The Atlantic: Alexander Abad-Santos- 'Jon Stewart: Mourns The Miracle That Was Rick Santorum's Campaign'

Source:The Atlantic- comedian Jon Stewart on the miracle that was a Rick Santorum presidential campaign.

Source:Real Life Journal

“During his concession suspension speech on Monday, Rick Santorum said he “was winning in a different way,” which was right in Jon Stewart’s wheelhouse, especially with the Santorum’s odd euphemisms for losing, and patting himself on the back by insinuating his run to second place was as “improbable” and miraculous as they come. Though Stewart doesn’t seem too upset that the “Pennsylvania Prude” is dropping out, you know that there’s a part of him that will miss being able to rip on the fallen nominee. We’ll miss Santorum for that reason, too, but at least our loss was soothed by one of our most favorite things: Jon Stewart figuring out a way to work Herman Cain into the picture..

From The Atlantic

If Mitt Romney represents the brains of the Republican outfit in 2012 (meaning he's the only Republican who has a snowballs chance on a hot day in Florida of winning in 2012) then Rick Santorum represents the heart of the Republican Party. Who speaks for the base of the party, even though they won't give him the nomination. Because apparently Republican still prefer winning and their minds of their hearts.

Source:Fox News- Rick Santorum: "I know I shouldn't of had that extra bottle of scotch before I went out on stage. I can't stop shaking." Actually, I have no idea why he's doing that with his fist.

I’ll say this about Rick Santorum and this is probably the only nice thing I’ll say about Senator Santorum in this post, but at last its true: Rick Santorum ran a hell of a presidential campaign as far as where he started, as someone who wasn’t even expected to make it to Iowa, let alone win it, because he was thought of as a loser who was kicked out of the U.S. Senate by 16-18 point by his own state. He was seen as way too far to the right and keep in mind we are talking about the Republican Party here. So that’s saying something.

I mean Michele Bachmann who didn’t even make to New Hampshire apparently considers pornography and same-sex marriage as our biggest threats to national security. You can’t get to the right of someone like that, she’s so far to the right she couldn’t see Conservatives with a telescope or with X-ray vision. So what Senator Santorum did and accomplished was something pretty impressive.

Rick Santorum came from looking like an ex-politician who’s political career was over, to finishing in 2nd place in the Republican presidential race. Only trailing the frontrunner in Mitt Romney. And came damn close to winning, Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, and Wisconsin. If he wins those four states or just two to of them, he’s still campaigning for President right now, with a competitive shot at the presidential nomination. And had he made those state campaigns about the economy, instead of Jesus Christ knows best how free Americans should live their lives, maybe he wins those states.

But no, that wasn’t good enough for Ricky. Ricky wanted to be the Father of America and yet he runs for President instead. Telling Americans how to live their lives and focusing on social issues in an economy with 8.2% unemployment and he probably should’ve won those states. But remember, we are talking about Rick Santorum here, the leader and champions of big government republicanism. That’s just not in his creed, he believes the number one problem in America is that are too free and need more restrictions.

What Rick Santorum did by dropping out this week, was save his political career. Instead of continuing to campaign and looking like nothing more than a sore loser who doesn’t know when he’s taken too many punches. And leaves options open for himself, like perhaps the vice presidential nomination. Running for President in 2016 and being the frontrunner, or perhaps running for Governor of Pennsylvania in 2018.Or even running for Priest in Pennsylvania as an Italian-Catholic and have the right platform to tell free Americans as immoral we are and need our newly elected father to guide us in how we should live our own personal lives.

To be serious for a second: running for Priest seems to be a job right up Ricky’s ally and something he might actually be qualified for. Instead of trying to run for president in a liberal democratic free society.

Los Angeles Times: Robin Acarian- 'Campaign Gaffes- Is Foot-In-Mouth Disease Always Fatal to Campaigns?'

Source: Watch The Daily- Barry, Bird & Mitt.

Source:Real Life Journal 

"Texas Gov. Rick Perry had his “oops” moment on a Michigan debate stage.

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) mixed up actor John Wayne with serial killer John Wayne Gacy.

And Herman Cain referred to “Ubeki-beki-beki-stan-stan.”

The 2012 Republican presidential campaign has provided a bounty of infelicitous phrasings, wrongheaded assertions and embarrassing gaffes.

There was Perry’s memory lapse on the debate stage, which came to be known as his “oops moment.” 

From the Los Angeles Times 

"It's been a long, hard-fought, and gaffe-prone campaign. And now that it's just about over, it's time to take a look back at the bloopers that helped define the 2012 presidential race." 

From Watch The Daily

Hopefully for Republican Party's sake, they'll decide on their presidential nominee before the cows come home, but they are a little hard to predict right now. They seem about as divided as the Democratic Party in 1972 trying to figure out which leftist they were going to nominate. Between three Senators, Ed Muskie, George McGovern and Hubert Humphrey. The Democrats in 72  settled on Senator McGovern (the Bernie Sanders Democratic Socialist of his time)  

Unless the Obama Campaign is successful in communicating the political gaffes of lets, just for the hell of it say Mitt Romney as their  GOP nominee, (I flipped a coin on that) it would be Mitt Romney, American voters will have forgotten about them, long before the general elections.

Good news that even though generally political gaffes made in presidential primaries aren’t remembered for the general election, whoever the GOP nominee is. They will still be as addicted to making political gaffes, as Jim Morrison was addicted to alcohol or Rosie O’Donnell is addicted to food. 

Mitt Romney in the general election, will most likely say something like: "I’m not that rich, I only drive three Cadillacs, I don’t even own a Rolls Royce. I only own three homes, I’m friends with people who own ten. Really I’m not that rich, attack my friends instead." Mitt could give you the numbers of his super rich friends, they are some of my major contributors.

Or Rick Santorum, if Mitt Romney were to end his presidential campaign right before he’s nominated and Rick becomes their presidential nominee. Well first of all if that happens, Republicans will hand in their Republican affiliation. But if that were to happen, he may say something like: "Women shouldn’t be allowed to work." The GOP candidates right now are addicted to political gaffes. There’s more than enough to go around.

America I’m not sure is the only country in the world with a short attention span, but we have the shortest. Our attention span is a midget, so when some politician says something that five minutes later, they want to kick themselves in the balls for saying, or wish they hadn’t drank that extra scotch before giving that speech (take Rick Perry, to use as an example) they managed to say something else thats ignorant right after that that gets played up as well.

Our politicians and political candidates are only as good as the people who elect them, for the most part. From time to time we get leaders that stood out and look like God, at least in comparison to average Americans. Americans say dumb things all the time. But the difference is most of us aren't politicians and our well, bullshit isn't on the national news or web right after we say it unlike our politicians. Which is why they get to look like the assholes, because they represent the assholes who voted for them.

The Atlantic: Dino Grandoni- 'Jon Stewart Explains Comedy to FOX News'

Source:The Atlantic- The Daily Show with the Real Jon Stewart.

Source:Real Life Journal

“As the brouhaha continues over Rush Limbaugh’s “slut” comment, Jon Stewart took a look at how the right is covering the story, asking, how should Fox News handle the recent dose of Rush-brand hate-mongering? By pointing out that the left has its own hatemonger in Bill Maher, who once called Sarah Palin a bad word himself. Fox’s hosts accuse Maher (and liberals in general) of cloaking their comments in the veil comedy, but Stewart rightly notes that comedians like himself get criticized for racy jokes constantly. He adds that top-rated Fox News isn’t really in the position to call itself anyone’s victim.”

From The Atlantic 

“When Fox News seeks recognition for their reporting on the shooting of Michael Brown case, liberal Hollywood and the network’s number one fan offer their praise.”

Source:Comedy Central- The Daily Show with the Real Jon Stewart.

From Comedy Central 

The only reason for me at least to watch FNC or Fox News Channel and for that matter to be “fair and balanced”, MSNBC prime time on weeknights, is to find out what’s not going on in the world. To get some comic relief and perhaps some ideas for my political satire. Because FNC is basically the RNC, laying out the positions and the spin of the Republican base. And MSNBC prime time Monday-Friday, is basically the mouthpiece for so-called progressive, not liberal (Socialist, if accuracy means anything) Democrats.

The Democrats and so-called progressive (social democratic, in actuality) third-parties, that don’t like President Obama and the Democratic Leadership, because they aren’t “progressive enough” and aren’t Socialists like themselves. Which is what they thought they were getting during the 2008 general elections.

If you’re going to listen to FNC seriously, not to make fun of it, but to actually find out what’s going on in the world, do yourself a big favor: check at least two other credible news sources. Like a good reporter and you better know what that is before you take FNC seriously.

If you’re listening to Megyn Kelly, Sean Hannity, David Asman and others, Bill O’Reilly to a certain extent (but he isn’t as bad as the others)  you’re basically hearing what they want to tell you. What makes their political views look best and you’re hearing a lot of political gossip, that’s designed to hurt Democrats and that’s what you get from Rachel Maddow and Ed Schultz on MSNBC at the expense of Republicans.

I swear I get more facts from The Onion (something I read everyday) than from FNC or Maddow and Schultz.

The Onion is seriously about news satire and doesn’t hide from that and they take stories that are true and make them as funny as possible by adding humor to them. When FNC says “Fair and Balanced”, you should take that as a joke that you would hear from The Onion. Because they are only “Fair and Balanced” to their own side.

The Atlantic: Dino Grandoni- ‘Jon Stewart Shows That Pandering Can be Tricky’

Source:The Atlantic- The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. I hope you get Mr Stewart's point. 

Source:Real Life Journal

“Since every candidate is doing it, pandering may seem pretty easy. But as Jon Stewart discovers, it’s pretty easy to slip up. On The Daily Show we see Newt Gingrich regretting ever saying English is the “language of prosperity” now that he needs Hispanic votes, while Mitt Romney proves he’s no Barack Obama with his rendition of “America the Beautiful.” As for the president himself? Asking for people’s resumes online makes him look no less of a panderer.” 

From The Atlantic 

"This is the reason CNN’s Crossfire is no longer on the air. Jon Stewart shows up these two ignorant political show hosts… 2 against 1, on their own show, and brings to light how these shows “Hurt America.” Thank you Jon for always pointing out political hypocrisy. I hope continuing to broadcast this video helps your voice continue to be heard.” 

Source:Alex Felker- political satirist Jon Stewart on CNN's Crossfire in 2004.

From Alex Felker 

As far as American politicians and their pandering and just the way we are in 2012: a career politician who is not a panderer, would be like a fish out of water, a pilot without a plane, a lawyer who never passed the bar. Career politicians can’t stay in office without the pandering.

I mean imagine a honest politician who only told his or her voters the truth and these are the problems and this is what we need to do to solve them, they would have to go get real jobs, but at least they would be able to tell the truth without having to worry about getting fired for doing just that.

As much as American voters say they want honest politicians and honesty in government, they almost always never vote for it. So as much as Jon Stewart might say it’s the system that’s the problem with American politics and government, it’s the voters who keep voting for and subsidizing that very system.

I think the point that political satirist Jon Stewart was trying to get across to Paul Begala and Tucker Carlson in 2004, is that Begala and Carlson and the hyper-partisans that they represent from the Left and Right, is exactly what’s wrong with America. And they represent the problem with America, at least as it has to do with our political system. With Begala and Carlson seeming to go out-of-their-way to make Stewart’s point with their hyper-partisanship.

Saturday Night Live: ‘Celebrity Jeopardy!: Sean Connery, Burt Reynolds, Jerry Lewis’

Source:Saturday Night Live- welcomes you to Celebrity Jeopardy.

“Alex Trebek (Will Ferrell) gets frustrated when his celebrity guests Sean Connery (Darrell Hammond), Burt Reynolds (Norm Macdonald) and Jerry Lewis (Martin Short) guess only incorrect answers. Aired 12/07/96”  

From Saturday Night Live

Comedian Martin Show always gives a bigger and taller comedic performance, than his last name suggests.

Source:Saturday Night Live- Martin Short, as Jerry Lewis?

As someone who tends to be very flip if not sarcastic, or that’s what I’ve been told, I see myself as humorous. I see something funny and I give a quick off the cuff observation to it. But whatever is close enough, I’ve always had a low-tolerance for stupid questions. And my definition for a stupid question is pretty simple. Any question that someone asks as if they don’t know the answer, that they should know the answer to. “What color is red?” Would be an example of that. Or a question that has the answer in it. Like, what state is Maryland in?

Like the famous question from Ferris Buehler’s Day Off, the high school principal at the bar because he can’t handle the stress of his job. Taking a look at the Chicago Cubs baseball game and asks the bartender “what’s the score?” The bartender answers 0-0. The Principle asks, “who’s winning?” The bartender says the Bears. Or perhaps Da Bears being in Chicago. The Chicago Bears are obviously a football team, but the good thing about stupid questions, is they give wiseass’s like me, the opportunity to give smart answers to stupid questions. The Bears to that question would be an example of a smart answer to a stupid question.

What’s a smart answer? Well if you’re paying attention you already know the answer to the question. Because the answer is in the question. What is a smart answer, which would be like asking what state is Florida in. You follow, hopefully I haven’t lost you yet. It’s a simple concept, but thats another example of a stupid question. Asking a question, again as if you don’t know the answer. That has the answer in the question. But a smart answer would be a clever humorous response to a stupid question.

Or someone saying something dumb, perhaps they weren’t thinking. Not paying attention whatever.
I have about twelve years experience working in customer service. So I’ve heard more than my share of stupid questions from people who just had brain surgery and the doctor forgot to put the brain back in. Or the person was high or drunk, not paying attention and I’ve had plenty of opportunities to give smart answers in response.

If you ever watch SNL Celebrity Jeopardy, its sort of the same thing, but different. Will Ferrell playing Alex Trebek, who does a better Alex Trebek than the real Alex Trebek, has the dumbest celebrities on possible.

Or what SNL sees as the dumbest celebrities they can think of. Even though I didn’t see Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, Jessica Simpson, Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachmann, Michael Moore or Ben Affleck up there. Its more like people like Tom Cruise, Marlin Brando, Sean Connery, Burt Reynolds, and people like that. Who are all fairly intelligent people in real life. But SNL loves to make fun of these people and Trebek asks these people intentionally the dumbest questions possible, but on purpose. Like he’ll show them the color red, Burt Reynolds is wearing a red shirt and Trebek will ask Burt, “what color is red?” And of course Burt blows the question. Or Trebek will ask the panel, “what year is it? Which Holiday comes on December 25th, that involves giving and receiving presents?” And you would think Trebek is asking these people questions about ancient Greek history or something, but they are so dumbfounded.

One piece advice I can give anyone who approaches me or tries to start a conversation with me, including online where I get a lot of less than brilliant questions, which is putting it nicely, like “what does individual liberty or freedom of choice mean?” Again two questions that have the answers in them. And my answers will be like, well its the freedom of choice. “Well what’s that?” The freedom to choose and if they are still dumbfounded.

I’ll ask people online do they speak and comprehend English, should I answers these questions in a different language. My advice for people is to think at least a little bit before asking me something or talking to me. Because I do have a quick lip to things that I consider dumb. And will respond to them in a humorous way. Thats not a threat, just something to keep in mind. But I won’t try to devastate you and use name-calling. But to let you know, you just asked me a dumb question and you may even laugh with my answer.  

You can also see this post on WordPress.

You can also see this post at FreeState Now, on WordPress.

The Atlantic: ‘Jon Stewart to Jon Hunstman: The Hunt is Over!’

Source:The Atlantic- comedian Jon Stewart on Republican presidential candidate Jon Huntsman.

Source:Real Life Journal 

“In the wake of Mitt Romney’s unshocking win in New Hampshire, Jon Stewart took a look at the most interesting showing on Tuesday night: Jon Huntsman’s third-place finish. After dinging Romney for making promises he couldn’t possibly keep and wondering how at this point Ron Paul’s second-place finish can still be dismissed, Stewart eyed Huntsman’s strange celebration for third. At his speech, there was confetti and Huntsman bellowing “Third place is a ticket to ride!” Stewart calls shenanigans on the victory lap when there was no victory, especially since Huntsman moved to New Hampshire and bet everything on winning there. “Even Napoleon came in second at Waterloo,” Stewart reminds Huntsman, in (maybe real?) Chinese.”

From The Atlantic

“Brian Kilmeade (host of Fox & Friends) on Fox News harshly disagreed with 2012 Republican presidential candidate Jon Huntsman while defending candidate and Texas Governor Rick Perry on global warming. The Young Turks host Cenk Uygur sets the record straight.”

Source:The Young Turks- talking to Republican presidential candidate Jon Huntsman.

From The Young Turks 

Jon Huntsman has spent the better of the last six months campaigning for votes in New Hampshire (The “Live Free or Die State) a state that should play well for him and his classical liberal leanings and managed just 17% of the vote. Finishing seven points behind the 2nd place finisher in Ron Paul.

Governor Huntsman was going after the sane vote in the Republican Party. Apparently most of those people voted for him, congratulations. Huntsman is clearly a very sane and common sense presidential candidate: “These are the problems, this is how I would try to solve them”.

Instead of spending years debating the issues and looking for absolute power, Huntsman would actually try to solve problems. I give him a lot of credit for that. His problem however is not only is he in the wrong political party for his politics, (ask Ron Paul and Gary Johnson what that’s like) but he’s looking to appeal to sane, credible, intelligent common sense voters. In a party that’s dominated by Christian-Nationalists.

Jon Huntsman is running for President in a party where a lot of base cares more about a candidates position on condoms, adultery, pornography, same-sex marriage, gambling, than they do who’s got the best economic and foreign policy’s. It’s like searching in a mental hospital for the sanest people there, that don’t work there. Finding a couple of people who are about to be released and then wondering why there are so many crazy people here. It’s a mental hospital, for crying out loud! (To put it mildly)

As Governor Huntsman likes to say on the campaign trail: what were you expecting to find, college professors? And that’s the state of the Republican Party right now, there too many crazy people for a common sense classical liberal or conservative presidential candidate there. Personally, I believe Jon Huntsman would make one hell of a Liberal Democrat. In the sense of what liberalism really is and not how its stereotyped today.

And when the clock finally goes off in Jon Huntsman’s head and he realizes that his time is over in the Republican Party, I believe he should consider a 3rd-party bid. Not to win because that’s not going to happen. But just to let the American voters who are fed up with out two-party system, that there’s other options out there and people who think like them.

Sidewinder 77: Milton Friedman- 'On Self-Interest and Profit Motive'

Source:Sidewinder 77- Chicago University Professor Milton Friedman, giving a lecture in 1978.

Source:FreeState Now 

"This clip is from the 15-part lecture series, "Milton Friedman Speaks" 

From Sidewinder 77

The reason for capitalism or in America the reason for American capitalism, is that in an economy like that, it's assumed that the people can make it on their own if given the opportunity. That there’s a limit to what government can do and should do. 

The whole point of constitutional law and limited government and federalism, that government doesn’t do everything right and when it tries to do too much, like taking so much out of the economy to take care of its people, doing things for the people that they can do for themselves. like run a business, make their own health care decisions, plan for their retirement, decide where to send their kids to school, etc, and you can go down the line, that it becomes expensive, intrusive, and inefficient.  

But if you empower the people to not just make their own decisions, but the right decisions, educated people tend to become free people, which frees up a lot of resources for government to do what we actually need it to do as a free society, like protect and defend. Not try to un our lives for us.