This election season is arguably the most important, and most recent, in history. I have noticed that a lot of statements are being made by the presidential candidates. A lot of these statements are indisputably unfactual, and I know this because I am a fact checker.

Today, more than ever, with candidates making more and more statements, the role of a fact checker such as myself is undeniable. For instance, when a candidate makes a statement, I will fact-check it. I am taking on this monumental task myself and lucky for you that I am, because these candidates are really saying things.

I take this important role seriously. I will offer unbiased, unpartisan fact checking. All I am looking for is facts to check, and when I find them, I will check them. Without bias, because an informed electorate is arguably an important thing. So I will begin by fact checking statements made by Republican presidential candidates in their New Hampshire primary speeches last night. [Read more →]

Tags: politics & government, trusted media & news by Ricky Sprague
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Tags: politics & government, trusted media & news by Alexander Thorburn Hoffman
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FUTURE EDITORIAL: LET NOT THE REACTIONARIES PREVENT PASSAGE OF THE HUMAN ENHANCEMENT ACT

By Thomauridas Krugolliniedowdfried

For all the overhot rhetoric flourish coming from certain counterfeit parties, this Thomauridas Krugolliniedowdfried will show that the Human Enhancement Act recently proposed by SenReps Chuck Schumer-4 of MicroSoft, and John McCain-PrimeBeta of Atlanta Braves is actually a quite modest plan whose benefits would be felt by everyone in the 34 Congloms, and around the world.

Please let this Thomauridas Krugolliniedowdfried spell this out for you in this New Bloomberg Telemex Times editorial: Our Conglomeration of States has struggled with an epidemic of obesity, and other preventable behavioral-based diseases. Our ruling class politicians and other moral and spiritual leaders have long been sounding the alarm over the fact that this is a national security issue, as the bodies that citizens often selfishly believe belong only to themselves are being abused to the point that they are often of no use to our national decision-makers. [Read more →]

Tags: politics & government, trusted media & news by Ricky Sprague
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2012 is looking up. The first good news in months comes from the last poll before today’s Iowa caucuses. It reflects a tectonic upset of preconceptions in its leaderboard which shows Santorum third with 18%, Romney with 19 and Ron Paul, first among statistical equals, at 20. The best of it? Newt is not only fourth but down far enough (4 points) that he is excluded from the headlines. It seems the rally of those who actually recall Gingrich from his days in office was not in vain. The Newt Boomlet is deflated, for now, and if Iowa can discourage him from continuing she will have done the nation a great service. Sadly, piling on Newt has not become the national fad it deserves to be but there is another, longer suffering target of the dogpile, a man in public office so long he has a grown son who is a Senator. Of course we refer to the Texas Houseman, alleged Republican but frequent Libertarian, Ron Paul. [Read more →]

Tags: politics & government, race & culture by Ken Watson
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Tags: politics & government, trusted media & news by Alexander Thorburn Hoffman
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The year 2011 was an alarming one for dictators, as a series of mass uprisings toppled several authoritarian regimes in the Middle East. The so-called “Arab Spring” inspired wild hopes, with some optimists even declaring that the 20th century phenomenon of the dictator was finished, and a new era of democracy was dawning- just like in Eastern Europe in 1989. True? False? Let’s survey the Year in Dictators and find out! [Read more →]

Tags: politics & government, travel & foreign lands, trusted media & news by Daniel Kalder
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Aldous Huxley’s nightmare has finally taken the shape of things to come.

As the New Year dawns, the future are us.

I don’t blame my generation entirely for the horror of it all. This on-going collapse of civilization was actually begun by our grandparents during the 1910’s with Woodrow Wilson, the Princeton smarty who set in motion the Federal Income Tax (the state expropriation of private property), The Federal Reserve (State control over the money supply), The Clayton Anti-trust Act (State control over business), and the Farm Loan Act (State Control over agriculture), and then entered us in the First World War after promising not to. This was the same generation that passed Prohibition as a Constitutional Amendment, and then repealed it when their good intentions went awry, thus making that founding document no more serious than a city ordinance. [Read more →]

Tags: politics & government by Vincent McCaffrey
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Tags: politics & government by Alexander Thorburn Hoffman
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Maybe we shouldn’t have the end of the year during the holidays. Yes, it is one of the holidays itself but maybe they are too concentrated here on the long tail of the annum. Legislative and other periods link to the end of the calendar year causing deadlines to loom just when offices are empty or emptying. Once phones rang unanswered from Thanksgiving Wednesday to January 2nd. Now they roll over to voice. Which is more cruel? There are a few folks still on the job although they eye the clock nervously and jostle their keys. They are trying to “get things done” and whatever that means it apparently means the same thing two days before Christmas as it means on any other day at the Capitol and the White House. [Read more →]

Tags: money, on the law, politics & government by Ken Watson
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Media automation and access sometimes still let you down. There was an excellent video on the local news which I cannot find a link for. If only I had taken the lo-tech approach when it aired and scribbled down a few notes or at least written the channel on my arm. A more practical explanation of the predicament is here but I will try to reproduce the irony and agony of the original piece that we might call The Pie-man Learns About Free Money. [Read more →]

Tags: money, politics & government by Ken Watson
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Tags: politics & government by Alexander Thorburn Hoffman
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Rick Perry seems to be adjusting his meds with some success. After sleeping through a couple debates and partying through a couple more his native cunning produced a good, if limited result, assuming the goal was to let some air out of Mitt Romney. Maybe there is real benefit to these bi-weekly debates since there is only ever one or two highlights that make it out into the wider world. The Massachusetts Princeling is wishing he had skipped this one after boldly betting Rick Perry ten thousand dollars that his book says one thing and not another. [Read more →]

Tags: health & medical, politics & government by Ken Watson
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Tags: politics & government, religion & philosophy by Alexander Thorburn Hoffman
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Yeah, I said it.  According to conventional wisdom, the “botched” operation by the ATF and DoJ known as “Fast and Furious” is, to all intents and purposes, a gigantic failure of Watergate scope and size.  The government broke its own laws to try and frame innocent American citizens in the crimes for a political agenda.  Top government officials, many of whom are appointees, are being investigated by Congress, calls for resignations are growing, and we’re uncovering more and more evidence that these people have all been lying to Congress to save their own hides.

And yet I find myself coming to the realization that the media is successfully doing the job of making sure that F&F is a smashing success for Obama and the gun control activists.

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Tags: politics & government by Mike McGowan
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Tags: politics & government by Alexander Thorburn Hoffman
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I got up this morning and began reading the news and opinion pages, which is usually how I start my mornings.  I was cruising through the headlines over at Instapundit.com when I saw the pitch for Dropping The A-Bomb on History, an opinion piece written by Mr. Ed Driscoll.  The purpose of the article was to describe to us how American academia  has been co-opted by a left wing political movement and how they have used that institution for their own purposes.  He concludes the piece with the following line, which was also quoted by Mr. Reynolds:

If conservatives ever want to recapture the high ground of culture, just creating an alternative news media is nowhere near sufficient. they have to — somehow — recapture academia, where culture is ultimately created. And destroyed as well.

In atypical fashion, I must disagree with Mr. Driscoll here.  The creation of culture, and it’s destruction, is too great a power to credit to such a pathetic system such as our universities, and its scope is too much for the people who run those institutions to know how to use it if they did have it.  Society is created and destroyed by none but the greatest human force on Earth:  Your Mother.

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Tags: politics & government by Mike McGowan
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Tags: money, politics & government by Alexander Thorburn Hoffman
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“We have a besetting sin today in our politics where people think that you show your depth of commitment to a cause by rigidity, not just by rigidity, but impugning the motives of those on your side who try to get something done.” –Barney Frank

There is some universe where Hank Paulson’s nudge to the hedge funds managers and their ilk is not criminal conspiracy and collusion, but not in this one. The fact that Bloomberg broke the story makes it seem even more egregious — obviously, someone  confused the roles of Secretary of the Treasury with Lord High Protector of Plutocrats. Interesting approach to doing business. Unfortunately, how exactly does the Congress respond? How does the White House respond? We’ve given the Bush administration a pass on things that degrade and demean the nation; won’t the Obama administration apply the same “professional courtesy” to this guy and his minions?

This is why we need public intellectuals like Elizabeth Warren, Paul Krugman and ultimately Barney Frank. Frank’s retirement isn’t terribly surprising — I’d rather hang out in Cambridge and the South Shore than DC, and he’s showing why he’s been there so long while showing the good sense to leave on a high note. For him, this will be a high note, one instance where Cassandra can crow…Frank is probably incapable of appearing to gloat even while gloating. Still the thought of the former Secretary of the Treasury and the former Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors perp-walking into a Congressional Oversite Committee to force meaningful action on derivatives and finanical instruments without Representative Frank’s presence on the committee is sad. We’d love the show.

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Tags: politics & government by Mike Farrell
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I’m so sick of our nation’s focus on this ridiculous rich vs. poor scuffle.  We all know that there will always be a distinction between rich and poor, even in Communist Utopias, because the rich and the poor have always been opposing one another and have, over the millennia, reached a sort of natural equilibrium which prevents one from eliminating the other.  Thus, over the course of thousands of years, the poor’s standards of living have increased dramatically, with a similar increase realized by the elites.  Neither of those groups is likely to be the instrument of oppression in the United States of America.

For that dubious distinction we need to look to our Crusader Class.

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Tags: ends & odd, politics & government by Mike McGowan
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Tags: money, politics & government by Alexander Thorburn Hoffman
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