Terry Branstad camp: $4.1M cash on hand

Terry Branstad camp: $4.1M cash on hand

Interesting political news from back home in Iowa...

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.