We Need a Bipartisan Lottery

This would be one of my dreams. I absolutely, whole-heartedly believe our country would be better off if we adopted this.

The first week of December 2010, the Democratic and Republican chair-people schedule when their primaries and caucuses are going to be. Not where, but when.

Let's say they set it up this way:

First Week of January 2011 - one state

Second Week of January 2011 - one state

Third Week of January 2011 - one state

Fourth Week of January 2011 - three states

and then from there, have one state on Monday and then Super Tuesday the first week of February 2011 with seven states, and it goes from there.

Then do a lottery. And every four years, the lottery happens again, to determine the state order. The order's determined a year in advance so states can get ready. And this way, Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina will stop picking the presidential nominees each year, and our entire energy economy will not be based on corn.

Examples:
I just put 2011 through a simulator and got this order:

1. Connecticut
2. Texas
3. Utah
4. Oregon, Washington, West Virginia
7. Wisconsin
8. (SuperTuesday) - New Mexico, New York, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Vermont, Wyoming

And for 2015, this order:

1. Virginia
2. Louisiana
3. Vermont
4. Montana, Nebraska, West Virginia
7. Connecticut
8. (SuperTuesday) - Alabama, Connecticut, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Texas, Utah

So, it may be some states appear in the top seven two election cycles in a row, but that's different than now, when it's the same states dictating every four years what the rest of the country is going to do.

How dare Sarah Palin be normal!

Politico's Roger Simons assesses her sins.

My 2-1/2 Cents on the Weekend in Politics

MY 2-1/2 CENTS ON THE WEEKEND POLITICS

Cent #1 - Unemployment is now at 9.5%. Joe Biden said everyone underestimated how bad the economy was. (Not everyone...) The stimulus package saved government jobs and created new ones, but the private sector is getting decimated. Yes, Pres. Bush got this thing rolling. Yes, Hank Paulson did his buddies at Goldman Sachs a favor by letting their competitor Lehman Brothers fail. Yes, the Republican Congress failed to act like republicans and enabled Bush on his spending spreee. But after a while, the Obama Administration needs to stop blaming the past when it's doing nothing to help our present and future. Obama's tripled, almost quadrupled the deficit, in the name of "saving" jobs; meanwhile Congress is passing laws that'll increase the size of government but lose more private-sector jobs. And if unemployment hits 11%, they'll report that Obama has "saved" 89% of the jobs in America.

Cent #2 - Sarah Palin is quitting as governor of Alaska in the middle of her first term because of "country first" saying that all the erroneous ethics charges her opponents are throwing at her are wasting the time and money of Alaskans. So her enemies got their way. This seriously damamges her chances and credibility of a 2012 presidential run. The worst thing that could've happened to her was for John McCain to pick her as his vice-presidential running-mate. If he hadn't, she'd still be the most popular governor in the union; she could finish out her term as governor, and then get the ball rolling for a 2012 bid. As is, she was thrust in the limelight, demonstrated she wasn't ready (her Katie Couric interview was her own fault; just name a freaking newspaper!), and she was castigated by her enemies with rare zeal.

But again, her enemies got their way. She's only making Mitt Romney look more presidential.

Cent #2-1/2 - I'm already over Michael Jackson's death. Yes, he was huge, but there were times where I wanted to see what the latest was on Iran or Honduras, and there's someone interviewing Corey Feldman or MJ's former nurse.

Hope you had a good Fourth of July!

Two 2012 GOP hopefuls cheat

Nev. Sen. John Ensign and SC Gov. Mark Sanford have both had to admit to extramarital affairs this week.

So Sarah Palin, Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, Bobby Jindal, Eric Cantor, Haley Barbour, Tim Pawlenty, etc., pay attention.

You are Republican.

Do. Not. Commit. Adultery.

And Newt, you're done. Please don't run.

Throwing around the word 'racist'

Some conservative talkers are calling Sonia Sotomayor a reverse racist for this quote: "I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life."

But if you look at it in context, you see she is clearly not being a reverse racist.

Now a counter I've seen from left-wing bloggers is trotting out some of Rush Limbaugh's old racist quotes. The most famous is his quote from the early 1970's when working as a DJ, he told a caller to take the bone out of his nose and call him back. But there are other quotes that are getting repeated and copied and thrown around that he never said. There's a list out there of Rush's Top 10 Racist Comments, but some of them he never said, and the guy making the list provides no sources. Rush never said we miss James Earl Ray, and he never said that under slavery it was safer to walk the streets after dark.

If people are going to try to smear others, they should have their facts straight, and if their defense is that the other side doesn't care if they have their facts straight, so it justifies them spreading falsehoods, well they have no moral argument.

TOTUS

http://baracksteleprompter.blogspot.com

Political semantics

Some words have had their meanings changed over the past few years in the political world, but as far as I can tell, this is what they really mean.

BIGOT - Someone who disagrees with me.

CONSERVATIVE - Someone who believes in the Constitution, and that the individual is more important the government. And didn't vote for Obama.

FASCIST - Someone who disagrees with me who wants to pass laws about it.

HATE - The only emotion of people who disagree with me.

HITLER - The guy who holds views opposite of mine. And if your views are opposite of mine, guess who you then, by default, agree with?

HYPOCRITE - Someone who reacts one way when their guy does it, but completely opposite when the other guy does it. See also: pundit, reporter, spokesman, talking-head.

INTOLERANCE - How those who disagree with me plan to proceed.

KNUCKLE-DRAGGING - An action reflective of those who disagree with me.

LIBERAL - Someone who believes in the Constitution, and that the individual is more important the government. And voted for Obama.

MODERATE - Someone who believes in the Constitution, and that the individual is more important the government. And would switch parties if it helped him get re-elected.

Perez Hilton vs. Miss California

The Miss USA Pageant, which has received more publicity off this than anything that's happened to them in over a decade, can go down two roads. One road is to warn contestants in advance that all of their opinions must be politically correct or they will be disqualified. The other road can be to no longer invite misogynist judges. It'll be interesting to see what road they take.