Month: April 2010

What Will 2012 Look Like?

Inkwell Institute

2010/12 Election Series–Part 2

Disclaimer:  This is my predictions alone on the course of the GOP primaries and will be effected by a lot of outside influences….I should not be help accountable if the field looks differently than I predict….stuff happens!

I know the Mayans have said it is over on Dec. 21st….but that is not what I am talking about……

At least the world of the GOP, that is……

There is has been lots and lots of talk about who will vie for the nomination of the GOP in 2012….the cool thing punditry is a lot like a blind date…you never know who you will get in the end (that was a play on words but an accurate description of politics).

If you follow the news then you have a good grasp of the usual suspects that will enter into the race to the nomination….if not names like Palin, Romney, Huckabee, Pawlenty, Gingrich and a host of minor players Barbour, Thune and the dark horse Lou Dobbs……

First, let me start with those candidates that will be just wasting money……Pawlenty, because he is a geek and the American public could care less about what his message is and then there is Thune…no not I tune……but Thune….he will go NOWHERE because NO one knows who the hell he is…..Dobbs…the American people are smart enough to spot a BS artist……

Now on to people that could have an outside chance at the nomination…..Gingrich and Barbour……but I do not think that either one will even attempt to gain the nomination….why?…..they are the only people in a party devoid of ideas that are smart enough to formulate a plan of attack……Both Barbour and Gingrich will stay on the side lines with the palys for the team….

Next, close but NO Cigar….Huckabee….he will make a good showing in a couple of early primaries but will lose his luster with the base…

As of today the two that stand more likely to win the GOP nomination for the 2012 election are Sarah Palin and Mitt Romney……  why Palin?  At this point in the process she has the Right in a dither she has a book, she has rock star appeal (which is good if you are a Repub and bad if you are a Dem) and yes,  she has a book (that some feel is a policy book….I want a hit off that joint)…depending on her popularity on FOX and her willingness to l;earn the issues she could well be the runner up in the nomination….

Okay Professor, who gets the nod and why?

Mitt Romney will be the nominee of the GOP to run against Obama…..he is politically sophisticated enough to handle the gig…he is good looking enough to carry the superficial……he has his own ideas that will carry some moderates….he can debate without trying to change the rules…..and he is not Palin…

So my prediction, right now, is that Mitt Romney will win the GOP nomination for the run in 2012 against Barack Obama…..

Populism Vs Capitalism

Note:  This is a reprint of a piece written by Chris Ladd on the site….http://republicansunited.us….I decided to publish the whole article because there are not a lot of clicks on other sites from Info Ink….this piece is worthy of a good read and not to depend on a click to have it read in its entirety……I hope that Chris will understand….

This is a re-print of Mr. Ladds’s piece…….http://republicansunited.us……or go to my blogroll……..an excellent site….visit often you will not be disappointed………

Populism vs. Capitalism

As near as I can tell from the speeches and signs, any institution that existed prior to the crisis (except fundamentalist churches) is destroying America, and any institution which is trying to use government power to solve the crisis, whether a capitalist bastion like the Federal Reserve, or those dirty commies in Congress, is also destroying America.

If you try to make sense of these protests in terms of the old 20th century divide between liberal democracy and socialism you risk having your head explode.  In spite of all the blather from the AM radio crowd, this is not about decent hardworking Americans working to protect their capitalist economy.  This is about decent, hardworking Americans mistakenly flailing away to protect a dead, rural, notion of American identity against the growing power of global capitalism.

More than two centuries later, we still cannot get past the battle between Jefferson and Hamilton, between agrarian independence and the urban profit machine.  The battle is made more comic/tragic by the fact that few of us know which side we are on. This battle is so old and has taken on so many forms that we have mostly lost track of its origins.  But its shape is still the same.

Hamiltonian capitalism needs intelligent regulation in order to maintain transparency in markets and keep shirkers, moochers, and frauds from bringing down the system.  It needs central banking, roads, airports, canals, environmental protections, and other infrastructure.  Jeffersonian rural life just needs a national defense, a few courts, and a place to sell my cotton.

We Republicans who, at least according to our websites, are the defenders of free market capitalism, are doing everything in our power to cripple our financial institutions.  We fought government efforts last year to avert the collapse of the financial system from a collapse brought on in large part by our refusal to use the tools of government to impose reasonable rules in the financial marketplace.  We fought the stimulus package.  We are fighting efforts at job creation, efforts aimed at using capital markets for small business loans, to foster business development.

We are fighting efforts to bring even the most limited transparency to the derivatives markets that brought our banking system to its knees.  Now our Congressional leaders are waging a campaign to eviscerate the Federal Reserve, the last institution independent from Congress which can help rebuild the broken capital system.  If there were any real socialists left in our political system, they would be cheering us.

We call ourselves capitalists, but act like 19th-century, populist, Democrats.  Why?  It is not nearly as much fun to face the difficult questions of how to protect Jeffersonian values in a Hamiltonian world as it is to hunt for conspiracies.  When politics is entertainment, Beck and Coulter set the agenda.  Plus you get to go to a (tea) party.  How cool is that!

As a political party we need to decide whether we love capitalism or hate it.  Sound, vibrant markets require intelligent regulation.  When they work properly they provide the fuel for innovation and business growth that has made America a financial superpower.  We cannot have the power of capitalism with a Jeffersonian attitude toward regulation.

Jeffersonian-style limited government is to capitalism what salt water is to your goldfish – not so good.  A suspicion of central banks so strong you can taste it, resentment of capital markets, hatred toward those “fat cats,  who run things; these are not Republican values.  Marching through the streets right now to protest Marxism is like rallying against Monarchy.  Great, sure, but not all that valuable.  Are we going to be progressive, capitalist Republicans like Teddy Roosevelt and John McCain, or wallow in an updated version of 19th-century Jeffersonian populism, guided by Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin?

The outcome will determine whether we have the flexibility to lead an increasing competitive world, or shrink into paranoia and weakness.

Note:  to get to republicansunited go to my blogroll and click on it there are some excellent points of view on the site….once again I thank my friends at the site for their cooperation…..

Now Here Is An Idea!

Inkwell Institute

European Desk

Every now and then I read something from across the pond and think that it would be a good way to conduct politics in this country….maybe not exactly the same but some of the ideas are worth considering……

The main party leaders have hit the campaign trail following Gordon Brown’s announcement that he has asked the Queen to dissolve Parliament, triggering a general election on May 6.

Parliament will not be formally dissolved until Monday, with MPs spending the next three days rushing legislation through the Commons during what is known as the “wash up”.

Two polls today gave the Tories a 10-point lead, enough to form a narrow majority, while a third suggested that Labour would emerge as the largest party in a hung Parliament.

Now there is an idea I can back with all my support (as little as that may be)…….dissolve Congress and send them all home to try again…..about a month or so of campaigning….that could eliminate all the crap we get for a year or more before an election…..to be honest I have not paid a great deal of attention to the politics in Europe….that is my failing…but I am trying to rectify my lack of knowledge….

I remember back in the days of the “evil empire”, the USSR, whenever there were elections for the Duma, Russian style Congress, and 85% of the members were re-elected…the news would be about what a sham the election were in the Communists country…..but yet in the “democracy” in the US the percentage of those re-elected is somewhere close to 90….does that mean that it is also a sham?

The point I am trying desperately trying to make is that it is a good idea to dissolve Congress if they are getting NOTHING done but petty bickering…….and a month of campaigning would be money well spent and eliminate some, not all, of the campaign bullsh*t.

While I am not sure if the whole Parliament has to campaign or not (hopefully Quin of Quintessential Havoc will weigh in)….but all in all sounds like a Helluva idea….this could make the ass wads in Washington more responsible for their actions or in the case of today….inaction….

Don’t Push Me! (Warns Karzai)

Inkwell Institute

International Studies Group

For nine years we have been playing war against the Taleban and AQ…mostly the Taleban in Afghanistan…..we pick our man in Afghanistan…Karzai and we have put all our marbles in his basket and in return for all our support….after all we get him elected twice…he repays the US with threats like these….

Karzai accused foreign powers of orchestrating election fraud last year, just three days after US President Barack Obama made a secret weekend trip to Afghanistan to warn him to do more to tackle government corruption.

He went so far as to claim that such moves risked the 126,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan being seen as “invaders” — terminology used by the Taliban — and their nine-year insurgency becoming viewed as “a national resistance.”

He made that threat twice in less than a week….that if he chooses he will join forces with the Taleban and fight against “foreign invaders”….

Nice talk from a man that owes his political career to the West…without their support he would have been laid to rest years ago…..this man is trying to play both sides against the middle….maybe we should have listened to the ONLY person in the Obama admin that was dead set against giving Karzai more support….Joe Biden.

Without us Foreign fighters, Karzai is little more than the mayor of Kabul…he owes his very existence on the “foreigners”….I even heard some pundits from various think tanks that said the US should NOT nitpick on Karzai…..I say f*ck him!

I mean this is a corrupt admin running Afghanistan…..his whole family is into shady dealings from drugs to bribes to arms….why would we continue to support this person?  A good answer or at least a starting point, is to find out how much cash this “person” gets from the US and other “foreigners”……

This is all so much crap!  Our best bet was in the 80’s,when we had a substantial ally in the Northern Alliance….but that was out of the question because they are NOT Pashtun…they are mostly Tajiks….and that would have been a minority running the country….wait!….the Taleban was a minority that we handed the reins of government because Washington is STUPID!

Is there truly a government that can be best for the whole country of Afghanistan?  I have a few ideas and I will put them forth in the coming weeks and want to see how many people will agree with my assessment…..

If you truly want an answer then I suggest that you ask the Military-Industrial Complex…….keep in mind….war is good business!

Drill, Baby, Drill!

You recall Palin in all her cuteness during the 2008 election, when she championed the concept of opening up more of the oil reserves off the different coasts of the US?  Right?  You DO remember?

Okay, maybe not…..it was her idea or someone in the McCain camp that wanted to end America’s dependence on foreign oil…of course the Dems were not on board with the idea, at least during the campaign…..my, my….what a difference a couple of months makes…

As reported in the NY Times:

The Obama administration is proposing to open vast expanses of water along the Atlantic coastline, the eastern Gulf of Mexico and the north coast of Alaska to oil and natural gas drilling, much of it for the first time

The proposal — a compromise that will please oil companies and domestic drilling advocates but anger some residents of affected states and many environmental organizations — would end a longstanding moratorium on oil exploration along the East Coast from the northern tip of Delaware to the central coast of Florida, covering 167 million acres of ocean.

Under the plan, the coastline from New Jersey northward would remain closed to all oil and gas activity. So would the Pacific Coast, from Mexico to the Canadian border.

Yes, sports fans, I said Obama!  What was a horrible idea during the election is now a good one for the country…..it should make Repubs happy….happy enough to support some of his energy plan…..what was once a bullsh*t idea is now a sterling one….change we all can believe in……is not that Obama’s slogan  in 2008?

Now we could be on our way to oil independence……hip…hip…hooray!

If one thing…nothing about this plan passes the sniff test……

Are you people that damn gullible?  Or just plain ignorant?

You truly believe that the US less than 5% of the world’s oil reserve will ween us from foreign oil?  And do you truly believe that the pumping of those reserves will bring the cost of gas down?  And that you think this plan will do anything other than increase profits of oil companies?

If you have answered yes to any of these question then you need to put the Playstation control down and pay more attention to your reality…..you people are just idiots and deserve the sh*tty government you have now……

The Wrong Direction

Inkwell Institute

Subject:  Economics/Budget Deficit

Paper #7

For many months now we have heard, endlessly, Repubs saying that the country is headed in the wrong direction….and that our ruin is near……(you know…kinda like that guy on the street corner holding a sign that says, “Repent!   The End Is Near!).

We have heard it all….well…almost all….the ideas are flying out of the mouths of politics….both Left and Right are jumping on the bandwagon.

All GOP office holders and candidates are saying that the Prez and the Dems are taking the wrong path for a successful end to the economic cancer in this country….while I may agree in principle…I seriously doubt that the Repubs have a success direction either….

First of all, I ask ALL Repubs where is the Prez going wrong?  Is it health care, or the environment or financial reform….just where is the wrong direction?  Secondly, what is the GOP’s idea of the right direction?…..(pause for thought)…….okay stumped?  They say that they are all for the small businesses that employ most Americans…..so far so good…but if you define what the small business is in general terms, what would it be?  My guess would be the Middle Class.

If the Middle Class is sort of synonymous with small business then we should come to the conclusion that the GOP should be concerned with the plight of the Middle Class, right?  Well you would be mistaken………the following information was found on the site themiddleclass.org…..it is the site of Drum Major Institute for Public Policy, which tracks all of Washington’s doings that would effect the Middle Class….

The most vocal opponents of Obama are Reps Cantor and Boehner and Rep. Ryan of Wisconsin has been called the rising star in the GOP and a brilliant budgetary analyst…..so where do these guys stand on the Middle Class when it concerns legislation that would help?

I will start with House Minority leader, John Boehner of Ohio…….themiddleclass.org has been keeping tabs on the House and Senate since 2003……from 2003 to 2008, Boehner got an “F” every year and son far the score for 2009 has been 8% of the time in favor of the Middle Class, final score will be in by 04/2010.

How about Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia?   Since 2003, he has also received an “F” every year…….and so far the score for 2009 is 13% he has voted in favor of Middle Class issues…April will give us his final score….but so far it does not look good.

Now we look at the economic genius of the GOP, Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin……in 2003 the middleclass.org gave him a “D”……..but from 2004 to 2008 he got an “F”…….and for 2009 he has got 13% of his time helping the Middle Class….

Those were the three most out front Repubs,,,,they always talk about the American people and what they need and yet they do little to help the largest class in America.  But I want to be fair so I wanted to look a the Dems in the Congress…..for contrast I chose my Rep in the House who is a “Blue Dog”, Gene Taylor of Mississippi……themiddleclass.org score Taylor thusly……2003 a “B”, 2004-2007 a “C”, 2008 he got a “A” and so far in 2009 he has voted 68% of the time in favor of the Middle Class….he is not a barn burner but at least he seems to be on the side of the Middle Class……

Do not believe me….go to blogroll and click on The Middle Class and see for yourself or check out your reps….almost in every case you will see that the GOP has NOT voted favorably for the Middle Class…..Repubs are LYING!  They show NO concern for the plight of the Middle Class!

Check it out…….themiddleclass.org

Do not get me wrong….I HATE paying taxes……but logic says if I want the services from the government…then I need to suck it up….I also hate to work….but we all do for the same reasons…..what I truly do not like is the fact that we pay taxes for those services and we get crap in return….that is where I have the problem….

2010 Anal-Ocity #11

I know most of you think that I am a bit unfair with my anal-ocities because I post on stupid sh*t that repubs say when they think no one is listening….that is just not so…..granted the Repubs have the tendency to say stupid stuff more often than Dems….but Dems are no better than their counterparts…..for instance…

Recently Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA) recently said when at a hearing on the possibility of moving 8000 Marines to the South Pacific island of Guam he said:

This is an island that at its widest level is what twelve miles from shore to shore, and at its smallest level location its seven miles between one shore and the other. Is that correct? […] My fear is that the whole island will become so overly populated that it will tip over and capsize.

He is worried about the island capsizing….think about that for a minute…..

See Dems can be just as ignorant as the Repubs……he tried to explain it a way by saying that he was speaking metaphorically…….

This is the man that someone elected to go to Washington…just goes to illustrate that you do not have to know anything to be a politician….just get the votes and you can have the job……

Sorry folks about I would like my rep to be at least as smart as a 5th grader…..

Why Party Politics? (It Is Human Nature)

Inkwell institute

Professor’s Classroom

Subject:  Political Theory

Paper #8

NOTE: Before I go into the concept of party politics I would like to say that this series started off as a post on the electoral college and has morphed into a massive undertaking because each post begets yet another posts….the great exchanges I have in my comments makes me think about the system and its components and because of that thought process more and more posts come out…I just hope that these simplistic definitions do what they are written to do….inform and educate as best as I can…..

Now onward and upward…the brain worms need nutrition……they feed on my mental energy…..and of course, CAFFEINE……

Where to start is the first question I asked myself and Duverger’s Law seemed like the most obvious place……

Duverger’s law is a principle which asserts that a plurality rule election system tends to favor a two-party system. This is one of two hypotheses proposed by Duverger, the second stating that “The double ballot majority system and proportional representation tend to multipartism”The discovery of this tendency is attributed to Maurice Duverger, a French sociologist who observed the effect and recorded it in several papers published in the 1950s and 1960s. In the course of further research, other political scientists began calling the effect a “law” or principle. Duverger’s law suggests a nexus or synthesis between a party system and an electoral system: a proportional representation (PR) system creates the electoral conditions necessary to foster party development while a plurality system marginalizes many smaller political parties, resulting in what is known as a two-party system.

With that said I move on……..my intention was to talk about party politics but after much thought on the subject I realize that Human Nature would play a major role in the concept of party politics…..I shall continue from that aspect….

Almost all political theorists and thinkers have tackled the subject of human nature……some are far fetched, at least in my opinion, and then there are a few that I think are pretty spot on……like Rousseau, Marx and others….but please hold the comments…because I found Marx’s view on human nature a good one does in any way make me a follower….just as my fascination with Hitler’s jet propulsion research does not make me a Nazi…..

First I will turn to Rousseau…..his Second Discourse by proposing that humans had once been solitary animals, and had learned to be political. The important point about this was the idea that human nature was not fixed, or at least not anywhere near the extent previously suggested by philosophers. Humans are political, and rational, and have language now, but originally they had none of these things.

Then there is Marx……It is often believed that he denied that there was any human nature, and said that human beings are simply a blank slate, whose character will depend wholly upon their socialization and experience. It is true that Marx placed enormous importance on the view that people are influenced and, in part, determined by their environments.

These two are very simplistic in their definition but I wanted to spare the reader from any mental pauses while reading…..more to the point is that every individual will have an opinion on what constitutes human nature…your personal views influence how you think of society and ultimately how you view politics…..to illustrate my point I will show how different political leanings view human nature………below are the 5 major political groupings……

Conservative:  are people (human beings) who are limited and self-seeking , drawn to the unknown, the familiar, the tried and the tested.  They also believe that human rationality is unreliable and morally corrupt…….(sounds like a pragmatist, huh?)

Liberal:  views human nature as a set of qualities that is of the individual, with social and historic conditioning is virtually non-existent.  Man is self-seeking and self-reliant creatures; that are governed by reason and are capable of personal development, especially through education…..(could explain why most intellectuals are liberal)

Socialist:  Humans are social creatures, the capacities and behavior are shaped more by nurture than of nature; they have the propensity for cooperation, sociability and rationality which leads to more human development and personal growth…..

Anarchist:  have an optimistic view of human nature—humans are either have a strong inclination towards, gregarious, and cooperative behavior, being able to maintain order through collective effort.  or to be self-interested but rationally enlightened.

Fascist:  believe that humans are motivated by the will and other non-rational drives, mostly by a deep sense of social belonging focusing on race or nation.  And the masses are fitted only to serve and obey.  They believe that the masses are capable of personal regeneration through dedication to a national or racial cause.

I would like to thank Andrew Heywood for his book entitled, “Political Ideologies” for the assistance on the human nature of different ideologies.

Remember the above explanations are a very simple interpretation but they are characteristics of the different political leanings.  And once again I remind my readers that the definition is far more complex than I have shown….I did so in the hopes to stimulate others into more research……..

2010 Easter Comment

The year is speeding along…seems like yesterday I was wishing everyone a Happy New Year….and look…in a blink it is Easter…..

First, do you know what I am giving up for Lent?……..(pause)…..Nothing!…I am not a Catholic……..

I would like to once again to thank my readers for their participation….they make the hours of reading and research all that worthwhile………a special thanx to Quin, Terrant and Chris……I appreciate all the thought provoking comments….

I wish that everyone have a great day and enjoys family, friends and food….I am taking a short pause from the mental masturbation and I will be back Monday……

More Sex Studies (Go Figure)

From time to time I bitch about the endless studies that we hear about almost daily…….some are good (I guess) and others seem like a waste of time and money….below are two more to add to the endless array of studies….but if you can get grant cash for a study, then SEX would be the ideal study….

The sexually transmitted disease gonorrhea risks becoming a drug-resistant “superbug” if doctors do not devise new ways of treating it, a leading sexual health expert said.

Gonorrhea is a common bacterial sexually-transmitted infection and if left untreated can lead to pelvic inflammatory disease, ectopic pregnancy and infertility in women.

Globally, the WHO estimates that there are at least 340 million new cases of curable sexually transmitted infections — including syphilis, gonorrhea, chlamydia and trichomoniasis — every year among people aged 15 to 49.

Ison said the highest incidences of gonorrhea were in south and southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, but as yet the WHO has no breakdown by individual infection type.

Current treatment for gonorrhea in most countries consists of a single antibiotic dose of either cefixime or ceftriaxone.

So gentlemen, keep an eye on the prize……a sick wnkie has NO chance to reward….

Could there possibly more?  You bet your scrotum there is……

The number of head and neck cancers linked to a virus spread by oral sex is rising rapidly and suggests boys as well as girls should be offered protection through vaccination, doctors said Friday.

Despite an overall slight decline in head and neck cancers in recent years, cases of a particular form called oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) have increased sharply, particularly in the developed world.

This growth seems to be linked to cancers caused by the human papillomavirus (HPV), scientists said in a report in the British Medical Journal.

More than 500,000 cases of cervical cancer are diagnosed annually in women and it kills around 200,000 a year. Head and neck cancer is the sixth most common cancer among men and women, with about 640,000 new cases each year worldwide.

A recent study found the risk of developing oropharyngeal carcinoma was linked to a history of six or more lifetime sexual partners, four or more lifetime oral sex partners, and, for men, an earlier age at first sexual intercourse.

“Sexual transmission of HPV — primarily through orogenital intercourse — might be the reason for the increase in incidence of HPV related oropharyngeal carcinoma,” wrote Mehanna.

Thanx to Reuters for the above articles……

These types of studies just suck all the fun out of SEX (pun intended)……