Easily the best moment of the night as the chamber gives Congresswoman Giffords a well deserved standing ovation. Fellow Arizona Congressmen Grijavala (a liberal Democrat) and Flake (a conservative Republican) led her into the chamber and helped her stand when she wanted to applaud the President. Perhaps the most touching story though was of Congressman Louie Gohmert, a conservative Republican from Texas. Although they were not always together on the issues, they are friends. In fact they would...

This is a repost of my commentary from last year on the State of The Union speech. this year of course we will have a slightly different take because of the campaign aspects to the address. Both President Obama and Governor Daniels are likely to add more rhetoric and a bit more of a partisan tilt to their speeches. But overall I think the commentary stands As we move closer to the time for the State of The Union speech I am starting to wonder about whether it is really worth debating to discussing....

Word breaking this morning that Illinois Senator Mark Kirk (R) has suffered what is being described as a mild stroke. The senator reportedly checked himself into the hospital and underwent surgery to relieve swelling in his brain. The doctors also diagnosed a carotid artery dissection. Due to his youth the doctors are hopeful about his recovery but the condition is still quite serious. As with Congresswoman Giffords I hope we can put politics aside to wish him a fast recovery.

The US Supreme Court has unanimously ruled that police needed a warrant to track a suspect with a GPS system on his car. In 2005 police attached a GPS tracking device to a jeep driven by suspect Antoine Jones and used evidence from the device to show he was driving around distributing cocaine. Jones appealed his conviction on the grounds that the police needed a warrant to place the device, and accordingly needed probable cause (and it seems in this case it would have been easy to show). The main...

One year after being injured in an assassination attempt, Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) announced that she is resigning to focus on her recovery. Interestingly the announcement was made on Youtube, perhaps the first time such an announcement has been made in that way. In the video she still shows signs of her injury but has made remarkable progress. She calls on members of both parties to work together to find solutions to the problems that we face. It is a shame she could not be running...

Not exactly the best news coming out of Cairo as they announce election results. The only quasi good news is that the super hard liners won 25% of the vote while the ‘moderate’ Muslim Brotherhood got 47%. We shall see how ‘moderate’ they are.

As you probably have read or heard the networks have all projected Newt the winner in South Carolina. So this means he’s won one, Romney has won one and there was one tie. It also means Romney is the only one who has placed 1st or 2nd in all three and it does nothing to change the fact that Romney will be the nominee but will lose in November to Obama. The party leadership is simply not going to allow Newt to be the standard bearer for the GOP and Obama is simply not going to lose in November. I...

ABC did a little article on politicians who have led double lives. It seems they forgot one… or at least there seems to be one politician who has affairs that is missing… Not that huge of a deal but it is kind of odd to me.

Given the attacks from the left on Bain Capital you’d assume they gave tons of money to the GOP. As it turns out, about 70% of their donations went to the Democrats over the last 3 cycles. I’m not sure it’s that big of a deal, businesses always give to both sides and in 2006 and 2008 the trend was to the Democrats. But it does make it harder to paint Bain as a GOP issue.

In a move that is likely to benefit the GOP, the US Supreme Court tossed out a court drawn map in Texas. That map had tossed out one drawn by the Texas legislature. Since the ruling was unanimous it is not possible for the Democrats to argue bias in this case. The ruling stated that the court exceeded its authority in making the changes. Instead it should have only changed district lines where it was likely they violated either the Voting Rights Act or the Constitution and past court rulings. Otherwise...

These pictures are just amazing to me. And consider.. when the light that formed those pictures left the nebula Christopher Columbus was not yet alive and the Plantagenets still ruled England

For those who have not yet discovered it, Downtown Abbey is an absolutely wonderful British produced miniseris along the lines of Upstairs Downstairs. It is set in the early 20th century at an English estate and follows the lives of the upper class family and the servants. Season (or should I say Series) Two is now airing on PBS. There are many great reasons to watch this series (not the least of which is Maggie Smith as the Dowager Lady of the Estate) but for me one of the best aspects is how it...

A European court (the Court On Human Rights) has ruled that the United Kingdom cannot deport a terror suspect to Jordan because the evidence against him might have been obtained via torture. This means that they will either have to charge him in the UK or release him. The suspect in question, Abu Qatada has been a leading spokesman for Al Qaeda and the UK wanted to deport him because of his terror links. This case presents the interesting dilemna between free speech and protecting your nation from...

Another of the many ‘balance the budget’ programs, this time from the NYT I’ll be curious to see how folks tackle this. I presume some will do nothing but spending cuts while others will focus mostly on tax hikes and cutting the military. But it’s a fun exercise

With the primary season underway it is already time for people to speculate the winner in November. Of course this is hardly a new situation; pundits have been trying to predict the outcome of the elections for decades and usually with mixed results at best. In the early 1980′s, a political scientist named Allan Lichtman decided to try and figure out a way to predict the outcome of Presidential elections without having to rely on the polls. Over the last 25 years he has worked to modify and...

Reports breaking this evening that Jon Huntsman will drop out of the 2012 Presidential race and endorse Mitt Romney for the nomination. I can’t say I am surprised but I am disappointed that such a well qualified candidate could not proceed in the increasingly narrow Republican party.

Returns from New Hampshire are showing Jon Huntsman in 3rd place, behind Romney and Paul. The question is whether this is his one moment in the sun or if it will carry over. In theory he is well suited to South Carolina but he has not had much of a presence there. I suspect it will be just a flash for Huntsman but I hope he goes futher. His biggest problem as I see it is that with Romney as the frontrunner the 2nd spot will go to the anti-Romney and Huntsman is not positioned to take that role since...

A great response from Huntsman put into a campaign ad. If only he could get the nomination.

Imagine a math problem that asked if there were 20 jews and 10 of them were gassed, how many jews were left ? Well in Georgia there was a math worksheet not far off that mark. In an attempt to mix math and history the teacher chose one of the most offensive possible ways to do it, using questions like “If 8 slaves picked 56 oranges, how many oranges did each one pick”. I do get the concept of mixing subjects but this is just idiotic (and offensive to pretty much everyone but the KKK).

As we move into the primary season I thought I would repost my earlier musings on why President Obama is likely to retain his title for another four years. The most basic reason for this conclusion is the simple fact that most Presidents win re-election. If you look over the last 100 years or so, there are only a few examples of Presidents losing. In 1912 President Taft lost, but only because the GOP vote was split between Taft and TR. In 1932 President Hoover lost, but only because of a massive...

I haven’t been posting much recently, in part because my primary computer had a mild meltdown and I went ahead and replaced it. In doing so I could not help reflecting on the advances in technology. The laptop I replaced was 5 years old and cost me around $ 1,500 when purchased. The new unit I am now using cost less than half of that and is many times faster with many more features. The same is true of a new Blu Ray player I purchased for Christmas. A few years ago it cost $ 200 or more for...

So says Politico writer Roger Simon

Well I’m not sure if this is news or not but it is a funny image.

Although you should never make too many assumptions in Iowa most current polling suggests that the winner in Iowa will be either Romney or Paul with Santorum likely to come in 3rd. My guess is that Romney will come out on top because the latest polls seem to suggest that the undecided are not ideologues but pragmatists wanting the candidate who can win. Given a choice between Romney and Paul I expect those voters to shift to Romney. Weather is also a factor to consider and while it is hardly going...

Multiple sources are reporting that Nebraska Democrat Ben Nelson will not seek re-election to the US Senate in 2012. This certainly is not good news for the Democrats and their effort to retain control but it may not be all bad. Keeping the Nelson seat was going to be hard and now they can likely write the seat off and focus resources elsewhere. But it does increase odds that the narrow Democratic Senate will become a narrow Republican one in 2013.