Governor Mitt Romney has finally capitulated to the nation’s wealth-haters, releasing his tax records months before primary candidates typically do to quell swelling resentment fueled by Occupy Wall Streeters, left-leaning media, and boobs like Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry, and John Huntsman.  (Thanks, GOP candidates!)

Of course Romney’s forthrightness isn’t good enough for the left, who now argue that he must release a dozen or perhaps 20 years of tax records, so we can spend the next ten months scrutinizing them for rounding errors and keep the focus off President Obama’s record.

Obama-friendly journalists are suggesting Romney also release information on his complete financial portfolio, his retirement accounts, his trust funds for his wife and children, and sworn affidavits from eyewitnesses that he never cheated at Monopoly.  (When is the media going to demand that Obama release his college transcripts?)

Romney’s tax records showed apoplectic liberals and gullible mainstream media that he paid 14% federal income tax on the $42 million he earned in 2010 and 2011.

Doesn’t sound like a lot?  It’s much higher than the percentage shelled out by the 47% of Americans who pay no federal income taxes, and it’s more than the effective tax rate of 97% of Americans.  read more »

As many of us spend time each day becoming more frustrated with the political news and our country’s direction, it is worth noting that our country is (for now) a self-governing democratic-republic, which means that the people who are ultimately responsible for our situation are those who participate in our wonderful little experiment.

Let's face it, self-government, whether in the personal or political sense of the term, requires some common sense.  And our country suffers from an overabundance of stupid people – and too many of them have voter registration cards.  There, I said it.

Just how stupid are we?  Several years ago a Gallup survey found that: 43% don't know that the "judicial" is one of the three branches of government; 41% don't know that their state (and every other state) is represented by two US Senators; 53% don't know what the "Bill of Rights" is; and 66% can't identify the document containing the words "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal".

In 2006 and 2007, a multiple choice civics exam was administered to over 28,000 college freshmen and seniors by the National Civic Literacy Board.  The freshmen (AKA, high school graduates) failed each year, and the seniors, after four years of higher education, failed each year as well.  In 2008, the same group tested over 2,500 adults of all backgrounds and 71% of them also failed.

In addition to general civic ignorance, the study found that "college made graduates more liberal, while greater civic knowledge led adults to be more supportive of America's constitutional traditions", (which might explain why so many schools give civics short shrift, especially since so much of liberalism's gains come at the expense of the Constitution).  read more »

We're launching a new online game/application for Facebook to make it easy for conservatives to help identify and "roundup" other fellow conservatives.  It's called "Conservative Roundup" - and we need your help to test it out!

Just CLICK HERE and it will take you straight to the app.  Click the login button and give permission to Facebook and you're in!  Then help us kick the tires.

As I mentioned, it's a "beta test" for version 1.0.  Our design team is making improvements to it each evening, and will continue to do so as you help us identify any needed fixes, or any good suggestions you may have for useful improvements that could be made.

We'll update you on the progress as we go, but in the meantime...

CLICK HERE and help us test!

The 2012 Republican Primary is well underway and the field has been shrunk to four candidates.  Three of the four are seeking to be President, while the other is mainly seeking to lead a movement.  Each one of these candidates has defined themselves in ways to show how they want to direct the country.  The most important thing for Republican primary voters is to determine which one of these four men is best equipped to defeat President Obama.  To do that, we also have to see where each of the candidates will primarily focus their campaigns.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is probably the biggest enigma to me in this campaign.  Mr. Gingrich has great speaking ability and is able to articulate conservative ideas better than anyone else on the debate stage.  He can see right through the biased media panelists and put them in their places.  On the other hand, Mr. Gingrich attacks former Governor Mitt Romney for his work at venture capitalist firm Bain Capital and badgers Mr. Romney to release his tax records, which he is not required to do.  These are very populist stances that seem more in line with the Occupy Wall Street protesters.  When Mr. Gingrich sat on the couch next to Democratic then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi and advocated for climate change reform, this was also a very populist move.

So where will Mr. Gingrich wage his campaign against President Obama?  Will it be solely a battle of wits on the debate stages before a national audience?  Is that were the campaign should be waged?  Is that not conceding and meeting the enemy on their own turf?  The deck would be heavily stacked against Mr. Gingrich in such a contest.  I fear that the battle would be uphill.  read more »

It makes perfect sense. Call yourself a Tea-Party. Voice valid
concerns of federal bankruptcy and the American media labels
your group as racist-extremist anarchists.

Disrupt commerce, denounce capitalism, and demand your
unearned fair-share of the Gross-National-Product and Time
Magazine lauds you as Person-Of-The-Year.

Ever since the “Old Media” began promoting “Occupy Wall-Street”
as a burgeoning political force, everyone from Nancy Pelosi, to
Al Gore, to former Pennsylvania Governor, Ed Rendell, have been
telling the world the misguided marionettes of OWS have some
important points that we unenlightened, would do well to heed.

You know what ……. They’re right !!! Once I decided to listen.
I mean REALLY LISTEN. I had to admit, “Occupy Wall Street”
could definitely teach me a thing or two, or ten. Here’s the
Ten Most Important “Facts” I learned from the OWS movement.

1) I’ve learned that the OWS-folks aren’t actually part of the
99%. They’re part of the envied 1% who actually have the
leisure to embark on an 3-5 month vacation, and the
chutzpah to have someone else pay for it.

2) The “occupiers” have taught me that America is on the
wrong track because it only works when populated by
responsible, moral, grown-ups.

3) The “occupiers” have convinced me that having “any job”
is probably a bad idea. When jobs are available, someone,
somewhere, could possibly be making a profit.

4) “Occupy Wall Street” has shown me that whenever any
law enforcement officer does the “right thing” ………
THEY’RE WRONG !!  read more »

A ‘back blast’ is the blast cone behind certain weapons that utilize the back blast to minimize recoil. ‘Walking into your own back blast’ is a term for just plain stupidity. When I was in the Marine Corps, walking behind a 106 recoilless rifle would get you dead if you were close, or just knock you on your ass and maybe blow out your eardrums from about 15 to 30 feet away. Not a smart move.

ABC and, by association, all of the DNC/Administration surrogates of the Lame Stream press may have stepped in it with the brazenly timed, extremely shallow interview with Newt Gingrich’s ex-wife of some eighteen years, Marianne. Naturally, as with all of these DeMarxist straw horses, they posit all of these things as fact when, in fact, almost all of these Marxist publicity stunts turn out to have back stories they aren’t anxious to have see the light of day.

Marianne has given several interviews along the same lines over the years. I’m not going to say she is an embittered, spiteful woman venting her spleen once again. However, you have to question the very fact that she agreed to the interview in the first place with a network who, at the behest of their Marxist masters, timed the interview at the precise moment that, in their sick judgment, gave them the best chance of destroying Newt Gingrich… just as he rightly begins to surge in North Carolina.  read more »

Newt Gingrich has come under fire recently for his statement that Barack Obama is the "Food Stamp President." In response to Gingrich, the left makes three claims:

1. Racist!
2. It's Bush's fault
3. Well yes, but the population has increased too so Obama can't be blamed.

It is this last claim that I wanted to take a look at and see if population growth could account for the increase of people on food stamps.

The U.S. civilian population estimate on the first day of *FY2010 was 307,518,237. SNAP participation for FY2010 was 40,302,000. The percentage of people on food stamps was 13%.

The U.S. civilian population on the last day of FY2011 was 310,800,403. FY2011 saw 44,709,000 people receiving SNAP benefits. This represents 14.3% of the population. So while the population did increase, so did the percentage of people on food stamps!

 There's more.
 
The population increased by 1% during this time. However, food stamp particitpation increased by almost 11%! Increases in the population does not account for the increase in food stamp usage.

Lastly, the stimulus changed the SNAP program. First, it increased funding by almost $20 billion by increasing monthlybenefit levels. It also changed the amount of time that an able-bodied adults without dependents. The restrictions placed on benefits by the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 were rescinded.

Seems like Obama is much more culpable for the increase in SNAP than I thought.

*The reason why I chose FY2010 is because that is the first fiscal year in which Obama was the president throughout.  read more »

Ahead of its 2012 GOP presidential primary, South Carolina is under fire for having enacted a voter identification law that would require citizens to show poll workers a photo ID before voting.  (You know—sort of like having to pay a poll tax and prove your ancestors came over on the Mayflower.)

The law is intended to curb voter fraud, which is more prevalent in South Carolina and other southern states and states with relatively small populations.  Some states’ historically corrupt local governments and proximity to the Mexican border have yielded a disproportionate incidence of voter-impersonation fraud, including non-citizens voting, ex-felons voting, and dead people voting.  Small populations increase the influence that a handful of invalid votes can have on a precinct’s outcome.

Seven states besides South Carolina require a government-issued photo ID to vote: Texas, Georgia, Tennessee, Mississippi, Indiana, Wisconsin, and Kansas.  Seven additional states require a simple photo ID: Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Michigan, South Dakota, Idaho, and Hawaii.  Three states passed photo ID laws in 2011 but were blocked by their governors’ vetoes.  Sixteen other states require non-photo identification.

So South Carolina isn’t exactly doing something new and different.

Meanwhile, the Obama camp has been riling up its base by accusing Republicans of trying to disenfranchise minorities.  Last month the Obama Justice Department blocked South Carolina’s attempts to implement its law, claiming that the statute violates the Voting Rights Act of 1965—the first time the Department has interfered with a state’s voter ID requirements since 1994.  The Department is also taking its sweet time approving Texas’s recently passed voter ID law.  read more »

I’m not a sportswriter… and it’s a far cry from politics to the gridiron… but yesterday witnessed the re-emergence of one of the truly preeminent football franchises in the history of the sport.

The San Francisco 49ers, Alex Smith and their no-nonsense head coach Jim Harbaugh, pulled off what may be the most remarkable finish to win a division playoff game in recent memory… possibly since 1981. Then, it was Joe Montana to Dwight Clark in what came to be known as ‘The Catch’.

This football franchise has seen its share of remarkable moments. The image of Terrell Owens at the goal line, snagging a last minute pass from Steve Young in the last three seconds of the 1999 NFC wild-card playoff game against the Packers at ‘The Stick’, is still fresh in the 49er faithfuls’ minds as the ‘The Catch 2?.

There can be no greater indication of the ‘new’ 49ers resurgence than the fans in Candlestick Park. The old place really rocked… you could hear the roar from miles away on the wind. The 49ers are back… and that ‘old’ stadium which has seen so many great 49ers teams over the years has, at least temporarily, a new lease on life.

It’s the ‘Niners’ at ‘The Stick’, and nothing can be better. Gone, for the moment, is the conflict over San Francisco losing the Niners to a monstrously politically-motivated boondoggle down in Santa Clara. The citizens of Santa Clara are about to be fleeced for well over a billion dollars they don’t have and can’t make up, no matter what the pols or the ‘experts’ say.  read more »

Michelle Bachmann, the most conservative and articulate 2012 GOP presidential candidate, dropped out of the race after her poor showing in Iowa last week.  Herman Cain’s disappointing withdrawal last month over spurious sexual harassment allegations suggests we won’t be discussing a flat federal income tax for at least another election cycle.  John Huntsman was a surprisingly conservative governor of Utah, and could still benefit from the shell game Republican voters have been playing with their candidates for the past six months—if voters ever notice he’s running.  Mitt Romney is an unreliable conservative; Newt Gingrich is a combustible bloviator; and Ron Paul is a nutty America-hater.

What about Rick Perry?  Last September, he was the GOP’s latest, greatest hope for about three invigorating weeks.  The only—only—reason Republican voters abandoned him in droves after his bump in the polls was his clunky and unscripted performance in the first few debates—a flaw he’s long since overcome.  Perry’s marble-mouthed tendencies have been limited thus far to one format—the presidential primary debate—and even there he’s improved dramatically, such that commentators have been gushing, “Perry had a really good night!” and “This was the best Perry debate performance so far!”

(I don’t fault Perry for not being able to remember the third agency he would close; there are so many I would shut down, I also would lose track.  When Ron Paul helpfully offered “EPA?” I would have said, “That too!”)  read more »