Month: October 2011

The Right To Work

A friend of Info Ink, Terrance of Sibboleth (go to blogroll and enjoy his site) who lives in Michigan…this post is for him and the state in which he lives…..

Michigan should not adopt a right-to-work law in an attempt to address its economic challenges, a new Economic Policy Institute paper finds.  In ‘Right to work’: The wrong answer for Michigan’s economy.

Sadly, this is not about a person sacred right to a job, but rather the state of employment in the Southern states, most notably…….A couple of years a go I did a post on the “right to work” and it has been getting a bit of traffic on it recently….the comments that I have gotten seem to show that not many people realize what the “right to work” really means…..

Let me help with the assistance of the Economic Policy Institute…..

Right-to-work (RTW) laws make it illegal for employees and employers to negotiate a union contract that requires all employees who benefit from the contract to pay their fair share of the costs of negotiating it.  RTW laws are designed to undermine unions’ bargaining strength, and their primary focus is the manufacturing industry.  Currently, 22 states have RTW laws.

RTW laws have no impact on the performance of state economies.  Seven of the 10 highest-unemployment states are states with RTW laws, including Nevada and Florida, which have unemployment rates higher than Michigan’s unemployment rate of 10.5%, and South Carolina, which also has an unemployment rate of 10.5%.  Factors other than RTW laws, such as major industries and climate, shape states’ economies.

RTW laws lower wages for union and non-union workers by an average of $1,500 a year and decrease the likelihood employees will get health insurance or pensions through their jobs.  By lowering compensation, they have the indirect effect of undermining consumer spending, which threatens economic growth.  For every $1 million in wage cuts to workers, $850,000 less is spent in the economy, which translates into a loss of six jobs.

RTW is not something that looks out for the working people of a state….it does however that the corporations want it…….it does nothing to expand the services that the state has promised to give to the residents…..it does nothing to increase the quality of life for the residents…..it does however give politicians a great source of income from the corporations that the states favor…..

If you like the idea of RTW…then by all means check out my state, Mississippi….there is NOTHING good that has come out of RTW….low wages, bad health care, poor education….to mention only a few….and then after checking it out….tell the politicians in your state just what you think of RTW!

A Real Jobs Plan

Sunday…last day of mental cleansing……

Unfortunately, I could not get away from the politics of the day….everybody has a jobs plan….well everybody but congressional GOP…..but few have a chance of passing the smell test…..but I found one that just makes sense (it is sarcasm)……

In the name of job creation, Florida state Rep. Ritch Workman (R) filed a bill this week to bring back “dwarf tossing,” the “barbaric and dangerous barroom spectacle that was imported from Australia and thrived briefly in Florida before it was outlawed in 1989,” the Palm Beach Post reports.

Said Workman: “I’m on a quest to seek and destroy unnecessary burdens on the freedom and liberties of people. This is an example of Big Brother government. All that it does is prevent some dwarfs from getting jobs they would be happy to get.”

And the Left is bitching that the Repubs do not have a jobs plan…see how wrong people can be?

The Magical Mystery Trip

It is the weekend and as usual I find cool stuff that has absolutely NOTHING to do with the silliness we call politics…..

This post is NOT about a basketball team or David Cooperfield making Trenton disappear….it is about something that all of us old hippies know all too well……the MUSHROOM!  Not button….or the portobello….or oyster…..nope the best mushroom around…..the psilocybin mushroom!  How many hours did you spend in a cow pen searching through the pies for the magic?

We all know, if you were a member of the hippie culture just how wonderful the experience can be……but is it?  Or was it just a good high?

All that hippie stuff about opening your mind may have some truth to it. Scientists have found that psilocybin, the drug in “magic mushrooms,” can improve one aspect of a subject’s personality: her “openness.” In a trial, nearly 60% of subjects who were given one dose of psilocybin saw a positive personality effect—and one that lingered for more than a year, USA Today reports. Scientists gathered 51 healthy volunteers, most of whom considered themselves “spiritually active”; they spent a series of eight-hour sessions lying down with blindfolds and music playing through headphones. They were given psilocybin in only one of the sessions, and neither the subjects nor the attending monitors knew which one. “This study shows that psilocybin actually changes one domain of personality that is strongly related to traits such as imagination, feeling, abstract ideas, and aesthetics, and is considered a core construct underlying creativity in general,” says a researcher. And the increased openness didn’t fade during 14 months of follow-ups.

See we old hippies and aged leftists knew a good thing……peace!

You Want Scary?

The rightwing media has been scaring the piss out of the American people for years now……..Obama is a secret Muslim….Obama is a socialist…..Obama wants to brainwash your kids….brainwashing ….now there is a good subject for a post…..Beck, Limbaugh, Huckabee,  et al have been giving all kinds of scenarios….but brainwashing is my favorite…..

After all the scary stuff these whack jobs have been throwing at us….there is a new one that really scares me to no end……Newser is reporting on this scary scenario……

If you think Sesame Street is too left-wing, Glenn Beck agrees with you—and he’s offering an alternative on his Internet channel GBTV. Beck won’t be hosting Liberty Treehouse, which debuts Monday, but the hour-long show will share his channel’s conservative sensibilities, and won’t shy away from dealing with politics, Politico reports. Much of the show’s content resembles Nickelodeon fare, with segments on science and issues like bullying as well as a large block of children’s news. “Liberty Treehouse will not only entertain children and young adults, but it will respect them and their knowledge and passion for history, art, science and current events,” Beck says. Critics, however, say it’s hypocritical of Beck to move into children’s programming after all his ranting about progressives indoctrinating the young. “I imagine the show will be a sort of anti-Sesame Street, which Beck probably thinks is a socialist-Islamist plot concocted by Frances Fox Piven and the Ayatollah in the 1970s,” scoffs Alexander Zaitchik, author of Common Nonsense: Glenn Beck and the Triumph of Ignorance.

Can you just imagine the misinformation that will be taught to the young?  These are impressionable minds and the stuff he will force feed them will last a lifetime and impact our society in more ways than we can imagine and NONE of them good…..so if you want scary….how is this?

Advice For The OWS Crowd

I feel rejuvenated by the movement that is underfoot…..it makes me think of days gone by…the 60’s and 70’s…….it does my old radical good to see that all is NOT lost…that Americans, especially the young, still have the balls to face down the government in times of crisis…….

I want to give them some sage advice from the my days on the protest lines….first, recall back about 3 years ago and the original Tea Party….Ron Paul and his supporters were very local and very successful in their attacks on the staus quo……..and then because they were so successful the corporate think tanks and PACs began taking over the message and co-opted it into the extreme and sometimes racist group that is in the forefront now…..

I had been sitting in front of the PC trying to find the words and the method for me to issue my advice without sounding like some condescending asshole….I have been trying  for a couple of weeks and each one of my drafts sounded more like a sermon than some good advice….but the internet to the rescue…..then I found an article written by Andrew Gavin Marshall…….

While I fully endorse the efforts and actions of the Occupy Wall Street protests, now emerging internationally, there are concerns which need to be addressed and kept in mind as the movement moves forward.The process through which a potentially powerful movement may be co-opted and controlled is slight and subtle. If Occupy Wall Street hopes to strive for the 99%, it must not submit to the 1%, in any capacity.

The Occupy movement must prevent what happened to the Tea Party movement to happen to it. Whatever ideological stance you may have, the Tea Party movement started as a grass roots movement, largely a result of anti-Federal Reserve protests. They were quickly co-opted with philanthropic money and political party endorsements.

For the Occupy Movement to build up and become a true force for change, it must avoid and reject the organizational and financial ‘contributions’ of institutions: be they political parties, non-profits, or philanthropic foundations. The efforts are subtle, but effective: they seek to organize, professionalize, and institutionalize a movement, push forward the issues they desire, which render the movement useless for true liberation, as these are among the very institutions the movement should be geared against.

Read his full article here……http://t.co/aMP56eTI

It is a very good piece and plenty for the OWS protesters to consider….Please do NOT let the “man”  take over the movement….for when that happens we all will lose…..STAY STRONG…….STAY FOCUSED……STAY PEACEFUL…..and watch your backs!

The Fat Tax Cometh

The media is full of what I call “butt-in-skys” or some may call them “bleeding hearts”….these are the people in the media and elsewhere that seem to think that they know what is best for the people….and they would go to any lengths to have their wills be law……the most recent is Mika of Morning Joe on MSNBC…..she is on her high horse about obesity….she sees some sort of conspiracy behind every hamburger….her biggest bitch is the cost to health care….but if people live longer the chances of a more horrendous disease and deaths rises….I guess if I was making millions and had time to run and buy the best organics I might be a prude also……

But please!  Stop it!  Anytime government takes over our lives the sooner we lose all forms of free choice…..Mika’s thing is a sugar tax on sodas and such….but I will bet she will see the good in Denmarks new law….a Fat Tax!

An extra 39 cents on a pack of butter. Twelve cents on a bag of chips. Denmark has become the latest country to levy a “fat tax” (Hungary has a similar one), adding about $1.32 in cost per pound of saturated fat in any food that contains more than 2.3% saturated fat, reports the Guardian. The tax is expected to raise some $220 million a year and cut saturated fat consumption by close to 10%. The country already banned the use of trans fats in foods, back in 2004. Ironically, despite Danes’ reputation for being big fans of butter and bacon, the country is relatively slim, with a 10% obesity rate, well below the European average of 15% (not to mention the United States’ 33%). “All these things need to be looked at, but saturated fats have a higher calorie content than carbohydrates. I don’t think you can do everything all at once,” said a doctor who used to be chairman of a national obesity group.

I am sorry but the government inserting itself into my eating habits is bullsh*t!  What’s next?  A law telling us the benefit of eating straw?  Think I joke?

The federal government wants to restrict schools from serving peas and corn to America’s schoolchildren. But that idea isn’t producing many ho-ho-hos in Minnesota, the No. 1 grower of the green peas and sweet corn that schools serve.In January, the U.S. Department of Agriculture proposed new rules aimed at boosting healthy foods in the school nutrition program. What raised eyebrows were the strict limits proposed for “starchy vegetables” – potatoes, peas, lima beans and corn.

Under USDA’s plan, a high school would be limited to serving one cup of “starchy vegetables” a week. That’s one meal’s worth.

So it is either straw or a piece of cardboard…..what is next on the list of “bad for you” foods?

In closing I would like to share something a friend sent me in an e-mail……

Japanese eat very little fat and suffer fewer heart problems than Americans…….

Mexicans eat a lot of fat and suffer fewer heart problems  than Americans…..

Chinese drink very little red wine and suffer fewer heart problems than Americans…..

Italians drink a lot of red wine and suffer fewer heart problems than Americans…..

Germans drink a lot of beer and eat lots of fats and have fewer heart problems than Americans…..

Conclusion:  Eat and drink what you want.  Speaking English is apparently what…..KILLS YOU!

Amendment 26

In the past I have written much and some have even said that I have been bad-mouthing Mississippi…..I guess I can see their points but I live in the state and have worked for the state and who better than me to write about the state?

This will be a post on abortion……there are many ways to debate the position whether pro or con…….I am not debating about the act of abortion whether good or bad…..I am talking about a new amendment that is being offered up to the people as an amendment to the state constitution……..

My daughter first brought this to my attention and thought I should write about it but I was hesitant…..for I believe that the act is a personal decision and therefore none of anybody’s business……but this new amendment has misogynist written all over it….and that is why that I decided to post on it….that and the fact that some mental midget came by my house and did everything but physically attack me because of my stand…..

This is the wording of the amendment……

Be it Enacted by the People of the State of Mississippi: SECTION 1. Article III of the constitution of the state of Mississippi is hereby amended BY THE ADDITION OF A NEW SECTION TO READ: Section 33. Person defined. As used in this Article III of the state constitution, “The term ‘person’ or ‘persons’ shall include every human being from the moment of fertilization, cloning or the functional equivalent thereof.” This initiative shall not require any additional revenue for implementation.

So are these people saying cloning of humans is acceptable?

Now here is the staff of the 26 effort……

Brad Prewitt, Executive Director – brad@yeson26.net – (662) 401-3431

Greg Sanders, Deputy Executive Director – greg@yeson26.net – (662) 523-6722

Jacob Dawson, Media/Website/Mail Coordinator – jacob@yeson26.net

Field Directors:

Phillip Morris, Northeast MS Field Director – phillip@yeson26.net – (662) 538-3422

Reid Guy, Central MS Field Director – reid@yeson26.net – (601) 506-3660

Rev. Joseph Parker, African-American Coordinator and Campaign Chaplain – jparker@afr.net – (662) 260-9123

Corey Ruffin, South MS Field Director – corey@yeson26.net – (601) 433-1130

I hate to be a downer….but where are the women leaders that feel this is a great idea?

Even Maddow of MSNBC has taken on this subject…..watch her segment…..it gets to the amendment after a while…….http://on.msnbc.com/nSfpo1

Now there are a lot of things that need to be addressed for the state of Mississippi like education, health care, poverty…….many things…… pick a list of states…..Mississippi is almost always at the top of bad situations and the bottom of good situations….so sorry but this is NOT something that needs to be addressed at this time…..and the politicians that are all for this amendment would be all for a pro choice one if it would help them get elected……

Remember these are the same people that hate welfare and medicaid and refuse to see the need for any form of rights for women in the state…a state which leads the country in misogynist thought….women are to be seen NOT heard in Mississippi!  Or that 46% of Repubs polled say that inter-racial marriage should be illegal and 14% say they are not sure (personally, I think these think it should be illegal and answered as they did so they did not sound like a racist)…..and then these are the same voters that will bitch and moan about smaller government with less intervention…..it is all so damn silly!  Either Americans have free choice or not and my guess it is….we do NOT!

Mississippi is the most conserv state in the union and for that reason this amendment will probably pass…..all I can say is think about the damage the 18th amendment did to the US……so do NOT be surprised when the government interferes into your life even more….this is NOT the end of the government telling you what you will do….by law!  This is ALL about Roe v Wade and the right’s campaign to have it repealed…this is a religious issue…no matter how they package it.

The really sad thing about all this is once it passes the state will still have low wages, bad health care, high poverty, lacking education and all that will be accomplished is to massage the egos of people that care NOTHING for what is needed in the state of Mississippi.  Letting religion run the state or country is NEVER a good idea.

Amendment 26 does NOTHING for the state….it just lets people who cannot mind their own business feel good about themselves.  Lets quasi-religious morons tell people what to do and think….and there is where I have my biggest problem.  If you ignore this turn of events then hold your horses because it is a good chance that if it is effective that it will be coming to a ballot near you.

For the record…I am OPPOSED to abortion….with that said…..it is NOT my decision to make and it is DEFINITELY NOT the governments decision to make!  Unless you live in Mississippi!

And The Demands Are!

Looks like today is …..all occupation, all day……

Too many people have said that the occupation is just not all that….why?  The protesters have not given a list of demands or principles for what they are doing……..personally, I think that this is an organic movement that shows the utter frustration of the young and the middle class……but still there are those who feel that the movement MUST have demands for what they are doing….

It seems that a movement without leaders took all the bitching to heart and somewhere within the bowels of the protests someone issued a list of demands….and these are:
The “Occupy Wall Street” protesters have listed 13 proposed demands from their website.

Demand one: Restoration of the living wage. This demand can only be met by ending “Freetrade” by re-imposing trade tariffs on all imported goods entering the American market to level the playing field for domestic family farming and domestic manufacturing as most nations that are dumping cheap products onto the American market have radical wage and environmental regulation advantages. Another policy that must be instituted is raise the minimum wage to twenty dollars an hr.

Demand two: Institute a universal single payer healthcare system. To do this all private insurers must be banned from the healthcare market as their only effect on the health of patients is to take money away from doctors, nurses and hospitals preventing them from doing their jobs and hand that money to wall st. investors.

Demand three: Guaranteed living wage income regardless of employment.

Demand four: Free college education.

Demand five: Begin a fast track process to bring the fossil fuel economy to an end while at the same bringing the alternative energy economy up to energy demand.

Demand six: One trillion dollars in infrastructure (Water, Sewer, Rail, Roads and Bridges and Electrical Grid) spending now.

Demand seven: One trillion dollars in ecological restoration planting forests, reestablishing wetlands and the natural flow of river systems and decommissioning of all of America’s nuclear power plants.

Demand eight: Racial and gender equal rights amendment.

Demand nine: Open borders migration. anyone can travel anywhere to work and live.

Demand ten: Bring American elections up to international standards of a paper ballot precinct counted and recounted in front of an independent and party observers system.

Demand eleven: Immediate across the board debt forgiveness for all. Debt forgiveness of sovereign debt, commercial loans, home mortgages, home equity loans, credit card debt, student loans and personal loans now! All debt must be stricken from the “Books.” World Bank Loans to all Nations, Bank to Bank Debt and all Bonds and Margin Call Debt in the stock market including all Derivatives or Credit Default Swaps, all 65 trillion dollars of them must also be stricken from the “Books.” And I don’t mean debt that is in default, I mean all debt on the entire planet period.

Demand twelve: Outlaw all credit reporting agencies.

Demand thirteen: Allow all workers to sign a ballot at any time during a union organizing campaign or at any time that represents their yeah or nay to having a union represent them in collective bargaining or to form a union.

Now the media and those that are concerned about the lack of demands can now eat and sleep in peace…..yes, we have demands!  Any thoughts?  Are these demands realistic?  Are these just a lumping of causes just to shut the critics up?  Thoughts?

Protests To The Right, Protests To The Left

Intro:  This was written back in August and saved as a draft because there was much going on and I just never got around to publishing it…….

I will not be writing about the riots in London and the possibility elsewhere.  I want to establish here and now….because there seems to be some confusion about my stance….that the riots in London were committed by thugs and criminals and NO where should that be condoned, regardless of what lead to the civil dissension it quickly went from something into a orgy of thugs and thieves…..none of which will do anyone any good.

We have all seen the photos and the footage of the horrible riots that tried to burn down London…again committed by criminals…..and there are some in the US saying that it could happen here….most notably those radical right “people” that are doing everything possible to stir up a brainless majority against the government…..but in rational thought or should I say, “In Saner Thought” (damn that would be a great name for a blog) let us look at conditions here in the good old US of A…..

Michael Synder of BLN.com always seems to have a list to help explain things….I like that….we Americans can understand things better with a list…..

#1 Going to the state fair used to be such a fun thing for American families to do.  But now no place is safe.  The following is how one local ABC News affiliate described the “flash mob” attacks that took place at the Wisconsin state fair recently….

Milwaukee police said that around 11:10 p.m., squads were sent to the area for reports of battery, fighting and property damage being caused by an unruly crowd of “hundreds” of people. One officer described it as a “mob beating.”

Police said the group of young people attacked fair goers who were leaving the fair grounds. Police said that some victims were attacked while walking. They said others were pulled out of cars and off of motorcycles before being beaten#2 According to a new Rasmussen survey, 48% of Americans believe that reductions in government spending are “at least somewhat likely” to result in civil unrest inside the United States.  Unfortunately, perception often greatly influences reality.

#3 U.S. consumer confidence is now at its lowest level in 30 years.

#4 Joblessness among young Americans is at an epidemic level, and when rioting does break out it is usually young people that are leading the way.  That is why the following statistics from an article in The Atlantic are so troubling….

One in five Americans are between 15 and 29-years old. And one in five of those Americans are unemployed. For minorities and the under-educated, the picture is much worse. Black teenagers have an unemployment rate of 44 percent, twice the rate for white teens.

#5 We are starting to see mindless violence in a lot of areas that used to be considered safe.  In Kansas City on Saturday night, three young people were hit with bullets as they walked the streets of the Country Club Plaza.  Mayor Sly James was about 50 yards away when the gunfire erupted.  Authorities in Kansas City are considering a stricter curfew for that area.

#6 “Flash mobs” have become such a problem in Philadelphia that the mayor has imposed a strict curfew on young people.  Now all teens between the ages of 13 and 18 must be indoors by 9 o’clock at night.  The mayor also says that teens need to start pulling up their pants….

#7 All over the United States we are seeing that many struggling Americans will do just about anything for money.  For example, in Detroit recently three masked men crashed a vehicle through the entrance of a gas station and took off with an entire ATM machine.

#8 Desperate people do desperate things.  Many of America’s “forgotten poor” are trying to survive any way that they can.  For instance, a group of vagrants recently set up “a makeshift camp” near Prospect Park lake in Brooklyn. According to the New York Post, many nearby residents have been disturbed by what these “drifters” are doing to survive….

#9According to CNN, sales of safes and vaults are absolutely soaring right now.  One store owner told CNN that she believes that she is selling a lot more safes now because people are scared that civil unrest could be coming….

“Folks are worried about the decreasing value of the dollar, burglaries on the rise in their neighborhoods … and even the possibility that the unrest we are seeing in other parts of the world slipping over to our country.”

#10 Over the past 100 years, the American population has moved steadily into our big cities and the surrounding suburbs.  This has created virtual “ghost towns” in our rural areas from coast to coast.  Back in 1910, 72 percent of Americans lived in rural areas.  Today, only 16 percent of Americans live in rural areas.  But when you crowd huge masses of people close together that makes riots and civil unrest much more likely.

There seems to be a few indicators we need to keep an eye on……because any civil disobedience can quickly morph into the orgy of violence that has gripped London…I do not want to be in the same category as those mindless twats that listen to conserv talk radio….but we need to keep a close eye on the situation….it could explode in a moments notice…..

But is there just a few variables that indicate that a mass revolt could be possible?

Yes, there is……..these from stratrisks.com…….

Variable 1.) Volatile Economies There has been far too little guidance from administrations when it comes to our fluctuating economies. They are in place to uphold the status quo, even if that may be a pipe dream. The governmental bean counters and economists have not provided any rational explanations to calm the populace during this colossal economic catastrophe. We have seen the stock market falter, the housing market bubble burst, erosion of the middle-class and crushing debt which burdens us all. What we need is not a speech or a pep rally. What we really need are clearly defined economic goals, tougher rules on risky investment bankers and enforcement on speculators who have turned their business into a political weapon. Most officials won’t have the clout or will to make the changes necessary to get their houses in order.

Variable 2.) Confidence/Trust

Who will trust the conductor who let his train get off the rails? Most people go about their daily lives clueless about the world around them. They rely on their elected civil servants to run the ship while they enjoy the cruise. If the waves are taking the ship off course or their captain can’t lead them properly there will be problems. Government officials are aware of this and that is why there are constantly polling the populace, it is like mother’s milk for them. If the people do not trust their leaders then who will they trust? They may trust the loyal opposition, who might move the masses in a different direction. I like to call them in this science experiment, ‘free radicals’. Those radicals may lead the people to protest or remove the leadership. In Egypt, Tunisia, Jordan, Yemen and Syria they spurred the people to action but what happened to that momentum?

Variable 3.) Foreign Policy, War and Domestic Policing

It is said that Nero fiddled while Rome burned. Today our leadership focuses on fence mending and foreign conquest while the house is exposed to visible dangers. We see the ramp up towards war, watch the bombs being dropped and later see that country being rebuilt with our money. We travel on dilapidated roads and brides, obviously getting the notion that their priorities are not where they should be. Our friends and family members are overseas fighting and dying in unnecessary and causeless wars. Our government officials may glean data through focus groups and polling that we are not trilled with their actions. Instead of directly interfacing with the people they hire more police officers and create a vast domestic intelligence apparatus. This only makes matters worse and the leadership is attacked on all fronts as their actions are unjust. The government is now illegitimate and will be either voted out of office or worse.

There are so many things that are similar in the US to conditions that have lead to a revolution in the past……..and as things get worse….and they will get worse….the closer we move to a popular uprising in form or another…..

Occupy Wall Street is just the beginning……..but the people need to be aware that agitators WILL infiltrate and WILL cause this beginning to end badly……and with violence…….watch your backs!

Is Perry Cain’s Abel?

The media cannot make up his mind….is its Trump or Huntsman or Perry or Bachmann….and now it is Cain, well before they started flicking Christie’s wanker, that is…….but what is all this back and forth about?

Feeling a little deja vu over the latest GOP poll, the one that shows Herman Cain surging as Rick Perry and Michele Bachmann sink? You should, explains Steve Kornacki at Salon, because Republicans have once again embraced the “nuisance candidate.” It’s a pattern they’ve been repeating for a while now, with different candidates in the starring role. Bachmann had her moment, and even Donald Trump took a turn. It speaks to the “comically high ratio between fringe candidates and actual viable contenders.” The pattern goes like this, Kornacki writes: “Some sort of triggering event, followed by an encouraging poll or two, ramped up media coverage, even better poll numbers, a surge in fundraising, even more media coverage, and a sudden consensus that the candidate just might have more staying power than we all thought—at which point the moment would end and it would be someone else’s turn.” And Perry could have saved the party from the latest round if he hadn’t bombed so miserably in the debates. Full column here.

Cain is winning straw polls, at least for now and his 999 tax plan is getting a bit of play, well at least from us bloggers….and the media is on his side….that is when they are not trying to convince Chris Christie that the country cannot survive without his unique brand of conservatism…….but with Perry’s campaign in the crapper will he be the mainstream Repub candidate?  My thought is no.  Thoughts?