How Accurate Were the Nevada Republican Caucus Results?
Mark Wachtler writes in the Examiner:
For the second time in just five primary states, the Republican Party, with the assistance of the national corporate news media, is raising questions about the legitimacy of this season’s primary election system. First, the Iowa Republican Party and the entire American media knowingly reported the wrong Iowa Caucus results with the wrong person being declared the winner. Last night, it appears the same thing may be happening in Nevada. And again like Iowa, critics are accusing the GOP of suspicious activity.
Perhaps it’s indicative that the beneficiary of these recurring vote counting “mistakes” always seems to be former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney. He’s just happens to be the same man that both the Republican Party establishment and the four corporations that own all of America’s news media outlets are actively supporting.
Ron Paul Vows To Continue Run For President
Michael Finnegan covers Representative Paul’s reaction to losing in Nevada for the LA Times:
A day after losing a Nevada contest that exposed the limits of his appeal to Republicans, Ron Paul vowed to keep pressing ahead for the party’s presidential nomination, saying his ideas were inspiring an intellectual revolution among young Americans.
“I want to change the government, and I want to change it through the electoral process, but I also want to change the hearts and minds of people,” the Texas congressman told George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s “This Week.” “That is where it really starts, and that is where we’re making the progress.”…
Rick Santorum Opposes Liberal Indoctrination … At College
That’s right, Rick Santorum thinks that if fewer people went to college and, instead, studied “Judeo-Christian ideology,” the U.S. would be a better place. From RawStory via Current:
Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum on Wednesday suggested that President Barack Obama wanted to every kid to go to college so they could be brainwashed into being a liberal.
Speaking to a crowd of Floridians at the First Baptist Church of Naples, Santorum said that churches and families were under “assault” by the president and liberals.
Newt Beats Mitt
Could the Republicans choose worse names for their leading presidential candidates? Anyway, looks like the doughboy is still in the race according to this report from The Official Republican Party News Channel Fox News:
Newt Gingrich has won the South Carolina Republican primary, Fox News projects, further scrambling an already volatile presidential race which has produced three different winners in three states as the candidates head next to Florida.
Fox News projects that Mitt Romney will place second in the Palmetto State, where he was leading in the polls just one week ago. With 5 percent of precincts reporting, Gingrich has 38 percent and Romney has 32 percent. Rick Santorum will finish in third place, Fox News projects, while Ron Paul will finish last …
Ron Paul Highlights From CNN GOP Debate
He kills it in the debate, but the votes will be another story. Do you plan on voting for him?
The Continuing Media Blackout Of Ron Paul
How to lie with technically-accurate charts, via Partial Objects:
CBS reports the results of the Suffolk University Poll for the NH Primary. Ron Paul came in second, as evidenced by this graphic.
I don’t like Ron Paul, but you can’t help but shudder when you see this happening. Journalists remind us they need and deserve unfettered access in order to give the public the truth, but evidently they need the access to decide what should be true.
The excuse for this omission is that Ron Paul is not a viable candidate despite his early popularity, and that’s a fair guess; but it’s a lie. Huntsman, Palin, and Bachmann never stood a chance, and yet they were given plenty of coverage. Why do I still know the name Dick Gephardt?
Why Mitt Romney Likes Firing People (Video)
There’s plenty of hub-bub on the internets about Mitt Romney saying he “likes firing people.” He’s what Mr. “Corporations Are People” said in a longer clip below and an article from Suzanne Lucas on CBS News that likely explains his thinking:
The presidential election is just one big job interview, so it makes sense that as long as we’re talking about hiring, we should talk about firing. Mitt Romney recently said: “I like being able to fire people who provide services to me. If someone doesn’t give me the good service I need, I’m going to go get somebody else to provide that service to me.” Horrifying, right? How on earth could any human being like firing anyone? Well, to be fair, he didn’t say he liked firing anyone. He said he liked being able to fire someone. And so do you. You do it all the time.
Phil Donahue on America’s War Fever (Video)
On Piers Morgan Tonight of all places, Phil Donahue (who was kicked off MSNBC for being too anti-war in the wake of 9/11), speaks about the Bizarro world our political leaders live in when it comes to honest discussion about how America goes to war. (Side note: checking out the book Donahue references War Made Easy by Norman Solomon is enlightening.) Discussion starts around 35 seconds into this clip.
Tea Party Vs. Occupy In Congress: Battle For The 99%
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Seth Cline writes at OpenSecrets Blog:
Their politics may differ. But both the Tea Party and the Occupy movement have laid claim to representing the interests of the middle class, whose economic frustrations helped spur the groups’ establishment and growth.
So which side’s congressional lawmakers come closest to embodying that wide swath of the U.S. population? Or, in Occupy terms, which side is closer to the 99 percent?
Neither the members of the House Tea Party Caucus nor those of the House Progressive Caucus — whose views most closely align with the Occupy Wall Street movement — are remotely middle class, according to an analysis by the Center for Responsive Politics of congressional personal financial disclosure forms covering 2010, the most recently available data.
The members of the House Tea Party Caucus are especially wealthy, the Center’s research shows.
The median average net worth of a member of the House Tea Party Caucus was $1.8…
Ron Paul Scored Higher Than President Obama on the ACLU Report Card
This is embarrassing for anyone who voted for “Hope and Change” … and the highest score goes to former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson, who was not even allowed to debate in televised debates. So reports Bob Egelko in the San Fransisco Chronicle:
The highest overall rating went to former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson, a Republican-turned-Libertarian, who opposes the Patriot Act and — unlike Obama — supports the right of gays and lesbians to marry. Among the leading Republican candidates, libertarian-leaning Rep. Ron Paul also got a higher score than Obama despite low ratings in several categories.
Ron Paul, Sioux City Debate (Video)
Ron Paul in Thursday’s debate in Sioux City, Iowa. Much of this highlight reel is him defending his position on Iran; he appears to be the only candidate up there that thinks going to war with Iran is a bad idea:
The Saga of Newt “Skywalker” Gingrich
I’m still waiting for Republican primary voters to get wind of all of Newt’s “big government” sci-fi ideas. Here’s a good history of them from Sharon Weinberger in Foreign Policy:
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, the surging candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, has been simultaneously lauded for his devotion to technological innovation, and ridiculed for his warnings about futuristic weapons.
Gingrich, who has dabbled in science fiction and cited both futurist Alvin Toffler and the concept of “psychohistory” in Isaac Asimov’s Foundation novels as intellectual inspirations, has long been dubbed “Newt Skywalker” thanks to his vision of future warfare that blends fact and fantasy. This streak of futurism is, by his own admission, rooted in a political and philosophical belief about technology and power. ”I would rather rely on engineers than diplomats for security,” Gingrich told Aviation Week & Space Technology magazine in 1994, in reference to his support for missile defense.
Not all his…
Is Ron Paul Now The Favorite For GOP Presidential Nomination?
Slowly but surely, the mainstream media is coming to terms with the fact that Ron Paul may very well be Republican voters’ first choice. From the Wall Street Journal:
Ron Paul is the wild card in the Republican presidential deck—and that makes him one of the most important cards of all right now.
It was possible earlier this year to write off the libertarian Texas congressman as an eccentric simply looking, as he did four years ago, for a place on a debate stage to proclaim his gospel of small government and hard money. But now Mr. Paul appears to be the man who could shape the outcome of the Iowa caucuses, which could go a long way toward shaping the overall race.
Nationally, Mr. Paul’s support runs a modest 10% or so in most polls, putting him well behind front-runners Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney. But in Iowa, four polls in the…
