The Ryan Budget Fight is Partly Bill Clinton’s Republican Legacy | RedState

The Ryan Budget Fight is Partly Bill Clinton’s Republican Legacy | RedState

A rather fascinating analysis of the Conservative-Republican relationship in American politics in recent history by one of the conservative movement's true "purest", Erick Erickson. Regardless of whether you count yourself as a "conservative" or not, it's probably one of the best summaries of how the conservative movement and the GOP have interacted over the last few decades. Highly recommend a read!

Mandela Vs. Mugabe | RedState

Mandela Vs. Mugabe | RedState

An excellence piece that puts the legacy of Nelson Mandela in the proper perspective it deserves..

States Reject Big Government | RedState

States Reject Big Government | RedState

We Are The 55% | RedState

We Are The 55% | RedState

Interesting article for my fellow statistic-loving political wonks out there..

Shutdown Chaos: Who is to Blame and Does it Matter? Part 2

In Part 1 of this piece, I discussed the events that immediately led to the current government shutdown and which side (Democrats or Republicans) was actually to blame for closing down the federal government in the first place. In Part 2, I would like to talk about which side is more responsible for keeping the federal government shutdown and how each party has handled itself during the shutdown.

As one might have expected, both sides have waged a war in the media to claim the other side is truly to blame for the government shutdown: Democrats pointing out it was the GOP who initiated the shutdown and the GOP pointing out that it was the Democrats who refused to negotiate before and now during the shutdown. The former I discussed in detail in Part 1, while the later is what I would like to discuss.

Shutdown Chaos: Who is to Blame and Does it Matter? Part 1

We are now six days into the federal government shutdown and boy has it been an interesting experience for both the politically-inclined and those who normally couldn't care less about what the federal government is doing from day to day. We have seen the predictable blame game of who is really responsible for the shutdown, we've seen elements of the GOP attempt to "eat their own", and we've seen absolutely zero movement in the direction of ending the shutdown.

While I normally love to talk about how quickly the GOP seems to "eat their own" in a time of crisis, but that to me is not a terribly important story from this past week because: one, it's pretty predictable and it started before the shutdown began and two, it's a big enough topic I could go on for days..

Instead, for Part I of this rather long-winded piece, I would like to talk about the blame game that has been going one all week concerning whose fault it was really was that the federal government shut down.

House GOP: Stand Your Ground | RedState

House GOP: Stand Your Ground | RedState

A short and right to the point piece by Erick Erickson concerning the GOP's handling of the government shutdown debate..

An Iowan's Thoughts on the Shutdown..

For the last few days, the political theater that is the fight over funding the federal government has gotten

interesting enough to finally bring me back to blogging for the first time in several months.

Of course, this all started with Senator Ted Cruz calling for House Republicans to once again pass a bill against President Obama's landmark health care law, nicknamed "Obamacare", in this case attached to the continuing resolution to fund the federal government. When the bill reached the Senate, Cruz performed an impressive 21 hour speech from the Senate floor (though not strictly a "filibuster" in the traditional sense) not only denouncing Obamacare but also, in many ways the Senate/Congress itself.

Breitbart: Top 5 Things That Won't Shut Down on Tuesday

Top 5 Things That Won't Shut Down on Tuesday

Don't necessarily agree with Breitbart.com on many stories but this is a short and sweet list of major federal agencies/entities that will NOT be shut down with the rest of the federal government..

More Gallup Geewhiz: Fewer Americans Than Ever Trust Gov't to Handle Problems

Fewer Americans Than Ever Trust Gov't to Handle Problems

Well, this certainly isn't the most surprising headline for a poll but the numbers within are rather surprising. Without getting into too much detail (since while I love the number-crunching of a political poll, I'll leave that to the experts at Gallup to explain), many of the data points in this poll are not only quite interesting, they're a bit predictable.

Most important of all, such polls are actual EVIDENCE of how "the American People" (see previous post) feel about their government on both domestic and international issues, and not the crap that pathetic partisans (both politicians and pundits alike) try to spoon feed the public.

Gallup: In America, Trust in "The American People" at New Low..

In U.S., Political Trust in "American People" at New Low

More or less, this poll is asking folks on how much they trust the WHOLE of the American people to make good political judgement.

Several interesting headlines from this poll:

• Democrats are the most trusting of the "American People" at 68%
• Republicans are the least trusting of the "American People" at 57%
• Independents are slightly more trusting of the "American People" at 59%
• In 2005, this was largely reversed, with Republicans being the most trusting and the Independents being the least trusting.

IMHO, the biggest headline is how much all three groups' level of trust has fallen in the last 8 years:

• Democrats- From 78% in 2005 to 68% today.
• Republicans- From 82% in 2005 to 57% today.
• Independents- From 74% in 2005 to 59% today.
• Just to state the obvious, Republicans experiences the greatest loss of "trust" in the American People in the last 8 years. 

While the reasons for this loss of trust could be argued from any political angle, I want to focus for a moment on the phrase, "the American people". The moment I read this poll, I was immediately reminded of an episode of Jon Stewart's The Daily Show from a few years ago in which he mocked the OVER use of this phrase by politicians and pundits..and he words still ring true today: 

"The American people" is a meaningless phrase that should be struck from public utterance along with, "Nobody doesn't like Sara Lee." - Jon Stewart, The Daily Show

For your viewing pleasure..

Shutdown Watch: ObamaCare Geewhiz from Bloomberg News

For those you watching the government shutdown/slow-motion train wreck such as myself, you'll have noticed that the debate over "ObamaCare" has become intertwined with the attempts by both parties to pass a continuing resolution (not an actual budget of course..a topic for a different day).

How and why ObamaCare has become a political front-line issue again is a fascinating (and aggravating) debate in its own right but given the renewed interest in arguably the most well-known political "victory" of President Obama's 1st term, it might be a good idea to re-educate folks on the very law that is causing such a fuss.

Thankfully (for me anyway), Megan McArdle of Bloomberg News has summed up many of the major arguing points about ObamaCare for us: 11 Pieces of Obamacare Conventional Wisdom That Shouldn't Be So Conventional

As to the debate over these continuous resolutions to keep the federal government open into the next fiscal year, I will leave that for a later date but I will leave you all with this thought: I've watched politics for quite a while now and unlike all previous government shutdown threats, I have a strong feeling that we WILL see the Federal Government shut down come Tuesday, October 1st. So be prepared folks, we're in for quite a political show the next few days...

Reality Check | RedState

Reality Check | RedState

Needless to say, this is a great piece courtesy Erick Erickson of RedState. He covers a topic very close to my heart: the politicization of nearly EVERY aspect of American life by pathetic partisans who seem to have nothing better to do in life than make everything in life about politics and trying to get the rest of the world up in arms about it. They make mountains out of molehills and try to turn trivial crap into big headlines (whether out of sheer spite or because they are attention whores, often the latter it seems).

Overall, Mr. Erickson puts it best:

"Truth is, there is more to life than politics. And while you and I can find things that outrage us and they may be different things, to hell with you for being outraged that I’m not outraged about something that outrages you"

Obama ‘Strongly Objects’ to Religious Liberty Amendment | RedState

Obama ‘Strongly Objects’ to Religious Liberty Amendment | RedState

No More Games | RedState

No More Games | RedState

The 6 new things we learned today about Benghazi | The Cable

The 6 new things we learned today about Benghazi | The Cable

I, like many other Americans, watched (or in my case checked online) the congressional hearing today on exactly what happened the night of September 11, 2012 with a fair amount of interest. After keeping on eye on this hearing for a good chunk of the day, I found myself asking some serious questions that I shamefully didn't much think about before today..

Without getting too much in-depth into what we learned during the hearing today, this article from Foreign Policy magazine is probably one of the better "short" summaries of the headlines that arose during the congressional hearings today. 

GOP prospects pass on Iowa Senate run - POLITICO

GOP prospects pass on Iowa Senate run - Emily Schultheis - POLITICO.com

This is probably one of the more interesting political stories out of my home state as of late. One of those, "Only in Iowa" kind of situations..Give it a read!

Rand Paul's "Mr. Smith" Moment

Unless you've been hiding under a rock that last few days, you know that the biggest story in politics this week has been the nearly 13 hour filibuster by the junior senator of Kentucky, Rand Paul. The purpose of Senator Paul's filibuster was the issue of how the US government can and could use so-called "drone", including potentially using them against US citizens. While that issue is certainly an important one, not to mention terribly complicated, it's the aftermath of this filibuster that interests me more.

CNN Panel and Cop-killer Dorner: Idiocy Ensues!

First off, I need to get something out of the way when it comes to this Christopher Dorner business before I rip CNN a new one...

I'll be blunt: I couldn't give two rat asses about Christopher Dorner beyond the fact the man was a cop-killing murderer. I don't care about his "manifesto" (which I have no interest in ever reading), or his pathetic attempt to justify his actions. I don't care about his sob-story about how he was unjustly fired from the LAPD or any of that crap. Here is all I care about or need to know: he was a murderer and an absolutely pathetic excuse for a human being. That fact he has some opinions about politics or anything else is completely mute because he is a criminal and as far as I'm concerned, criminals have no right to an opinion that anyone should give a crap about.

Banning Gays From The Prom | RedState

Banning Gays From The Prom | RedState

Sadly, back in Iowa we have a lot of these hypocritical and worthless pieces of crap too. The only comfort I take from stories like this is someday they are going to have to explain this hateful and unchristian behavior to a, lets say "higher power"... and boy are they in for a SHOCK.

Independents Reflect Trust in Television News Media Trends

Independents Reflect Trust in Television News Media Trends

UK Takes First Step in Legalizing Same-Sex Marriage – IVN

UK Takes First Step in Legalizing Same-Sex Marriage – IVN

This shows the HUGE difference between American conservatives and their British counterparts..

Hate to Say I Told You So...

Arguably the biggest political story of this past week was NOT the Senate hearings on the Benghazi terrorist attack or the Pentagon lifting the ban on women in the military serving on the front lines. It was a story that broke yesterday: A Federal court has called President Obama's recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board more than a year ago was unconstitutional. Funny, because I swear I've heard that argument before somewhere...

I'm glad the administration says they plan to appeal this decision to the U.S. Supreme Court because the dangerous precedent President Obama set with this action a year ago NEEDS to be challenged and put under as much legal scrutiny as possible and where better to decide it than the highest court in the land?

Disclaimer

Any opinions and/or views expressed in the above piece are purely those of the author and not of any political or non-political organization. Any re-posting of this work MUST include this disclaimer.

National Review: Women are Too Weak for Frontline Service

As some of you have probably heard, out-going Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has announced that for the 1st time in American history, women serving in the military will be allow to serve on "the front-line". Big story right? Well, that seems to depend on whether you've had your head stuck firming up your a@@ for the last 10+ years..

The Loyal Opposition | RedState

The Loyal Opposition | RedState

Daniels: The One Who Got Away

Daniels: The One Who Got Away

A great article for those who KNEW Mitch Daniels was the right man for the job...A damn shame indeed. 

Hoping for Some Political Chaos..Crazy Right?

First off, I want to apologize for my absence as of late. As my readers have no doubt noticed, I haven't posted much in the last few months (which conveniently lines up with the result of the presidential election, though such a correlation is purely baseless..sort of). As to the reason(s) why, the most obvious one that probably comes to some of your minds is the person I preferred for the highest office in the land didn't win and I've been sulking ever since. While that answer would be easy, simple, and predictable, it barely scratches the surface as to why I haven't posted as of late. The simplest answer is, I have had a complete lack of inspiration to write.

The Real Gun Violence Problem | RedState

The Real Gun Violence Problem | RedState

Pretty straight-forward article via Erick Erickson of RedState on gun violence in America today.