The Onion's "News In Brief." Time Traveler From The Year 1998 Warns Nation Not To Elect Newt Gingrich.
- OK, Republican voters must be schizophrenic. It was just announced that Mitt Romney won in Maine and won the CPAC's Straw Poll. What's going on with these people? First it was Bachmann on top (no pun intended). Then Perry takes the lead. Even Trump managed to squeeze in a few good rounds. Then Herman Cain was the talk of the town. Newt jumped on the train for several stops. Romney managed a win in Florida. Suddenly Santorum takes 3 states from Romney and now Romney is back in the huddle running the next play. This has to be driving Republicans and Conservatives nuts. I don't know. Perhaps the image above says it all.
- And does this mean Santorum's surge is over already? I didn't even finish my pint of Guinness and this guy comes in third (Newt barely showed and Ron Paul came in a second).
Headline on The Onion this week: "New Photos Reveal Stress Of Obama's First Term In Office Has Rapidly Aged Americans." (then it shows a strip of 4 average looking Americans before Obama took office and what they look like now. They all appear to have aged about 20 years---hilarious).
- I'm thinking this morning of this report I'm about to share with you: I might be in a world of sh!t. According to news reports this week, advocacy groups are getting increasingly alarmed over our government's monitoring of the Internet for "threats" and "hazards" as well as "any media reports that reflect adversely on the U.S. Government and The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ability to prevent, protect and respond, to recovery efforts and activities related to any crisis or events which impact national planning scenarios." Say friggin what? What does that mean? Those were the instructions given to the independent contractor by DHS. Reuters News reported the contractors monitored Facebook, Twitter, Hulu, Wikileaks, as well as the Huffington Post and Drudge. The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) declared, "This is entirely outside the bounds of the agency's statutory duties." Congressional hearings have been scheduled to review this government policy. As Americans, we have to keep a close eye on this development.
VS.
- ABC News is reporting that Pres. Obama will have a news conference regarding this Holy War he and his administration instigated with the Catholic Church and all religious groups in general. And these same reports indicate he might try to find some way out of this mess. Think about it for a moment. This was the president who promised to bring everyone together. And what did he start doing? He took on insurance companies and the health care industry. He started a war against Wall Street (even though he surrounded himself with Wall Streeters so you know that was bogus). He started a war against the wealthy (class warfare). Race card issues came up from his surrogates. He started one war after another and there was only one war left remaining: against the Catholic Church and its affiliates. But with the Church he ran into a roadblock. He also ran into another more important roadblock: The United States Constitution. Even some Progressives complained. E.J. Dionne of the Washington Post, a huge Obama administration suck-up, wrote the president threw his "progressive Catholic allies under the bus." Why is Obama probably backing down? Because he knows the 2008 and 2010 elections showed clearly that Catholics have a lot of power---especially at the ballot box.
The Onion took its readers behind the scenes of Seal Team Six and reported on how they relax. This is what they found: Some were putting .50-caliber slugs in a tree inches above an unwitting neighbor's head while he napped in his hammock. They also reflected on how awesome it was to kick down a door and put a bullet through bin Laden's head. Busting each other's chops but in a a way that doesn't end in death or paralysis.
- Why does Romney have a hard time inspiring the base? If you look at last week's caucuses, he received less than half of the votes in those states he received in 2008. Is it because---like Letterman joked recently---he looks like the guy on the underwear package? Is it because he looks too slick, too prepared? To be honest with all my readers, I like him because he reminds me of my childhood hero, Superman, strange visitor from another planet who came to earth with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men...And I digress (he does remind me of Clark Kent too). As Podhoretz pointed out this week, Romney has adopted almost every conservative position from being pro-life to cutting taxes to repealing ObamaCare. So what's the problem? I have a sneaky suspicion a lot of conservatives just don't trust him. Is his constant reminding voters of his business background backfiring? Perhaps voters actually do prefer someone with more political experience than business experience. If polls show that, he should remind voters he was a governor of Mass. at one time. Or does that bring up the RomneyCare issue again? He appears to me anyway to have put himself in a box.
- And then we see Santorum's surge (only God knows how long it will last). And his surge appears to show that social issues are once again on the front burner (just look at the legs the ObamaCare contraception debate vs. Catholics has. I knew that would be a big story, but it's exploded even beyond my expectations). And I doubt anyone can argue---as stated on this blog several times---Santorum is the most conservative candidate out there. And if that's who Republicans are looking for---the elephant's been in the room for quite some time.
- Speaking of the Holy War between the administration and Catholics (including clergy from other religions), any bets on who will win this Holy War?
"Report: Syria Running Dangerously Low On Civilians To Oppress." The Onion
- Santorum pulled off a hat trick last night in Miz-ur-a, Colorado and Minnesota by besting everyone left in the race. As the Huffinton Post reported (yes, I read the Huff Post too. Need to know what the opposition is thinking) Mitt lost two states he won in 2008 and he lost in every county in Missouri last night. But is Santorum's win yet another "surge?" We had Bachamann's surge followed by Rick Perry then Herman (Trump jumped in for a fraction of a second) then Newt followed by Mitt and now Santorum. Did I miss anyone? Oh, yes, and Ron Paul keeps hanging around the edges too.(By the way, a new Reuter's Poll shows that Ron Paul has also surged nationally. According to this poll, he's second behind Romney at 21% to 29%. Those numbers should give the Paulites a lift). Gingrich did not show well in these three states.
- A question now being asked is Santorum's win backlash against the Obama administration's mandate on birth control? In other words, did the social conservatives come out with some type of protest vote?
- Romney still has a comfortable lead in delegate votes and Santorum moved into second place ahead of Newt in delegates.
- Regarding the birth control (ObamaCare) mandate in ObamaCare, it appears the Obama administration miscalculated the response from most Catholics. Let's face facts: most Catholics practice birth-control no matter what the Church teaches. But most Catholics, as most other religious denominations, don't want government over-reach into church affairs. (It's a guaranteed right in the First Amendment for God's sake---no pun intended). There have been reports that the administration might back off on this mandate. The retreat might also be due to the response by some on the Left who have also been critical of this over-reach into Church affairs. Even Chris Mathews, whom I usually target for shame but will now use him to make a point (hey, what's good for the goose is good for the goose), said of the mandate: "It gets to that interesting point for me, which is frightening, when the state starts telling the church what to do." Jesus!!! The guy does make sense on occasion (or maybe the devil made him do it).
- Stephen Moore of The Wall Street Journal had a very good piece yesterday entitled, "A Fairness Quiz For The President." I'm not going to do a run on sentence about the entire piece, but I'll tease you a bit. One of Moore's question is, "Is it fair the richest 1% of Americans pay nearly 40% of all federal taxes and the richest 10% pay two-thirds of the tax? Is it fair that after the first three years of Obamanomics, the poor are poorer, the poverty rate is rising, the middle class is losing income, and some 5.5 million fewer Americans have jobs today than in 2007? (by the way, this is me now, some of those jobs were lost in the last year of W's administration). Is it fair that roughly 88% of political contributions from supposedly impartial network television reporters, producers and other employees in 2008 went to Democrats...?" You get the picture. It's a piece that every Republican should memorize because it's all about the facts.
President Obama spoke at the National Prayer Breakfast. The President said his Christian faith is the driving force behind his economic policies. So I guess instead of blaming Bush, it's now all Jesus' fault.---Leno
- Yesterday I posted a piece about the developing "Holy War" between the Obama administration and the Catholic Church. It appears the war is heating up. In short, Health and Human Services will mandate that Catholic institutions provide and pay for insurance coverage that includes contraceptives and abortion-inducing drugs. Even USA Today pointed out in their opinion piece that "few Americans of any political stripe would disagree with the simple proposition that the government should stay away from meddling in church affairs." Another commentator said the Obama administration basically told the Catholic Church it cannot be Catholic anymore. And now comes word that the Army's Office of the Chief of Chaplains directed all Catholic Chaplains they could not read a letter to the troops critical of the Administration's proposed mandate written by Archbishop Timothy Broglio, leader of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese for the Military Services. This letter has touched off yet another controversy regarding the proposed mandate. The Archbishop replied that the order by the Chief of Chaplains is a violation of the First Amendment. Readers, I think a see a major court case coming down the road if the Obama administration goes through with trying to implement this mandate.
- Last week, I also wrote a piece about the real state of the economy, not what we've been hearing from Washington. This weekend I visited a small town in South Jersey. I had not been to that town in about 5 or 6 years. The town is the county seat. It has a beautiful courthouse on the fringe and also one of South Jersey's largest hospitals. Yet, while walking through the town (about 4 city blocks long or three-tenths of a mile), I counted 22 retail vacancies. Even the friggin dollar store was closed. On one block, every single retail storefront was out of business---every single one.
As you know, Romney was ensorsed by Donald Trump. You know what that means ladies and gentlemen, nothing. Paraphrasing Letterman
- At the risk of being a party-pooper, I'm going to be one anyway. First, congratulations to the NY Giants. Great game. But this is what burns me up and it's not the fault of the Giants. They win the Super Bowl and they will have a parade in their honor in lower Manhattan tomorrow. Our military wins the war in Iraq and what does New York City do?---nothing, nada, nic, zero, zilch... In fact, Mayor Bloomberg of NY City keeps using the same lame excuse that Pentagon leadership is opposed to a parade. But Pentagon public affairs spokesperson, Douglas Wilson, said the Pentagon is not opposed to a parade in Manhattan.(USA TODAY). In addition to parades for sports teams, New York has annual ethnic pride parades, parades for the Yankees after World Series wins, a gay pride parade and more. But a parade for our troops? Don't have time.
- There is good news coming out of other cities regarding honoring our returning Iraq War Vets. Chicago, Denver, Philadelphia, San Antonio and several other cities have approached the same group that got the St. Louis parade off the ground last week.(AP).
- Can someone please tell me why Che is so glorified? Why do I have to see the picture of this murdering thug on tee shirts? Why do book stores continue to publicize his book? (I don't want his book banned, but why keep mythologizing this thug?). And have you noticed on the Left in this country, like Michael Moore as one example, just can't stop praising Castro and his regime? Hey, for those "stupids" out there. The average annual salary for Cubans is less than $300 a year. In 2005, Castro announced salary increases for many workers. For example, workers with masters got a bump of a whopping $4 a month. If you were a doctor, you were lucky. Your salary was bumped $7 more a month (BBC). In addition, food is rationed in Cuba. And what you buy in food has to last you about 2 weeks or your out of luck. NO SOUP FOR YOU! And one more thing. It's not that they like our old 1950's Chevy's and Fords, it's just that they can't purchase any new cars. That's why the entire country looks like an American antique car show or you see images like the one above.
