Featured Posts
  • A Romney Victory Is Ensured With Trump’s Endorsement ()

    A Romney Victory Is Ensured With Trump's Endorsement ()

    As if you needed another reason to not vote Romney. Celebrity business magnate Donald Trump endorsed Mitt Romney for president Thursday, telling reporters he will not mount an independent campaign if ...

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  • Why I Love Newt Gingrich

    Why I Love Newt Gingrich

    In a perfect world, the Republican contest to find a nominee to face Barack Obama would go on forever...or at least until August. You cannot attach a number to the ...

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  • Republican Cannibalism

    Republican Cannibalism

    I suspect there are a ton of conservatives secretly agreeing with Begala and while it's too early in the game for Dems to get cocky, it's difficult to not smile ...

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  • Romney Hood

    Romney Hood

    One of our readers sent me an email with an idea for an illustration - Mitt Romney as Romney Hood. I thought it was brilliant and came up with the ...

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  • Why Do People Take an Instant Dislike To Newt Gingrich?

    Why Do People Take an Instant Dislike To Newt Gingrich?

    Quotes don't get much better than this one by Bob Dole. "Why do people take such an instant dislike to me?" asked a perplexed Gingrich, to whom Dole bluntly ...

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  • Gingrich Takes A Thrashing

    Gingrich Takes A Thrashing

    After the beating Gingrich took last night, it's hard to imagine under what scenario he can make a comeback.  Florida is going to Romney and for Gingrich to regain the ...

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  • SOTU

    SOTU

    There's a lot out there on the President's SOTU, so I'll keep my thoughts short and sweet. The speech did what it had to do which was target liberals and independents ...

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  • Just Another GOP Debate

    Just Another GOP Debate

    The highlights from last night's debate. - Newt Gingrich can't wait to become president so he can revisit the early 60s and overthrow Castro in Cuba. War, baby, war. - Santorum, who ...

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  • No More Mister Nice Guy for Mitt Romney

    No More Mister Nice Guy for Mitt Romney

    It appears that the South Carolina verdict is forcing Romney to start taking Gingrich seriously. “We’re not choosing a talk show host, we’re choosing a leader,” Romney said, saying that their ...

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  • Mike Huckabee Solidifies His Birther Creds

    Mike Huckabee Solidifies His Birther Creds

    Mike Huckabee offers advice to Mitt Romney concerning his unreleased tax returns. Let him [Romney] make this challenge: "I'll release my tax returns when Barack Obama releases his college transcripts and ...

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  • Late Night Political Humor

    Late Night Political Humor

    Via Political Humor... "Mitt Romney is coming under fire because even though he is a multimillionaire, he only paid 15 percent in taxes. That's not a tax, that's barely a tip." ...

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  • The Last Word On Jon Huntsman

    The Last Word On Jon Huntsman

    Good line. My guess is that after Romney fails to beat Obama in the general, Huntsman will be back in 2016.  The most electable guy in the field and he could ...

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  • Does Romney Urinate Straight Down His Leg?

    Does Romney Urinate Straight Down His Leg?

    I found this pretty funny...and accurate. It comes from a reader over at Balloon Juice. So, let’s review. The contenders for the GOP nomination are A vulture capitalist who believes that any ...

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  • The Constitution – Libertarian’s False Idol

    The Constitution - Libertarian's False Idol

    Lively little debate going on at one of last week's posts with Libertarianism put under the microscope. ocLiberal: I know I am in sketchy territory here, (start the indignant shouting now) but ...

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  • Gingrich’s Delusional Politics

    Gingrich's Delusional Politics

    In the contest to determine the winner of the Far-Right Politics gold medal, rack up a few more points for Newt Gingrich. “I think an intelligent conservative wants the right federal ...

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  • Late Night Political Humor

    Late Night Political Humor

    Via Political Humor... "Congratulations to Mitt Romney. He won the New Hampshire primary last night. See, this is proof that even the multimillionaire son of a multimillionaire can beat the odds ...

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  • What Do North Korea and Indiana Have In Common?

    What Do North Korea and Indiana Have In Common?

    Story 1: North Korea punishing those who 'didn't display enough sadness over Kim Jong Il's death' North Korean authorities are reportedly punishing citizens who did not display enough sadness over the death ...

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  • The Pope’s Hate Speech

    The Pope's Hate Speech

    In case you missed the story, Pope Benedict made headlines this week by doing what it is popes do best - putting the irrational fear of God into his followers. The ...

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  • Mitt Romney’s Idiot Quote of the Day

    Mitt Romney's Idiot Quote of the Day

    Romney was asked whether questions dealing with distribution of wealth and power were a matter of jealousy or fairness. You know, I think it’s about envy. I think it’s about class ...

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  • Is The 2012 Republican Field the Weakest Ever?

    Is The 2012 Republican Field the Weakest Ever?

    If one could meld the Republican presidential candidates into a single person, what would emerge?  I was thinking along the lines of Jekyll and Hyde and the result, as demonstrated ...

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General Tells Republicans What’s What

Here’s the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Martin Dempsey, slapping around Mitt Romney, Michele Bachmann and every other Republican who believes that the commander-in-chief’s role is one of following the advice of the generals.

“I’ll probably make news with this but I find some of those articles about divergence or control of the generals to be kind of offensive to me,” Dempsey told reporters traveling with him in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

“And here’s why. One of the things that makes us as a military profession in a democracy is civilian rule. Our civilian leaders are under no obligation to accept our advice; and that’s what it is. Its advice. It’s military judgments, it’s alternatives, it’s options. And at the end of the day, our system is built on the fact that it will be our civilian leaders who make that decision and I don’t find that in any way to challenge my manhood, nor my position. In fact, if it were the opposite, I think we should all be concerned.”

It’s actually debatable as to whether Romney and the rest believe half of what they’re saying.  Their main concern these days is sounding tough and saying the exact opposite of whatever it is Barack Obama is saying. So knowing for sure what anyone of them actually believes (with the exception of Ron Paul) is anyone’s guess.

Whatever the case, it’s kind of refreshing having the military telling Republicans they’re full of crap.

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John McCain’s Never-Ending War

John McCain is still having problems accepting his 2008 defeat.

“It is clear that this decision of a complete pullout of United States troops from Iraq was dictated by politics, and not our national security interests,” said McCain from the Senate floor. “I believe history will judge this president’s leadership with the scorn and disdain it deserves.”

Seventy percent of Americans think otherwise.  That’s the number who agree with the President on the troop withdrawal.  But it’s a moot point anyway.  Iraqis wanted the U.S. out of their country.  Couple that with the 2008 agreement President Bush signed with Iraq which set the withdrawal date at December 31 2011 and there was little President Obama could have done even if he wanted to stay in Iraq for another “100 years”. (Remember McCain in the 2008 campaign stating how he’d have no problem keeping U.S. troops in for another 100 years?)

Get over it, John.  You lost.  Obama won.  You got your surge.  Iraq war is over.  But hey, if one of your boys wins next November, you’ll have the Iran war you’ve always wanted to keep you amused.

In the meantime, go plant a garden.

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Remembering Veterans

Joseph Piperni was a corporal in the Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry Highlanders Regiment.  On June 6, 1944, he was one of 156,000 Allied troops who landed on the beaches of Normandy – an event which forever changed the course of history.

My dad was never able to talk in length about that day.  Each time he tried, his voice would break, tears would begin to form in the corner of his eyes and he’d inevitably turn his head and look away – lost in thoughts of which I can’t begin to imagine.

To my dad and every other man and woman who ever marched into hell to help preserve freedom for future generations, you will forever have my undying praise, respect and gratitude.

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Closing Down The Iraq War

It’s over.

“After a decade of war, the nation we need to build and the nation we will build is our own.”

And with those words, Barack Obama brings a close to the Iraq war.

The Obama administration has decided to withdraw all U.S. forces from Iraq by the end of the year after failing to reach an agreement with the Iraqi government that would have left several thousand troops there for special operations and training.

One hundred and fifty troops will stay behind to safeguard the US embassy, with the other 39,000 troops home by the end of December.

Iraq war stats:

  • Cost: $1 trillion
  • 4,481 US troops killed
  • 54% of US casualties were under 25 years of age
  • Coalition troops killed – 316
  • US troops wounded – 32,195, 20% of which are serious brain or spinal injuries
  • 30% of US troops have or will develop serious mental health problems
  • Iraqi civilians killed – over 100,000 and might be as high as 600,000

All that’s needed to add complete closure to the immoral travesty, is this:

Bastards.

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The State Of World Conflict

It’s not all rosy out there but you would be forgiven for believing that the state of conflict and death around the world is worse that what it really is.

The Human Security Report finds that while “four of the world’s five deadliest conflicts––in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Somalia––involve Islamist insurgents” and “over a quarter of the conflicts that started between 2004 and 2008 have been associated with Islamist political violence.”, in fact…

  • …the level of armed conflict in Muslim countries is far lower today than it was two decades ago, and support for al-Qaeda and other radical Islamist groups has declined substantially throughout the Muslim world.
  • The 25 percent increase in conflict numbers is largely due to an increase in minor conflicts that kill very few people.
  • There has been a modest increase in battle death numbers in recent years, but this needs to be seen in context. The average annual battle-death toll per conflict in the 1950s killed almost 10,000 people; in the new millennium the figure is less than 1,000.

As to why the world is experiencing the positive trend in death related conflicts, the authors offer the following.

The demise of colonialism, the end of the Cold War, a dramatic increase in the number of democratic states, and a shift in elite attitudes towards warfare are among the key political changes that have reduced the incidence of international warfare since the end of World War II.

and…

the dramatic long-term increase in levels of global economic interdependence which has increased the costs of war while reducing its benefits.

We might make it through this decade after all.

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