Idaho’s Republican contest is closed to non-Republlicans and will be held on March 6, 2012, otherwise known as Super Tuesday. Other primaries that day include Alaska, Georgia, Massachusetts, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Vermont and Virginia.

There are 32 delegates available in Idaho, a caucus state. The Idaho Secretary of State’s website is here. Newt Gingrich has a visit planned.

Gingrich and his wife, Callista, will be at rallies in Kennewick and Spokane on Thursday, and will cross the border into Idaho for a Coeur d’Alene rally Thursday night. On Friday, they’ll be in western Washington, visiting with Republican lawmakers at the state Capitol in the morning before heading to rallies in south King County and Everett.

In previous cycles, the event wasn’t scheduled until May.

Power at the polls will be a new phenomenon in Idaho, thanks to a much earlier vote. The state GOP is switching to a Super Tuesday caucus in March instead of a May primary. The late spring date, behind dozens of other states, has traditionally left Gem-Staters without a say.

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Georgia’s Republican primary will be held on March 6, 2012, otherwise known as Super Tuesday. Other primaries that day include Alaska, Idaho, Massachusetts, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Vermont and Virginia.

The latest polling via the Atlanta Journal Constitution has things tied at the top among three candidates.

Newt Gingrich, 26 percent; Mitt Romney, 24 percent; Rick Santorum, 23 percent.

A Southern state, Georgia is viewed as a test of a candidate’s appeal with the core of the GOP base. It’s also Newt Gingrich’s home state and he has a great deal riding on the contest. If he doesn’t win it, it could mean his bid for the nomination is over. Gingrich himself has played up the significance of winning one’s home state by pointing out Mitt Romney’s need to win Michigan.

It would be all but impossible for Gingrich to justifying remaining in contention if he loses GA, given his comments on Romney and Michigan.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich hinted Sunday that if rival Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney loses the primary election in his home state of Michigan, he should drop out of the race.

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All of the remaining GOP candidates in the 2012 primary can justifiably be criticized for something. There’s no disputing that. At the link below, the Wall Street Journal’s James Taranto takes a look at some specific criticism that’s been prominently directed at Rick Santorum.

After reading Taranto’s well reasoned arguments, it’s hard to conclude anything other than it’s much ado about nothing, or liberals in the media telling us to not believe our lying eyes and brains.

Fear and Feminism Some criticism of Rick Santorum is downright irrational.

Of late we have been struck powerfully by one such complication, namely the emotional intensity of the opposition to Santorum by some on the center-right. This has led them to criticize him on grounds that are utterly irrational.

In truth, Santorum says only that he would “talk about” what he sees as the social harms of contraception. There is no conflict whatever between limited government and moral exhortation, provided the latter is unaccompanied by legislative or administrative action.

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John Paul Thornton of Decatur, AL, has filed an application for a PAC designed to tap into the Occupy Movement.  Thornton, according to the local CBS affiliate, said he was watching The Colbert Report when he came up with the idea. “This PAC is for everyone and if they want to contribute they are more than welcome. This is going to be uber-transparent down to the cent.  It will be egalitarian and democratic,” explained Thornton.

So who’s Thornton?  If he’s the same fellow in this article from the Decatur Daily (same name, same age, same location) – he’s a mental health worker with serious alleged mental health troubles himself.  The Thornton described by the Daily is a former member of the Alabama National Guard. Upon coming out from the National Guard, he apparently began acting erratically – so erratically that his family tried to have him involuntarily committed.  A local doctor wrote a note to the court explaining, “He has become verbally aggressive, verbose, talking rapidly, changing topics quickly, and (he) describes grandiose adventures in his duties as a current member of the Alabama National Guard.”

In 2008, John Paul Thornton of Decatur, AL was sentenced to 60 days in jail for a DUI, and also allegedly violated a protection order.  Thornton’s father wrote a note to the police chief telling him he was afraid his son might hurt somebody; the jail put him on suicide watch. The family believed he wasn’t getting the proper mental health treatment. Thornton’s mother promptly nailed a cross to the top of the fence in backyard and sat on a ladder next to it to protest his lack of mental health treatment. (more…)

There’s talk that it’s Rick Santorum who is currently under the gun, not Mitt Romney.  He can write a check to himself, if need be, while Santorum must win Michigan and Ohio to make the case that Romney has a mid-West problem which warrants additional support for Santorum as a preferred alternative.

Erick Erickson reported on Twitter that Romney will not participate in the CNN debate in Georgia before Super Tuesday.

The big money players behind the Super PACs of all the candidates have agreed to come together to fund a general election PAC, regardless of the nominee.

The general election could come down to the GOP winning Ohio, Virginia and Florida.

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The final CNN debate, scheduled for March 1 in Georgia, has fallen apart. Mitt Romney’s campaign announced today that he wouldn’t join the debate. Ron Paul quickly announced he’s out, too, as well as Rick Santorum.  CNN cancelled the debate after the pullouts, announcing, “Without full participation of all four candidates, CNN will not move forward with the Super Tuesday debate.”  Newt Gingrich didn’t pull out, but he can’t monologue on CNN, as much as he would like to.

There’s a good political reason for Romney and Santorum to pull out: they have nothing to gain. Santorum is running far ahead of where he thought he would be at this point in the race; Romney doesn’t want to give Santorum any more ammunition. Ron Paul would rather spend time fundraising and wearing tinfoil hats.

The big question is: now the debates don’t matter?  For months, all we heard was that debates were the best way to select our candidates.  On that basis, we ousted Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry. Now debates have taken a backseat to basic campaigning.

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Alaska’s Republican primary caucus will be held on March 6, 2012, otherwise known as Super Tuesday. Other primaries that day include Georgia, Idaho, Massachusetts, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Vermont and Virginia.

In preparation for Alaska, Mitt Romney launched a steering committee, which includes less than conservative favorite, Senator Lisa Murkowski. The full list is available at Romney’s website. There are 27 delegates at stake.

Mitt Romney may be taking a whipping from the far right flank of the Republican Party this week — first, across the Midwest in the Colorado and Minnesota primaries, and continuing currently at CPAC 2012 — but he’s already looking toward Super Tuesday and the bevy of delegates up for grabs in March, including those of Alaska.

Romney on Thursday announced members of his Alaska Steering Committee. And there a few major league Alaska politicians and other civic leaders going to bat for the former Massachusetts governor.

Romney won Alaska in 2008, receiving 44% of 14,000 votes cast for a total of 12 delegates. Senator John McCain finished last behind Huckabee and Paul, who is said to still have strong support in the state. Romney won it as the not John McCain, which suggests there’s no guarantee that he’ll win it again this year as the current GOP moderate and supposed front-runner.

Alaska’s delegates are poised to play a surprisingly big role in the 2012 race. The 49th state’s true-blue Republicans were faithful to the party leadership’s nominating schedule. And while the majority of Alaskans identify as independents, Alaska still maintains a sizable Republican voting bloc and a center-right electorate. In party politics, all these things play well for Alaska.

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Russ Feingold is already criticizing Barack Obama for his reversal on the use of Super PACs. Obama has consistently been on record condemning the process whereby individuals and corporations can donate to a PAC anonymously to support a related campaign.

So much for priorities. Obama’s Super PAC is Priorities USA.

Liberal ex-Sen. Russ Feingold (Wis.) is ripping President Obama’s decision to embrace super-PACs. Feingold, who co-authored landmark campaign finance legislation with Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) to regulate campaigns, said Obama is “dancing with the devil” by deciding to fully support Priorities USA, a Democratic political action committee.

Says Team Obama, we won’t bring a knife to a gunfight. But will they attempt to punch back twice as hard? I’d make book on it, if I were you.

With so much at stake, we can’t allow for two sets of rules in this election whereby the Republican nominee is the beneficiary of unlimited spending and Democrats unilaterally disarm.

Check out the above video of Obama denouncing said Super-PACs.

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As Obama basks in the warm fuzzy glow of positive recent jobs numbers, all the while avoiding the pesky shadow of the soaring national debt, which now has so many zeros I can’t even input it on my calculator. And the negative campaigning for the GOP race has become as messy as a molting Wookie; it’s very easy to become discouraged.

Put down the Ben & Jerry’s, it’s not over. As a matter of fact, it’s only just begun.

With the inundation of negativity abounding for conservatives over our depressing whimpers of lament, here are three reasons you should not give up hope for a big change in November of 2012.

1. “Don’t believe everything you read on the Internet.” ~ Abraham Lincoln

It’s very easy to become convinced through main stream media that all hope should be abandoned.  However, you can always seek out evidence proving otherwise.

Rasmussen Reports produces Daily Presidential Tracking Polls.  Admittedly, this is similar to weighing yourself every day.  Certain circumstances on a day-to-day basis, like a late night left over pizza binge, can affect the numbers greatly.  As of Friday February 3^rd, current GOP front runner Mitt Romney was polling neck in neck with the President at 45% in a potential election match-up.  This is the first time Romney has polled this high against Obama since late in December.  The numbers are issued daily and you can have them delivered directly to your inbox each morning. Defeating an incumbent is never easy, but these numbers show it’s possible.

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Obamacare opponents have been raising red flags around this issue for some time, but today the IRS has finally issued preliminary guidelines for the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. The legislation is expected to cost America tens of thousands of jobs, while also sending some high-end industries overseas. There’s more from the IRS available at the links in text below. That it’s being released on a Friday afternoon is no coincidence.

On February 3, 2012, the IRS and the Treasury Department issued proposed regulations on the new 2.3-percent medical device excise tax (IRC §4191) that manufacturers and importers will pay on their sales of taxable medical devices starting in 2013. Additional information is available in the Medical Device Excise Tax FAQs.

The IRS and Treasury Department request comments on the proposed regulations by May 7, 2012. Comments may be submitted electronically, by mail or hand delivered to the IRS. The preamble to the proposed regulations provides instructions on how to submit comments.

Industry sources have already begun weighing in through press releases of their own. There’s also a detailed analysis of the implications of the proposed guidelines here. (more…)

Other than in South Carolina, 2012 GOP Primary turnout has been somewhat flat, or below that of 2008. Up +3 in Iowa and +6 in New Hampshire, it jumped to +35 in South Carolina but dropped to -14 in Florida. It’s possible that the last minute surge by Gingrich and his debate performances brought some added excitement to the race, turning out voters in South Carolina.

South Carolina, of course, was the strongest state for Newt Gingrich. In contrast, turnout among Republican identifiers was down for Mr. Romney’s two victories so far, as well as for his near-win in Iowa.

While it’s possible to argue that Romney’s negative advertising in Florida lowered turnout, along with the lack of a special real estate-related initiative – one was on the ballot in 2008 – a closer look at the numbers still points to a problem, especially for for Romney.

In both South Carolina and Florida, district-level turnout was more likely to trend up in districts that went to Newt, and flat, or down in ones that went for Romney. Once one looks at party identification, the trend gets even worse.

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In a deal with several moving parts, Conservative favorite Rep. Allen West will move over and run in Rep. Tom Rooney’s old district, as Rooney moves on to run in a newly created district. Additionally, Adam Hasner will drop his Senate bid, leaving a somewhat clearer path for Rep. Connie Mack to run for the Senate nomination.

U.S. Senate candidate Adam Hasner will likely leave the race and run for Allen West’s soon-to-be-vacated Congressional seat, a source tells us. West’s seat looks a lot like Hasner’s old legislative Delray Beach-based district.

Meanwhile, to avoid a bloody primary, leadership in the U.S. House asked Hasner to run for West’s seat. But first, West had to announce he’d leave his seat and run for Tom Rooney’s seat. And before that happened, Rooney had to announce he’d leave his district and run for a new district.

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While blowing all of the inappropriate anti-American, anti-capitalist dog whistles to incite the Left into reflexive action, Dave Zirin at The Nation casts the Super Bowl as basically everything the left hates about America.

Cue angry Union worker: “Upsetting the Super Bowl— I couldn’t care less. This is about my life and my family.” —Lou Feldman, IBEW local 668.” But that’s just the opening salvo. A good Leftist can never go wrong banging on the military, let alone capitalism.

The sheer volume of the Super Bowl is overpowering: the corporate branding, the sexist beer ads, the miasma of Madison Avenue–produced militarism, the two-hour pre-game show. But people in the labor and Occupy movements in Indiana are attempting to drown out the din with the help of a human microphone right at the front gates of Lucas Oil Stadium.

Lest you think the left is merely anti-football, the stakes are somewhat greater than that for them and always political.

The Republican-led state legislature aims to pass a law this week that would make Indiana a “right-to-work” state.

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As Newt Gingrich’s challenge to the anointment of Mitt Romney heats up, the newest line of attack against the erratic former Speaker by the Romneyites is not so much that Newt is unelectable – that’s assumed, and not unreasonably.  It’s that in November the voters will recoil in horror at the Republican presidential ticket, and that Newt will take the GOP’s hopes for the Senate down with him, leaving Obama in total control of the Republic.

There are plenty of problems with a Newt Gingrich nomination – most of them a direct result of Newt’s own antics – but the developing conventional wisdom that he will be toxic to Republican Senate chances may just be totally off-base.  In fact, a Newt nomination could be the best possible thing for winning a GOP Senate majority – ironically because of people who don’t think he has a chance in hell in the general election.

The GOP has great expectations for the Senate in 2012 – winning just four seats (five if Senator Kirk fails to recover from his recent stroke and the Democratic governor of Illinois appoints another Roland Burris as the replacement before his traditional indictment) will capture the World’s Greatest Deliberative Body from the clutches of Harry Reid and the Democrats.

With the Democrat party playing defense on many more at-risk seats, the percentages are in the GOP’s favor.  Moreover, many of the senators up for elections are “conservative Democrats,” which mean flaming liberals who talk a good game about being “fiscally conservative” and “moderate” back home in their blood-red states.  With the Obama economy especially painful in the middle of the country – the administration’s stimulus money disproportionately rewarded the urban and academic communities whose support Obama is unshakeable – it should be a cakewalk not only to grab the majority but press on toward the magic number of 60.

Enter Newt.

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Yesterday, while reacting to the New Hampshire Primary results during his radio program, Rush Limbaugh made one thing clear: Ron Paul is hurting conservative candidates. And Limbaugh made it clear that Paul isn’t doing this by taking up all the conservative votes, rather, he did it by placing 2nd via the votes of people who have little to no interest in supporting Republicans in general. What this means it that once Paul has run his course and helped Mitt Romney win, the people who voted for Paul in the primaries will then either turn around and vote 3rd party or, in some cases, vote for Obama.

Here’s how Limbaugh put it:

The majority of people that voted for [Ron Paul] were not Republican….And what I’ve been told is that [of these] supporters, 40% say they would vote for the Republican nominee, 23% said they’d vote for Obama, and 31% of Ron Paul voters said they would vote third party. So the Ron Paul voters cannot be counted on [as most of them] were Democrats who walked into the New Hampshire primary, picked up a Republican ballot, [and voted for Paul].

The key figure in this is that only 40% of Paul voters said they would go on to support the eventual Republican nominee. It’s important because it’s exactly half number given by Tea Party voters, 80% of which said they will support the nominee whoever he is. And this is what prompted Limbaugh to say “Ron Paul is a conservative killer.” It’s also why Limbaugh contends that Mitt Romney “wants Ron Paul to stay in” the race.

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It’s hardly a secret that the 2012 election is shaping up as a contest between free markets and big government.  And while the choice seems clear in the current political environment, it’s important to recall that government does play a critical role in the development and maintenance of functioning markets.  Yet, as Tea Partiers, Occupiers, and Ron Paul acolytes all note, government has both abdicated that critical role and inserted itself where it does not belong.

If markets were magical places that flourished whenever government disappeared, Somalia would be the world’s leading economy.  Markets are sophisticated mechanisms that enable informed parties to exchange resources, voluntarily, to mutual benefit.  There’s a lot packed into that sentence.  For markets to work, participants must trust the system.  They must believe that they have—or least can access—the information they need to make informed decisions.  They must feel free from coercion—both explicit coercion and unacceptable take-it-or-leave-it offers.  They must trust the inherent fairness of the system, and they must believe that it is possible to enforce the rules of the marketplace by sanctioning cheaters.  The closer an actual market comes to meeting these needs, the better it will function.  The further a market drifts from these goals, the more likely it is to fail.  It is thus absolutely critical that someone—presumably the government—serve as the market referee and the guarantor of market enforcement.

First and foremost, market participants must believe that courts will honor contracts and property rights fairly, dispassionately, and smoothly.  Contracts allow strangers to exchange promises; property allows people to focus on matters in front of them without worrying about possessions that may be out of sight.  In the absence of enforceable contracts and property rights, people could never travel far from home, leverage their assets, or exchange current payment or performance for a promise of future delivery with anyone unfamiliar.  In short, a society that distrusts its courts cannot progress beyond a tribal or a village economy—even if it employs tribal or village markets.

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A politician is described as a “lame duck” once he or she has been defeated or announced their retirement, and is simply finishing out the remainder of their term in office. And even after Nov. elections are over and a large number of Senate and House members are voted out, the lame duck Senators and House members are usually just that – lame. But occasionally, they are fierce because the defeated office holder is bitter and has approximately two months to wreak havoc with his or her vote before leaving DC. When this happens, ideologues will use the time where they’re completely accountable to voters to score points for their side. We saw this after the Nov. 2010 elections when defeated Senators and House members banded together in late Dec. to repeal “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell,” so homosexuals could serve openly in the military. Yet as bad as this is, the opportunities for a lame duck office holder to attack our freedom grows exponentially when said office holder is in the White House, and when he’s an ideologue who hates private gun ownership, the right to self defense, and the 2nd Amendment.

And this brings us to a crucial point. Namely, that if Obama wins re-election in 2012, he will be awarded four years of lame duck status in which to do anything and everything he wants to lessen our ability to own and use guns. He knows he won’t have to answer for it because he will not be running for re-election in 2016.

What would four years of a lame duck President Obama mean for gun owners? The only way to know is to gauge it by the things Obama has done already. In 1995, when pursuing a state level office in Illinois, Obama “endorsed a complete ban on all handguns.” At that time, he also expressed his support for waiting periods for handgun purchases. A “waiting period” is a set period of time, usually 5 to 10 days, which has to elapse between the time an individual buys a gun and is actually allowed to take it home. In other words, customer “X” would pay for a gun on Monday of this week, but would not be allowed to pick it up at the store until Monday of next week. (The foolishness of this scenario is evident when one considers what that waiting period might mean for a female who is being threatened by a violent criminal or sexual predator. She would have to buy her gun then spend the next week, the “waiting period,” hoping the criminal or predator would be willing to wait a week before attacking as well.)

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Not that this should be surprising since Marxists have been behind and involved with in the #OccupyWallSt movement since Day One when the September protests began, but the Neo-Coms in the unionized #OWS movement are now getting more formal advice from their philosophical mentors, the Communist Party USA.

In a lengthy post about the importance of the 2012 on the Communist Party USA’s website, Connecticut Communist leader—and friend of Rep. Rosa DeLauro [D-CT]—Joelle Fishman spends the bulk of her time bashing Republicans, the “right wing” and the Tea Party while going into some detail about the CPUSA’s strong ties to the union movement in Connecticut.

Below are excerpts, not in specific order, of  the Communist leader’s lengthy post.

The doors are wide open in every community for 2012 with nationally coordinated grass roots work by labor and by the American Dream movement as a whole.

This election will be decided by the number of doors knocked on, the number of conversations held, the number of voters who are inspired to become a part of this movement and make a difference.

Where we have clubs that are focused on a neighborhood, door to door election work is made to order as a way to bring out the vote and build a club base. In the example I mentioned, we coordinated our participation through the labor movement. It all started with door knocking to find out what the concerns of the voters were in that ward, and it went from there. And don’t forget to bring voter registration cards along! (more…)

When Gov. Sarah Palin was deciding whether or not to get into the presidential race, Karl Rove was popping up on Fox News to talk about why her skin was too thin for the job. And when Gov. Rick Perry was thinking about his entrance into the race, Rove was Johnny-on-the-spot with reasons why a Perry candidacy would not be viable either.

Now Rove’s moved on to Herman Cain, whose candidacy he’s doing all he can to sink, sidetrack, or otherwise derail.

On Fox News this past Monday, Rove did his best Mr. Rogers imitation by holding up a small dry-erase board with words (and phrases) for the day like “abortion, neoconservative, Afghan policy,” etc.  According to Rove, Cain’s “gaffes” in these areas have rendered him unelectable.

How so? Well, according to Rove: “I think it has created an image of him as not being up to this task. [And] that’s really deadly.”

Of course, it’s important to keep in mind the fact that Rove is an establishment Republican who supports McRomney And if someone really wants to focus on gaffes, they should focus on McRomney’s deception on hiring illegal lawn care workers, his full-blown support of Roe v. Wade not so long ago, his support of the assault weapons ban, his support of the Brady Bill, and his ongoing belief in manmade global warming, among other things.

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