Policy polls of voters in Ohio and Missouri show Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich leading rivals Mitt Romney, and Ron Paul in the two mid-western states.

In Missouri, Mr. Gingrich is not on the primary ballot. Mr. Santorum finished with 45 percent of the votes among Missouri voters, with Mr. Romney trailing at 34 percent and Mr. Paul finishing third at 13 percent.

Mr. Gingrich leads the way in Ohio, finishing with 26 percent of the votes, followed by Mr. Romney at 25 percent, Mr. Santorum with 22 percent and 11 percent for Mr. Paul.

...

In addition to leading in popularity, Mr. Santorum also has the highest favorability rating in Missouri and Ohio. According to the poll, 63 percent of voters in Missouri have a favorable view of Mr. Santorum while 59 percent of voters polled in Ohio have a favorable view of him.

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Not All Wins are the Same...

2012-02-01T12:17:00.001-05:00

polifrog

Legal Insurrection:

Romney’s strategy of carpet bombing rather than inspiring may result in the nomination, but at a heavy financial price which will leave him weakened in a general election. A strategy which depends on outspending rivals several times over in each state is a self-destructive path...

Admittedly Newt, himself, was not particularly inspiring in Florida. Perhaps Romney's attacks threw him off message but if so, it was Newt's choice to step away from message and reply on Romney's terms.

Bad choice, Newt.

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Those Rosy Economic Predictions From the CBO...

2012-01-31T17:24:00.000-05:00

polifrog

But what of that Keynesian pump and that multiplier thing?

TownHall:

CBO also projected the jobless rate would rise to 8.9 percent by the end of 2012, and to 9.2 percent in 2013.

If the CBO estimate is correct, it would mean that the United States recorded a deficit of more than $1 trillion for every year of Obama’s first term. The deficit was $1.4 trillion in 2009, $1.3 trillion in 2010 and $1.3 trillion in 2011. The largest deficit recorded before that was $458 billion in 2008.

Good thing the CBO does not rely on optimism.

The higher unemployment numbers are due to lower economic growth than previously estimated. Gross domestic product for 2011 is now estimated to have grown 1.6 percent in 2011, down from the 2.3 percent forecast in August. CBO a year ago had predicted 3.1 percent growth for 2011. The outlook for 2012 has also worsened. GDP is forecast to grow only 2 percent this year, compared to a previous estimate of 2.7 percent.

Oh...

Permanent Keynes, permanent deficits, permanent malaise ... Keynesian depression.

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A Bit of Ginger Between the Politics?

2012-01-31T16:53:00.001-05:00

polifrog

A 5 year old and corporate branding.

Via EdCone.

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There is a Creepy Dude Supporting Romney...

2012-01-31T15:23:00.001-05:00

polifrog

If I were Romney I would not want this sort of support.

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Obama's Radical Effort to Push Religion From the Public Square...

2012-01-31T11:58:00.003-05:00

polifrog

On Jan 20, the Obama administration announced that even religious based hospitals, universities and charities will be compelled to pay for health insurance that covers sterilization, contraceptives and abortifacients.

Why?

The answer is short. The Obama administration wishes to displace religious organizations in every and all possible public areas by forcing religious organizations to be faced with the choice of crossing governance, crossing their faith, or bowing out of the areas of our public square that are effected by this decision.

If the religious are to stay true to their faith and stay true to government they will ultimately be forced to retreat from engaging with their own society under this decision.

Although it is not only through hospitals, universities, and charities that religions expose themselves to those who may not be exposed to them, it is one that the statists among us wish to end. Statists understand that the marginalization of religion grows dependency on governance.

What we are witnessing with the introduction of this regulation is our atheocratic state in action. What is atheocracy? If is, of course, the opposite of theocracy. Just as there are theocratic states like Iran, there athocratic states like N. Korea and China.

Unfortunately each type of governance claims its own form of piety as a pretense for non pious rule.

That piety may come in different forms, such as religious piety (theocracy) or duty bound piety (atheocracy). Whereas the former’s power is circumscribed by the religion that empowers those who rule via a religious citizenry, the latter enjoys no such restraint, as duty bound piety is piety toward self.

The truer danger, then, is the atheocratic regime which is bounded by no wrong. History points to this. Pick your theocracy then pick your athocracy and compare the suffering under each. Based on sheer number of dead no theocracy can match the accomplishments of the atheocratic regimes of China, Russia, Nazi Germany, or N. Korea.

Does that make a theocracy desirable? No. But it is preferable to the atheocratic rejection of all religion.

There is a third way.

It is one that requires no false piety, as it is a choice that does not adopt a single religion for empowerment and it is a choice that does not reject all religion leaving only self in the form of duty from which rule is empowered.

That third way, secularism, is the inclusion of all the various religions or the lack thereof as legitimate voices informing a representative democracy.

Our nation originally chose option three, but unfortunately that third way requires a degree of tolerance the intolerant atheists and leftists among us find intolerable and it is they who are slowly forcing us toward the greatest threat to liberty, an atheocracy.

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Posted Before, Posted Again -- T12...

2012-01-31T11:11:00.000-05:00

polifrog

Tea Party 2012:

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2.8 GDP -- So, That Keynesian Pump is Working...

2012-01-31T09:18:00.002-05:00

polifrog

Well, if the Keynesian "pump" is a debt pump, yeah.

Keynes pumped the US into the Great Depression, it pumped Japan into its lost decade (or two) and now it is again pumping us into depression.

NYPost:

And that meager 2.8 percent annual growth really isn’t what it seems to be.
That’s because 75 percent of that 2.8 percent growth involved businesses restocking inventories. Who says? The Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis, which released this data.

So people like you and me weren’t really buying all that stuff in the last months of 2011. It was businesses buying stuff and putting it on their shelves in hopes that people would soon come along and buy it from them.

...

Let me explain: The government comes up with a figure on how much it thinks the economy grew, or shrunk. Friday’s figure was a first estimate for the fourth quarter, so most of the numbers used in the calculation are only guesstimates anyway. (But that’s for a different story.)

The government then takes that growth figure, subtracts the rate of inflation and comes up with the real growth it reports in its press release.

So, in other words, if inflation is rising it reduces the rate of actual, after inflation, growth — which is the figure that Washington reports.

In Friday’s number the government used 0.4 percent as the rate of inflation. Zero. Point. Four. Percent.

In which country is inflation that low? Certainly not in America. Absolutely not in the last four months of 2011.

The consumer price index, which is put out by the US Census Bureau, had prices up 3 percent for the year.

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Did Mitt Romney Say at a Florida Rally, I Will Cut Government Waste and Use it to Pay for ObamaCare?

2012-01-31T08:37:00.004-05:00

polifrog

Nah. What I hear:

There's a lot of waste ... There's a lot of waste in the department of defense like the rest of government. I'm going to go after that waste. I'm not go use that waste and use it to pay for ObamaCare. I'm going to take that waste to use it help modernize our Navy and out Airforce...

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New Momentum for Newt in Florida with Men ... and Latinos?

2012-01-30T17:08:00.001-05:00

polifrog

It may be that Santorum bruised Romney on the RomneyCare attack, but more likely Romney went too dirty for too long on Newt.

Romney 36%
Newt 31%

NewsMax:

Towery noted that his poll showed a surge for Romney on Wednesday, with him leading Gingrich by 8 points. The InsiderAdvantage poll was among the first to show Romney's resurgence after his dismal showing in the S. Carolina primary.

...

"The trend is favoring Gingrich," Towery said, noting that while Romney's lead was still outside the margin of error of 3.8 percent, "It's not by much."

And most interestingly:

As for Florida's important Latino vote, InsiderAdvantage has Gingrich beating Romney by a large margin, leading 42 percent to 29 percent.

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Romney Riding the Committal Middle...

2012-01-30T16:52:00.000-05:00

polifrog

Flipper, flipper...

out

Ferris Lives - CRV

2012-01-30T14:47:00.002-05:00

polifrog

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There is Much to Like in Santorum...

2012-01-30T11:05:00.001-05:00

polifrog

...beyond reducing the left to inside joke adolescent giggles every time his name is mentioned.

Michelle Malkin:

Rick Santorum opposed TARP.

He didn’t cave when Chicken Littles in Washington invoked a manufactured crisis in 2008. He didn’t follow the pro-bailout GOP crowd — including Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich — and he didn’t have to obfuscate or rationalize his position then or now, like Rick Perry and Herman Cain did. He also opposed the auto bailout, Freddie and Fannie bailout, and porkulus bills.

Santorum opposed individual health care mandates — clearly and forcefully — as far back as his 1994 U.S. Senate run. He has launched the most cogent, forceful fusillade against both Romney and Gingrich for their muddied, pro-individual health care mandate waters.

He voted against cap and trade in 2003, voted yes to drilling in ANWR, and unlike Romney and Gingrich, Santorum has never dabbled with eco-radicals like John Holdren, Al Gore and Nancy Pelosi. He hasn’t written any “Contracts with the Earth.”

Santorum is strong on border security, national security, and defense. Mitt the Flip-Flopper and Open Borders-Pandering Newt have been far less trustworthy on immigration enforcement.

Santorum is an eloquent spokesperson for the culture of life. He has been savaged and ridiculed by leftist elites for upholding traditional family values — not just in word, but in deed.

I suspect she would have gone Newt if it appeared he might be winning Florida. As it is...

And I don't blame her.

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On the Matter of a Potential Romney Running Mate -- Allen West?

2012-01-30T10:44:00.001-05:00

polifrog

Who would best counter Romney's ObamaCare weakness? And who would best help him pickup those most disaffected by his campaign thus far?

Not Christie. Possibly Ryan. Marco Rubio seems okay.

Could Allen West's being drawn out of his district by his own party be preparation for such a pick? I don't know the advantages for the local conservatives in such a redrawing, but the loss of one district could easily mean a gain of two others. Additionally, West does not appear to be complaining over the matter. On a less related note, being a military man West would, I believe, respect the concept of serving as VP prior to running for president himself.

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An Ignored Story is A Difficult Story to Follow...

2012-01-30T09:17:00.002-05:00

polifrog

Cindy Simpson:

I had just witnessed an historic hearing that actually discussed the eligibility of the sitting president of the United States to run for a second term. The president had been subpoenaed to appear, and instead of his attorney respectfully following protocol to have that subpoena recalled, both Obama and his attorney, Michael Jablonski, simply failed to show up at all or offer any defense whatsoever.

Isn't there a headline in there somewhere?

...

It is disconcerting to see that the president, whose primary duty is to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, has turned his back on the rule of law of one of those states. Especially, as Sunny uncomfortably reminded us, since this is the same president who routinely sidesteps the law or places himself above it.

Even more troubling is the fact that the mainstream media not only seems to approve -- but they fail to report it at all.

Obama's absence speaks more to the importance and legitimacy than it does to the unimportance or illegitimacy of these very real questions.

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More Smile File Sadness...

2012-01-30T01:13:00.000-05:00

polifrog

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What Is Worse Than Having Obama in Office if One of Your Primary Goals is the End of ObamaCare?

2012-01-29T19:16:00.001-05:00

polifrog

Romney as president. Oh, he is vastly better than Obama in most areas, but in the one issue that matters most, the one that will eventually destroy the last vestiges of individual liberty in our nation, ObamaCare, Romney is worse than Obama.

The reason Romney is worse than Obama is that Obama is the face of ObamaCare. Assuming a Romney win this fall, that face will be gone and with it any sense of urgency in fighting ObamaCare, but with Romney we only get only the illusion that he is fighting ObamaCare. Everything he has said to this point defines him as ObamaCare's savior. Romney's own words:

Romney makes the argument for ObamaCare in Florida Debate 2.
Romney says he likes the individual mandate.
Romney claims ObamaCare is nothing to get angry about.
Romney says of himself, "I am someone who is moderate and my views are progressive."
Romney says he prefers a process that allows abortion without a parent's involvement.

So how does Romney present the image of an ObamaCare fighter while doing nothing of the sort? He answered that question in Florida Debate 2:

If I were president, day one, I will take action to repeal ObamaCare.

"Take action." And that is as far as it would go. He did not say he would sign a bill that ended ObamaCare because he would not. He prefers to "take action" without end which in DC parlance means 'I will put on a dog and pony show for the dumb masses.'

Given the money that will be sloshing around Washington due to ObamaCare many in our rogue Republican establishment wish to protect their access to the river of dollars that will increasingly flow through DC and they want to protect that access to money from countervailing citizen desire.

And Romney is their man:

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Romney Certainly Exudes "Used Car Dealer" to Me, Not Only Looking the Part, But Playing the Part......

2012-01-29T17:26:00.001-05:00

polifrog

LegalInsurrection:

As reported by Zeke Miller at BuzzFeed (h/t HotAir):

“It not about winning here anymore,” one Romney staffer told BuzzFeed. “It’s about destroying Gingrich — and it’s working.”

Humiliation, not mere electoral defeat, appears to be the goal. Much as among warring communities in the Middle East and the Balkans, Romney supporters even have sought to deprive Newt of his own history.

...

I’ve been struggling to come up with a good analogy. Perhaps this works. I’ve dealt with many businessmen who just can’t leave the last nickel on the table; they not only have to get a favorable deal, they have to get a deal which humiliates those on the other side of the transaction.

I don’t know if Mitt Romney was the type of businessman who could not leave the last nickel on the table. But that is the way he is running his campaign.

And we will all pay the price for it.

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So the Sun Warms the Earth and its Output Influences Temperature?

2012-01-29T17:04:00.001-05:00

polifrog

Dailymail:

The supposed ‘consensus’ on man-made global warming is facing an inconvenient challenge after the release of new temperature data showing the planet has not warmed for the past 15 years.
The figures suggest that we could even be heading for a mini ice age to rival the 70-year temperature drop that saw frost fairs held on the Thames in the 17th Century.

Based on readings from more than 30,000 measuring stations, the data was issued last week without fanfare by the Met Office and the University of East Anglia Climatic Research Unit. It confirms that the rising trend in world temperatures ended in 1997.

...

According to a paper issued last week by the Met Office, there is a 92 per cent chance that both Cycle 25 and those taking place in the following decades will be as weak as, or weaker than, the ‘Dalton minimum’ of 1790 to 1830. In this period, named after the meteorologist John Dalton, average temperatures in parts of Europe fell by 2C.

However, it is also possible that the new solar energy slump could be as deep as the ‘Maunder minimum’ (after astronomer Edward Maunder), between 1645 and 1715 in the coldest part of the ‘Little Ice Age’ when, as well as the Thames frost fairs, the canals of Holland froze solid.

Now let's compare to this:

Who'd a thunk it? The sun drives climate...

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How Does A Man Who Supports the Individual Mandate Help Us Kill ObamaCare?

2012-01-29T15:08:00.000-05:00

polifrog

He doesn't. He Defends it.

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Rep. Allen West Rejecting our Leftist Enslavers...

2012-01-29T01:29:00.001-05:00

polifrog

HuffPost:

"We need to let President Obama, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, (audience boos) and my dear friend the chairman of the Democrat National Committee, we need to let them know that Florida ain't on the table," West said. "Take your message of equality of achievement, take your message of economic dependency, take your message of enslaving the entrepreneurial will and spirit of the American people somewhere else. You can take it to Europe, you can take it to the bottom of the sea, you can take it to the North Pole, but get the hell out of the United States of America."

Following cheers, West added, "Yeah I said 'hell.'"

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Establishment Vs. The Tea Party...

2012-01-28T19:33:00.000-05:00

polifrog

I am still looking for my own words to describe the events of late last week, but I am currently still locked in shrill mode.

Fortunately, Professor Jacobson is not:

There was a backlash on Thursday and Friday among talk radio hosts and a variety of people who were in a first hand position to observe Newt’s interaction with Reagan, culminating in Sarah Palin’s Facebook post on Friday afternoon denouncing the neo-Stalinist attempt to rewrite history.

That the attack on Newt’s Reagan bona fides came from someone who openly ran against Reaganism and against the conservative agenda in 1994 was an irony lost only on the pro-Romney Republican establishment and media.

Romney’s attacks on Newt’s late 1990s ethics charge also were distinctly from the left, echoing the talking points of anti-conservative Democrats like Nancy Pelosi. It took people like Byron York and Mark Levin to expose the truth that the charges were part of a Democratic Party vendetta, and that substantively Newt did nothing wrong and was vindicated.

But mostly, the Republican establishment and conservative media who howled...

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Establishment Conservative Romeny and His Big Media Allies Possibly Collude to Silence Newt...

2012-01-28T15:42:00.001-05:00

polifrog

Fox News:

The pro-Newt Gingrich PAC "Winning Our Future" claims that "at least six" stations in Florida have -- as of Thursday -- been telling the group they need more documentation to run their ads.

"Stations all across Florida started to pull spots asking for fact checking," said Gregg Phillips, managing director of Winning Our Future, who accused the outlets of being "lazy" and suggested they were part of a coordinated effort across Florida to derail Newt Gingrich.

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Huckabee Lies About His Own Intent in an Attempt to Damage Newt...

2012-01-28T14:38:00.000-05:00

polifrog

Via the good work of Legal Insurrection:

Mike Huckabee claims that Newt is using a clip from Huckabee in 2008 out of context because Huckabee was not referring to Mitt Romney, but in fact Huckabee obviously was referring to Romney.

Huckabee's accusation:

Former GOP presidential candidate, Mike Huckabee “would love for” Newt Gingrich to pull a political campaign ad that features a comment he made during the 2008 campaign that appears to slam Mitt Romney for being “dishonest.”

“I know Newt Gingrich at the end of the ad says I approved this message, well let me just say, I didn’t approve that message,” Huckabee said in an interview Friday on Fox News.

The former governor of Arkansas said his words were “taken out of context” and were also ” deceptive” because he was not referring to Romney, one of his 2008 primary rivals.

As Jacobson shows with Huckbee's own words, the deception is Huckabee's. Huckabee is a liar:

Huckabee is a shill for establishment conservatives attempting to protect ObamaCare and the power and influence they derive from it. They want Romney because he fundamentally supports ObamaCare and considers it something we "should not get angry about".

Huckabee should be embarrassed and apologize.

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Romney, Card Carrying Member of the Conservative Establishment, Has Joined the Mainstream Media's False Newt Narrative...

2012-01-28T14:01:00.000-05:00

polifrog

The History, the reality:

Rogue conservative establishment elitist, Mitt Romney, fully joins the Mainstream Media and Democrats in a false narrative to sully Newt's campaign:

Shame on Romney.
We don't want your ObamaCare.

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Witnessing American Exceptionalism and Obama's Leadership Toward American Mediocrity...

2012-01-28T13:43:00.000-05:00

polifrog

He's extremely good.

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Our Rogue Conservative Establishment Want You to Forget ...

2012-01-28T11:32:00.000-05:00

polifrog

How else can anyone read the push for Romney amid the leftest styled Stalin-esque character assassination of Newt.

Remember...

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Romney: Parental Consent Not Necessary for Abortion...

2012-01-27T20:52:00.000-05:00

polifrog

It seems Romney believes only select people are deserving of liberty:

H/T Joe Guarino

Santorum has a much more rational view of abortion -- that it infringes on the rights of the unborn. Of course, as a man who understands that ObamaCare is something to worth getting angry at.

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Posts Brought to You With no Help from Drudge...

2012-01-27T20:25:00.000-05:00

polifrog

Drudge has taken the rogue conservative establishment under his media wing. As a result I have not visited Drudge today and refuse to so going forward for an undetermined period. Considering the low turnover at Drudge, I doubt I will notice the loss.

However, I have been curious as to whether his siding with the rogue conservative establishment has had a negative impact on Drudge page views.

Despite no planing ... It has:

In a stunning rebuke to his hidden advocacy for liberal Republican Willard Romney yesterday, Matt Drudge's groundbreaking Drudge Report website lost two million readers yesterday.

This was after Drudge posted ten anti-Newt Gingrich stories yesterday morning, getting up to 14 later in the day. (Kristinn Tayor at FreeRepublic).

The Drudge Report saw a drop in traffic yesterday of two million hits in the wake of proprietor Matt Drudge's two-day attack on Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich.

Drudge started his attack on Gingrich Wednesday evening with a banner headline accusing Gingrich of insulting former President Ronald Reagan. Drudge carried on the attack all through Thursday, at one time having fourteen anti-Newt headlines at once.

The assault on Gingrich prompted many supporters to announce they were swearing off the Drudge Report with some saying they would stop using it as their home page.

According to statistics posted by the Drudge Report, the site's hits on Wednesday, January 26, were 33, 807, 227.

Yesterday the hits, as published today on the Drudge Report, were down a full two million to 31, 802, 534.

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Romney Will Not Defend Us From ObamaCare -- ObamaCare "is nothing to get angry about"...

2012-01-27T19:00:00.000-05:00

polifrog

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Sarah Palin Knows Palinization When She Sees it --- Even When Coming From the Right....

2012-01-27T18:50:00.002-05:00

polifrog

Sara Palin on FaceBook:

We have witnessed something very disturbing this week. The Republican establishment which fought Ronald Reagan in the 1970s and which continues to fight the grassroots Tea Party movement today has adopted the tactics of the left in using the media and the politics of personal destruction to attack an opponent.

...

What we saw with this ridiculous opposition dump on Newt was nothing short of Stalin-esque re-writing of history. It was Alinsky tactics at their worst.

But this whole thing isn’t really about Newt Gingrich vs. Mitt Romney. It is about the GOP establishment vs. the Tea Party grassroots and independent Americans who are sick of the politics of personal destruction used now by both parties’ operatives with a complicit media egging it on.

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Santorum Defends the Liberty of the Unborn...

2012-01-27T18:32:00.000-05:00

polifrog

An unborn human that child not only has a right to live, but is entitled to government protection of his or her liberty from infringement.

Via iOwnTheWorld:

But the logic is lost on Piers Morgan, as he can't see past his own prejudices.

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Kirk Cameron: Monumental Trailer...

2012-01-27T17:40:00.000-05:00

polifrog

Regaining our history will most definitely be a monumental task.

But as I look around, I’m left with a sinking feeling that America is losing her way. Big time. The soul of our country is sick, and history shows me we are headed for disaster if we don’t change course now.

Warning: not for the Progressive faint of heart...

H/T Joe Guarino for the heads up on this trailer...

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It is a Sad Day -- I am Linking Kos Over Anything From Our Rogue Conservative Establishment...

2012-01-27T17:06:00.001-05:00

polifrog

Kos --- The Jed Report:

Today, National Review stepped it up a notch and actually claims Newt Gingrich "repeatedly insulted" Ronald Reagan.

The thing that makes these attacks so absurd is that they are being made on behalf of Mitt Romney, who wasn't a Republican when Ronald Reagan was president and specifically said in his 1994 U.S. Senate campaign that he was not seeking public office to support either Reagan or George H.W. Bush. Romney ended up getting trounced by 17 points.

Newt Gingrich, meanwhile, was busy leading Republicans to their first victory in forty years in the House. And the following year, Nancy Reagan credited him with taking up the mantle of conservatism, saying Barry Goldwater had passed it to Ronald Reagan, and that Ronald Reagan had passed it to Newt Gingrich.

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We Failed to Protect the Internet ---The SOPA Blackout was a Waste -- MegaUpload...

2012-01-27T16:55:00.001-05:00

polifrog

Jeffery Tucker:

Last week’s violent government attack on the hugely popular site Megaupload — the U.S. government arresting Belgian citizens in New Zealand, of all places, and stealing at gunpoint servers bank accounts and property — has sent shock waves through the entire digital world.

The first shock was the realization that the gigantic protest against legislative moves (SOPA and PIPA) that would smash the Internet turned out to be superfluous. The thing everyone wanted to prevent is already here. SOPA turns out not to be the unwelcome snake in the garden of free information. The snakes have already taken over the garden and are hanging from every tree.

...

The attack on Megaupload takes all of this to a different level. This was not some wholly surreptitious, sketchy institution that was trying to get around the law. It was already becoming a legitimate service for launching careers in music and art generally. It seemed to be doing exactly what we expect in the digital age. It was reinventing an old model for new times through innovation in production, delivery and profit sharing.

As I wrote before, this was most likely why the old-line industry came after them. It was not the illegal activities, but their legal ones that made them a target. The moguls do not want change. They crushed the competition.

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The Palinization of Newt is an Ugly Thing....

2012-01-27T16:48:00.001-05:00

polifrog

TheRightScoop

iOwnTheWorld:

Update--
Linked by EBL. Thanks.

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Deficit by Debate Dishonesty...

2012-01-27T16:37:00.000-05:00

polifrog

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The Truth is That The US Beats Europe in Rail Efficiency by Not Wasting it on the Inefficiency of Moving People......

2012-01-27T16:25:00.000-05:00

polifrog

Our nation is more efficient and cleaner when we trust our markets. When we do not and let others convince us of our needs then we subject ourselves to the inefficiencies of personal and political bias. It is why so many believe the lie that it is more efficient to move people by rail that by other modes of transportation. We are being convinced of a lie.

Warren Meyer:

The US rail system, unlike nearly every other system in the world, was built (mostly) by private individuals with private capital. It is operated privately, and runs without taxpayer subsidies. And, it is by far the greatest rail system in the world. It has by far the cheapest rates in the world (1/2 of China’s, 1/8 of Germany’s). But here is the real key: it is almost all freight.

As a percentage, far more freight moves in the US by rail (vs. truck) than almost any other country in the world. Europe and Japan are not even close. Specifically, about 40% of US freight moves by rail, vs. just 10% or so in Europe and less than 5% in Japan. As a result, far more of European and Japanese freight jams up the highways in trucks than in the United States. For example, the percentage of freight that hits the roads in Japan is nearly double that of the US.

You see, passenger rail is sexy and pretty and visible. You can build grand stations and entertain visiting dignitaries on your high-speed trains. This is why statist governments have invested so much in passenger rail — not to be more efficient, but to awe their citizens and foreign observers.

But there is little efficiency improvement in moving passengers by rail vs. other modes. Most of the energy consumed goes into hauling not the passengers themselves, but the weight of increasingly plush rail cars. Trains have to be really, really full all the time to make for a net energy savings for high-speed rail vs. cars or even planes, and they seldom are full. I had a lovely trip on the high speed rail last summer between London and Paris and back through the Chunnel — especially nice because my son and I had the rail car entirely to ourselves both ways.

The real rail efficiency comes from moving freight. As compared to passenger rail, more of the total energy budget is used moving the actual freight rather than the cars themselves. Freight is far more efficient to move by rail than by road, but only the US moves a substantial amount of its freight by rail. One reason for this is that freight and high-speed passenger traffic have a variety of problems sharing the same rails, so systems that are optimized for one tend to struggle serving the other.

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Romney Is Here to Defend ObamaCare - "It's not worth Getting Angry About"...

2012-01-27T15:46:00.001-05:00

polifrog

It damn well is worthy of anger. And I thank Santorum for finally bringing ObamaCare, the number one issue, after countless debates, to a debate. Not even Newt seemed willing to do that.

Mitt Romney's position regarding ObamaCare sorely needed this pounding and we the voters needed to see it.

It was about damn time. Thank you, Santorum.

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Mark Levin On Our Rogue Conservative Establishment...

2012-01-27T15:27:00.000-05:00

polifrog

I was there, I saw it, I lived it. Don't lie to me about Newt:

“I’m going to tell you something. Newt Gingrich was the former Republican Speaker of the House, the first Republican Speaker of the House in almost half a century, and he was fighting the Democrats and to win the House of Representatives before most of the people writing on the Internet about him and trashing him and going with talking points from other campaigns were old enough to wipe themselves,” Levin said. “[W]e can certainly criticize Newt Gingrich, but do not count me among those who are going to destroy the man. I saw that attempt already by the hard-left Democrats led by [Michigan Rep.] David Bonior.” …

“I’m supposed to sit here, read all this crap on the Internet, listen to purported Reaganites and others tell me that he didn’t do these things?” Levin said. “I was there. I lived it. I saw it. Or let me put it this way — Newt Gingrich, if he does nothing else, did more for the conservative movement and to stop the liberal Democrats in the House of Representatives than virtually everybody today who’s criticizing him.”

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Fire Wall -- Vote Pump...

2012-01-27T15:16:00.002-05:00

polifrog

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Don't Believe Romney On ObamaCare...

2012-01-26T22:16:00.000-05:00

polifrog

Florida Debate II, Romeny:

If I were president, day one, I will take action to repeal ObamaCare.

Politicians regularly "take action" that is never intended to bear fruit. Romney can not be trusted to kill ObamaCare. He is a firewall for the entrenched conservative elites already feeding or planning to feed off ObamaCare graft.

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The Reality That is Newt Vs. The Drudge

2012-01-26T19:18:00.001-05:00

polifrog

There is the reality of Newt:

Reagan Nat’l Security Advisor Bud McFarlane:

Reagan Economist Authur Laffer:

“The purpose of economic policy is growth, jobs, and prosperity,” supply-side founder Art Laffer told me Wednesday. As such, Laffer has endorsed Newt Gingrich and the Gingrich 15 percent flat-tax plan, which includes the 12.5 percent corporate-tax reform. “It’s nothing against the other candidates,” Laffer said. “But Newt’s plan is right, and therefore endorsing him is the right thing to do.”

Reagan WH political director Jeffrey Lord:

Quite to the contrary of the Romney message, Newt Gingrich was in fact one of Reagan's Young Lieutenants.

One of the best.

Reagan Policy Analyst Peter Ferrara:

Having served President Reagan in the White House Office of Policy Development in the early 1980s, I can say the comprehensive conservatism and breadth of this South Carolina victory speech is quintessentially Reagan.

Reagan media consultant Richard Quinn:

Richard Quinn, Huntsman's top South Carolina strategist who worked for John McCain in 2008, is endorsing Gingrich along with his son Rick, a state senator who had also endorsed Huntsman. The senior Quinn had also worked as an adviser to Ronald Reagan's 1980 presidential campaign, an aspect of his resume Gingrich may soon highlight.

Reagan’s Speechwriting Dir. Bently Elliott:

Newt Gingrich was an early foot-soldier for Ronald Reagan. He was inspired by Reagan’s charisma, convictions and leadership. He supported Reagan in 1976 and witnessed the attacks by the Ford campaign to tar Ronald Reagan, the conservative, as unstable and dangerous. Sound familiar? Newt was also among the small band of conservatives, led by Jack Kemp in the late 1970s, who saw the tremendous potential for growth in Art Laffer’s supply-side economics. When President Reagan embraced the Kemp-Roth tax cut, Newt Gingrich was on the frontlines working to pass the legislation.

Reagan’s older son Michael Reagan:

Michael Reagan, President Ronald Reagan's adopted son, has endosed the former Speaker of the House, because Gingrich, "exemplifies the conservative principles my father championed: strong national defense, lower taxes and smaller government." "Newt understands that we must reject and fundamentally change the course that Barack Obama has set for America. Newt is our only chance in 2012 to contrast a Reagan conservative with Obama's European styled socialism," Reagan wrote in a statement. Reagan describes Gingrich as having changed Washington in the 90's with his Contract with America, and the ability to do that again now.

Reagan’s beloved wife Nancy:

Then there is the Drudge:

Major H/Ts to Legal Insurrection and iOwnTheWorld.

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Why is Romney So Humble With His Moral Choice to Invest?

2012-01-26T10:40:00.010-05:00

polifrog

Romney has been under attack for his nearly 15% tax rate, a tax rate based almost entirely on capital gains. Many citizens pay income at a higher rate that is based on income. The suggestion is that Romney is in some fashion immoral for not doing his fair share.

The reality is that the 15% he currently pays in taxes is the rate he pays in addition to what everyone else pays. Like everyone else he too suffers from income taxes, only his are in form of corporate income taxes which, as an aside, is an off shoot of viewing corporations as people. Like Buffet, much of Romney's taxes are taken at the corporate level at a rate of 35% to 40% and do not directly show up in his personal tax returns. However, they most definitely show up as lowered returns in his portfolio of investments and in his various business prospectuses. Hence, corporate taxes are reflected in his personal tax returns as lower investment income than what otherwise might have been.

But that is dry. There is a moral story here.

In this case taxes function as a penalty for a given choice. Romney made the moral choice of investing in our collective future despite the fact that he is penalized for that choice at a higher rate than he would have been had he chosen consumerism and spent his money.

Frankly, those who choose to spend their income rather than invest their income are playing an immoral game of tax avoidance, as they avoid the 15% tax on investing. Of course, not all individuals have a choice in this matter but of those who do, government sides with those who choose personal gluttony over investing in our future by punishing investment.

Thus, Romney's investments represent personal spending sacrificed for the greater good, and in a fair world his capital gains rate would be zero considering the fact that before any capital gains are realized he has paid a 35% corporate tax ... corporate taxes generated in the first instance by the very fact that he chose to invest rather than to spend.

Again, Romney has the moral high ground here, from paying more in taxes in both rate and total than most others in America to foregoing consumption in favor of investing in our communal future despite being punished for it in every instance.

And in the context of SOTU "fairness": where is the fairness in that?

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No More Miller...

2012-01-26T07:52:00.000-05:00

polifrog

Brad Miller's immoral vote in favor ObamaCare was the impetus behind my "getting involved". Now he is gone.

You're welcome.

Miller has represented the 13th Congressional District which stretches across the northern counties from the Triangle to the Triad since 2002. The district includes all of Caswell and parts of Guilford and Rockingham Counties.

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