Read a little. Learn a lot. • Tightly-written news, views and stuff • Follow us on Twitter • Be a Facebook Fan • Tumble us!

08 Feb 2012 10:28

tags

Politics: Rick Santorum wants to be “the conservative alternative to Barack Obama”

  • I don’t stand here and claim to be the conservative alternative to Mitt Romney. I stand here to be the conservative alternative to Barack Obama.
  • Rick Santorum • Offering up a bold line while speaking to supporters in St. Louis, who picked him for the non-binding primary in Missouri last night. He also won caucuses in Minnesota, and somewhat surprisingly, Colorado. Two weeks ago, it looked like Gingrich was the guy going toe-to-toe with Romney. Now, with last night’s wins, that storyline looks old hat. Does Santorum have a shot at going all the way? source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

29 Jan 2012 11:46

tags

Politics: Rick Santourm leaves campaign trail to tend to sick daughter

  • “You think she’s fine, and then one cold and she’s this close to dying.” Days ahead of the important Florida primary, Rick Santorum found himself having to make an unexpected detour Saturday, as his 3-year-old daughter Bella, who suffers from a rare genetic condition called Trisomy 18, was admitted to the hospital. Bella has already beaten the odds in many ways — many children with the condition don’t survive their first week, let alone their first year. The presidential candidate, who is running behind Gingrich and Romney, is relying on surrogates to keep things going while he’s gone, but it’s not the first time Bella’s health has forced the cancellation of Santorum’s campaign events. A tough situation for Santorum to deal with, especially as the contests turn into real primaries with real stakes. (photo by Gage Skidmore/Flickr) source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

23 Jan 2012 20:57

tags

Politics: Debate preview: What you should expect in tonight’s #FLDebate

  • OHMIGOD OHMIGOD BRIWI IS MODERATING!!!!! Seriously guys, after the Gawker thing, this man can do no wrong. But the people on the other side of the stage? They’ve got a ton of issues ahead of the Florida debate, which we’ll be tagging with #FLDebate tonight. (It’ll be live over here.) So, with that said — last week’s debates, especially Thurdsay’s, were nasty — will tonight’s debate have similar fireworks? Here’s what we’re watching for:
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

19 Jan 2012 09:50

tags

Politics: Rick Santorum: Maybe possibly could be the sorta-winner in Iowa

  • yeah … An early count showed Mitt Romney leading the Iowa Caucus, but a mere eight votes ahead of Rick Santorum, who peaked just before the caucus.
  • … but … Now the vote has been certified, and it seems that Santorum has the lead in votes — Rick is now 34 votes ahead of Mitt in the state.
  • … um But don’t call it a victory just yet; irregularities in some precincts prevent Santorum from declaring victory; Romney’s camp calls it a virtual tie. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

18 Jan 2012 20:33

tags

Politics: Mitt Romney spokeswoman denies tax haven claims

  • ABC is flat wrong. The Romneys’ investments in funds established in the Cayman Islands are taxed in the very same way they would be if those funds were established in the United States. These are not tax havens and it is false to say so.
  • Romney campaign spokeswoman Andrea Saul • Trying to quell the swirls of criticism that have emerged over Mitt Romney’s tax information. This all came to a head, in a way, during Monday night’s presidential debate in South Carolina, when Mitt Romney gave an extremely uncomfortable, unprepared seeming answer on whether or not he’d release his tax information, which all but forced them start letting some information out. The fact that Romney only pays (legal though it is) 15% in taxes has caused a stir, but not as much as subsequent reports by ABC News might; they report that Romney maintains millions in investments held in the Cayman Islands, notorious as an offshore tax haven, allowing him to pay an even lower rate. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

30 Dec 2011 12:15

tags

Politics: On Kelly Clarkson, Ron Paul, and angry fan responses

  • For some Paul is seen as a homophobe and a racist. So for her fans, that may be sending them a message that she concurs with his homophobic and racist ideals. This is a problem since she does have a wide variety of die hard fans which include gays and a wide range of ethnicities who are offended by her endorsement.
  • Cooper Lawrence, author of the book “Cult of Celebrity” • Discussing why Kelly Clarkson’s endorsement of Ron Paul struck such a raw nerve with many of her fans yesterday. Part of it, perhaps, was the timing of Clarkson’s endorsement — Paul’s long-dormant newsletters, racially-tinged tomes which he’s long claimed he didn’t write but has never fully resolved honestly and openly, resurfaced just a week ago. (The Economist has a smartly-written piece on Paul that’s worth considering for these sentences: “In the end, Mr Paul’s obsession with the Fed is an anti-government conspiracy theory. And in America, anti-government conspiracy theories attract a lot of wingnuts, some of whom have never read Hayek or von Mises.”) For us, though, the real question is whether this whole affair will cause a big enough decline in Clarkson’s career to force a movie sequel: “From Kelly Back To Justin Again”? Justin Guarini’s floppy, Muppet-like hair is waiting for your call, Kelly.  source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

17 Dec 2011 01:29

tags

Politics: Unlikely pensioner of the week: Rick Perry is “retired” … kinda

  • $150k the amount in salary Rick Perry has made from being governor in 2011
  • $7,698 the amount perry has made monthly since his pension kicked in
  • $240kthe amount he bumped his income to with the maneuver source
  • » All the benefits of retirement and working! Rick Perry is 61 years old, and for most people, that’s closing in on retirement age. However, Perry is running for president, and could still be the guy to beat (you never know). But with his military and government service, he was able to score his pension now, according to the state’s Employee Retirement System. He has no regrets: “That’s been in place for decades. … I don’t find that to be out of the ordinary,” Perry said. “ERS called me and said, ‘Listen, you’re eligible to access your retirement now with your military time and your time and service, and I think you would be rather foolish to not access what you’ve earned.’” Is the move off-key considering the fact that he’s a noted critic of entitlement programs?
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

12 Dec 2011 09:59

tags

Politics: Romney heavily attacks Newt Gingrich over Palestine comments

  • [Gingrich] shows a level of erratic outspokenness which may be great in a campaign but not great for someone running for president.
  • Mitt Romney • Getting in a solid blow at Newt Gingrich on Fox News this morning, in reaction to the whole Palestine “invented people” thing that became an issue during Saturday’s debate — and which Gingrich defended under heavy pressure. Romney’s trying to lob whatever bombs he has at Gingrich, who is suddenly ahead of him in a number of important polls. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

28 Nov 2011 13:25

tags

Politics: Newt Gingrich’s favorite new word is “aggressive”

  • 6 times Gingrich uses the word “aggressive” in this YN interview source
  • » But what should we be aggressive about? Here’s the tally. Twice, Gingrich was describing how we should approach the war on drugs (“We ought to be much more aggressive about drug policy”); once, he was describing how the US went about supporting non-communist trade unions in Poland in the 1980s (“…we when we aggressively supported Solidarity”); and on three occasions, Newt was talking about US-Cuban relations (“I think we need a very aggressive model”). Oddly, he didn’t once utter the words “fundamental” or “profound,” although he did use another Gingrich fallback, “logical,” on two occasions, and busted out “totally” once.
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink

27 Oct 2011 23:20

tags

Politics: Tea party group: Michele Bachmann riding our coattails

  • It’s time for Michelle [sic] Bachmann to go.
  • Tea party training group American Majority’s president, Ned Ryun • Offering up an assessment of the GOP candidate for president. Ryun doesn’t seem too pleased with Bachmann’s campaign thus far, claiming that she “has ridden her tea party credentials from obscurity to a national platform like no other.” With a wide reach — the group is active in seven states and trains thousands of budding activists — the group could prove dangerous to her presidential run. Even though Bachmann’s campaign manager claimed in response that Ryun is a Rick Perry supporter (Ryun denies the endorsement), American Majority has not endorsed any candidate, saying they “don’t care which one of the personalities wins, as long as they’re conservative.” We’re assuming they’d prefer if the winner wasn’t Bachmann, however.  source
Posted by samimain • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
<< newer 
top tags
older >>