A year ago today at the Wisconsin protests, things had drifted from the Walker budget to more generic left-wing causes.

Althouse    "It was no longer apparent that the protesters were mostly Wisconsin school teachers. There were more UW students and teaching assistants. 

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/today-322727-focused-workalso.html?pic=1

""The crowd was a bit thinner," inside the Capitol. "Lots of drumming." The sound of vuvuzela. Outside, there are some marchers. It's a bit wan. It's a Monday.
"The teachers prepare to go back to school, and there are intimations that the schoolkids will be drawn into the controversy. "I  can't believe people who are fighting to preserve their job benefits would even think to appropriate the children this way. It's mind boggling." "

Michael Barone: Prudence Is Key to Reversing Obama's 'Soft Despotism'

Michael Barone  "We have a House of Representatives 100 percent of whose members were elected in a historic Republican year, a president elected in a historic Democratic year, and a Senate two-thirds of whose members were elected in historic Democratic years and one-third in a historic Republican year.
"It should not be surprising that they cannot agree on policy. Most of the high-minded folk who decry "gridlock" would like the Republican House to say uncle. The Republicans bemoaning their leaders' lack of boldness imagine that if they force confrontation they can somehow prevail."

...."That is what House Republicans are fighting to reverse. With their presidential candidates at odds, with mainstream media disparaging them at every turn, they need to exercise prudence and not give in to passion that could defeat their purpose."

Rush Limbaugh: Tocqueville Foresaw the Obama Years  Quoting Tocqueville: 

"Thus, taking each individual by turns in its powerful hands and kneading him as it likes, the sovereign extends its arms over society as a whole; it covers its surface with a network of small, complicated, painstaking, uniform rules through which the most original minds and the most vigorous souls cannot clear a way to surpass the crowd; it does not break wills, but it softens them, bends them and directs them; it rarely forces one to act, but it constantly opposes itself to one’s acting."

Obama, protector of the free world vs. Iran (That "little country" Obama referred to)

Victor Davis Hanson: Nuclear Realities  "In other words, if the Obama administration were to take us down to a few hundred bombs, it might send a signal to our allies that we could not possibly deter all their enemies simultaneously — and that they would be wiser to fend for themselves by obtaining their own nuclear arsenals. For each dozen bombs we retired, our allies might feel it necessary to make up the difference on their own."

...."The danger is not the bomb per se, but rather who has it. Most of us do not worry about a democratic Britain, France, India, or Israel possessing nuclear weapons. The fright instead is over a Communist authoritarian China, an unhinged North Korea, an Islamist Pakistan, or an unstable Russia having nuclear weapons. "

http://townhall.com/political-cartoons/2012/02/20/96584

DEBKAfile: Tehran steps into US-Israel Iran row with threat of pre-emptive strike  "Iran’s Armed Forces Gen. Mohammad Hejazi issued a new threat Tuesday, Feb. 21: “Our strategy now is that if we feel our enemies want to endanger Iran’s national interests… we will act without waiting for their actions.” "

Weekly Standard: The Obama Way of War  "...an anonymous administration official described Obama’s strategy as “spoiling” any second-war act of aggression while fighting the first. And the defense guidance goes on at length about “reversibility” as a “key part of our decision calculus” when defense cuts have to be made. In other words, the Obama Pentagon knows this is a very bad idea to begin with.  Hat tip to Keep America Safe

On Rick Santorum

Neal Boortz : Democrats rip Santorum "If you want just a small taste of what it would be like to run Rick Santorum as your GOP nominee, look no further than a DNC email released over the weekend.  One part read …

donkeyhotey

"Rather than focusing on jobs, the economy, or any of the issues that matter most to Americans, he discussed man's 'dominion over' the earth, repeated his patently false claim that prenatal health care is a plot to force more abortions, and questioned the need for public education.”

"I received a lot of flak for my comments yesterday about Rick Santorum, yet not one person could explain to me how Rick Santorum would appeal to moderate or independent voters...."  

....There is only ONE  question you should be considering as you select from these four .. and that is which one of these candidates has the best chance of beating Obama.  That’s the focus of your decision … nothing else.   (Emphasis added)

Mr. Boortz writes this on his issue with Rick Santorum: 

Can you try to put yourself into the shoes of an independent voter for a second here?  You know obama(sp) is a failure, but you’re not sure the Republicans could be doing all that much better right now.  You’re willing, though, to take a good look at the GOP candidate to see if that is someone you might be able to support.

WSJ:  Sex, Lies and Rick Santorum; The politics of the double standard on social issues.   "There is, however, one area where Mr. Santorum needs to demonstrate a discipline it's not yet clear he has. That is the ability to resist the efforts to drag him out of the public questions into the weeds of theological debate."
...."Mr. Santorum cannot change the double standard. With a little discipline, however, he need not let himself be defined by it". (As happens in  the Neal Boortz article posted above.)

http://townhall.com/political-cartoons/2012/02/16/96337

Procon.org has this on Mr. Santorum's political statements  This site lists what they consider to be "Positions are categorized as Pro, Con, Not Clearly Pro or Con, or None Found."


Rich Lowry: The Effrontery of Rick Santorum "The media has unleashed the hounds on Rick Santorum."

We have liked Sen. Santorum very much, but our research on who can get Obama out of the White House goes on. Nothing is more important than keeping Obama from another four years at the helm of this nation and we have yet to find a candidate who can tell America how he is to be preferred to Obama. It will be hard; the Republican will have to run against a celebrity who is on magazine covers and daytime talk shows and who promises to give us anything we want for free.

I'm beginning to lose confidence in the American electorate's wisdom, and this next video doesn't help much. TD

What We Get For Our Education Dollars

But these "skulls full of mush" will happily vote for any whomever is endorsed by their favorite celebrity.