to the book America by Heart, Reflections on FAMILY, faith, and flag and the beginning of every episode of Sarah Palin’s Alaska we listened to the Empress talk about how very important her family was to her. Gingrich has tried to paint himself as a “family man” too. It’s just harder for him to do that because he has admittedly had long term affairs during two of his three marriages. He fails to talk about the gay sister he has and how she isn’t part of the family he advertises. He was raised by an admittedly bi-polar mother.

The criticism of Gingrich’s personal life hasn’t been limited to the media or the GOP. Bryan Fischer of the American Family association is their spokesman. Mr. Fisher said that Gingrich’s extramarital affairs are a “show-stopper” and charged that “social conservatives and all those in the pro-family movement must have grave reservations about his candidacy” Fischer even warned that a Gingrich presidency could undermine American families. He said:

A candidate or president with such a troubled past would have little or no credibility in talking about the sanctity of marriage and the sanctity and importance of the intact family unit. “Who are you,” folks would say, “to be lecturing us about the importance of family?”

And there certainly would be fallout for the American family and the institution of marriage if such a flawed individual served as our nation’s leader.

The only people who have attacked American family values are Palin and Gingrich, and the media has only reported the facts.

Last night was the Republican Debate in Florida. We were spared the pleasure of watching Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry make fools of themselves. Instead we watched the last four candidates, Santorum, Gingrich, Romney, and Paul, argue amongst themselves regarding such burning issues as our relations with Cuba, whether English should be the first language of the United States, and whether Puerto Rico should be a state or remain a territory. There seemed to be no controversy about what language should be the dominant language of America. The crowd seemed to have no opinion regarding the appropriate treatment of Cuba. Nobody cared if Puerto Rico was a territory or state. The U.S. economy was first and foremost in the minds of everyone in the audience, and relatively little time was spent on that issue.

Mitt Romney had a new debate coach.  The change in Romney’s tone and willingness to aggressively respond to Gingrich paid off. No longer is Romney willing to be attacked by Newt Gingrich without responding! The amazing thing is that Newt Gingrich, who has become the attack dog, characterized attack adds as “disgusting” and explained that Republicans are only helping Obama by the negative ads, and that they don’t know how much damage is being “done to our team.”

The candidate who has been most outspoken about the destructive effects of negative campaigning in the Republican primary, has become the most aggressive candidate to attack the others.

In the debate last night Newt attacked Mitt Romney because some of his personal investments included bonds he bought through a fund that included some bonds of  Freddie Mac and Fanny Mae. Romney explained that these were purchased on his behalf as part of a blind trust, and that he was in essence loaning the money to Freddie Mac and Fanny Mae, instead of taking money from them. Unlike Newt, Romney was an investor in the companies, instead of an independent contractor taking money from them. Gingrich had virtually no response. In addition, Romney pointed out that Newt had made similar investments, so he should not be complaining about the investments of Romney. Gingrich has no response to that statement either.

My favorite exchange came when the two were discussing illegal immigrants, and the difference in their positions. Newt seemed to focus on his position that we should not deport grandmas and grandfathers who have been in this country for many years. Mitt Romney responded by explaining that illegal immigrants who are grandmothers and grandfathers are not the problem, and if elected president he wouldn’t be rounding up old people to deport them. Newt had no response.

This debate could only have been better if Mitt Romney had talked about the absurdity of Newt running as the Washington outsider, only because he QUIT after serving in the U.S. Government 20 years. He might have mentioned the absurdity of a man running as the conservative candidate, who has been endorsed by the Palins, and portrays himself as a man of honesty and family values, and yet was unfaithful to his first two wives, and was sanctioned by the House of Representatives for Ethics Violations. Romney could have mentioned the misleading use of the term “Mr. Speaker” when Newt resigned as the Speaker of the House after the Ethics Violations and being sanctioned by the House $300,000.00. Romney could have mentioned Newt’s “pie in the sky” ideas like putting a colony on the moon for people to live, while balancing the budget here on earth.

It was clear to me that Santorum and Paul were present only because they have not officially dropped out, but that it is a matter of time. The only real question is whether the Newt can challenge Romney and I predict the people of Florida will not favor Newt. Newt can join Sarah Palin in being “Undefeated” but not holding any elected office. Perhaps they will endorse each other for the position of President of Ubekebeke-stan and they could name Herb Cain as their Vice President.

Oil Change instructions for women:

1. Pull up to Jiffy Lube when the mileage reaches 3,000 miles since the last oil change.

2. Drink a cup of coffee.

3. 15 minutes later, scan debit card and leave, driving a properly maintained vehicle.

Money spent:

Oil Change:$30.00

Coffee: $1.00

TOTAL: $31.00

Oil Change instructions for Men:

1. Wait until Saturday, drive to auto parts store and buy a case of oil, filter, kitty litter, hand cleaner and a scented tree,and use your debit card for $50.00.

2. Stop by Beer Store and buy a case of beer, (debit $24), drive home.

3. Open a beer and drink it.

4. Jack truck up. Spend 30 minutes looking for jack stands.

5. Find jack stands under kid’s pedal car.

6. In frustration, open another beer and drink it.

7. Place drain pan under engine.

8. Look for 9/16 box end wrench.

9. Give up and use crescent wrench.

10. Unscrew drain plug.

11. Drop drain plug in pan of hot oil: splash hot oil on you in process. Cuss.

12. Crawl out from under truck to wipe hot oil off of face and arms. Throw kitty litter on spilled oil.

13. Have another beer while watching oil drain.

14. Spend 30 minutes looking for oil filter wrench.

15. Give up; crawl under truck and hammer a screwdriver through oil filter and twist off.

16. Crawl out from under truck with dripping oil filter splashing oil everywhere from holes. Cleverly hide old oil filter among trash in trash can to avoid environmental penalties. Drink a beer.

17. Install new oil filter making sure to apply a thin coat of oil to gasket surface.

18. Dump first quart of fresh oil into engine.

19. Remember drain plug from step 11.

20. Hurry to find drain plug in drain pan.

21. Drink beer.

22. Discover that first quart of fresh oil is now on the floor. Throw kitty litter on oil spill.

23. Get drain plug back in with only a minor spill. Drink beer.

24. Crawl under truck getting kitty litter into eyes. Wipe eyes with oily rag used to clean drain plug. Slip with stupid crescent wrench tightening drain plug and bang knuckles on frame removing any excess skin between knuckles and frame.

25. Begin cussing fit.

26. Throw stupid crescent wrench.

27. Cuss for additional 5 minutes because wrench hit truck and left dent.

28. Beer.

29. Clean up hands and bandage as required to stop blood flow.

30. Beer.

31. Dump in five fresh quarts of oil.

32. Beer.

33. Lower truck from jack stands.

34. Move truck back to apply more kitty litter to fresh oil spilled during any missed steps.

35. Beer.

36. Test drive truck.

37. Get pulled over: arrested for driving under the influence.

38. truck gets impounded.

39. Call loving wife, make bail.

40. 12 hours later, get truck from impound yard.

Money spent:

Parts: $50.00

DUI: $2,500.00

Impound fee: $75.00

Bail: $1,500.00

Beer: $20.00

TOTAL: $4,145.00

But you know the job was done right!

I was drawn to this site due to an article giving credit to Sarah Palin for Newt’s success in South Carolina. Tony Lee (who appears to be one of those Asians that Palin is uncomfortable around)

is the author of an Human Events article on Palin’s influence in South Carolina.Lee coins the term “Teavangelicals” to describe the majority of the South Carolina electorate and describes them as “fierce fiscal and social conservatives.” You and I might describe them in a less complimentary way. Lee points out that 64% of those voting in the South Carolina primary, both identify themselves as “Born-Again” or “Evangelical Christians,” and support the Tea Party. While Lee also declares that the “Republican party is becoming more like South Carolina than New Hampshire” he doesn’t cite any basis for that conclusion. He identifies Sarah Palin as the leader whose judgment “Teavangelicals may trust the most.”

Palin demanded that Romney prove that he indeed created jobs in the U.S. while at Bain Capital. Palin called upon Romney to produce his tax returns. Lee gives Palin credit for not allowing Romney’s history of job creation (or lack thereof) and his wealth to be forgotten. As a final push for Gingrich, Lee identifies the importance of the fact that Palin then appeared on Fox suggesting that she would vote for Gingrich if she were a resident of South Carolina. Thus Lee feels Palin has “considerable clout” in the selection of the GOP nominee.

While many tend to trivialize the impact of Sarah Palin, the Half-Term Ex-Governor who is a grandma to two grandchildren conceived out of wedlock, the wife of an alleged peeping-tom and a man who hangs out with hookers, we should never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups,

especially when Sarah Palin is part of the group.

It’s been three years since Sarah Palin gave interviews to Katie Couric.

watch?v=nokTjEdaUGg]

It’s been 2 ½ years since Sarah Palin was a politician.

It has been less than one year since Sarah proved just how clueless she is about American History.

Yet how easily people forget. People who champion the importance of faith and family, respect the very person who says she also champions faith and family, but repeatedly proves that faith and family are only important to her if they can be used by her to promote herself.

By Paul Begala, The Daily Beast

19 January 12

Let us not allow Rick Perry to exit stage right – far right – without a final word or two. What can be said about a man who burst onto the national scene by toying with secession, as if 600,000 dead in the Civil War weren’t enough?

Rick Perry appealed to the darkest angels of our nature. In his final debate appearance, standing in the metaphorical shadow of Fort Sumter, he said the state of South Carolina “is at war” with the federal government – and he said it with approval. Perry called Social Security a Ponzi scheme and “a monstrous lie.” He attacked the constitutionality of Medicare. He openly and dishonestly called our president a socialist. He said he would reinvade Iraq. He almost certainly executed an innocent man.

And for a time he was in first place among Republican presidential candidates.

We will, of course, remember Perry more for his spectacular stupidity than for his open desire to roll back the clock to 1861. Perry is a dope, and now all the world knows it. If he lives to be 100 he will be remembered for his “Oops” moment – when he couldn’t recall the three government agencies he wanted to abolish. To be sure, even the smartest of people can have a brain freeze, but Perry’s cerebrum has been on dry ice for decades.

The pride of Texas A&M can now slink back home, defeated and disgraced, where he can try to explain to the lobbyists and billionaires who funded his campaign how he squandered a huge fortune and blew a big lead. In the most modestly gifted field in memory, Perry stood out. His incoherent debate performances, his weird, rambling, giddy speech in New Hampshire, his embarrassingly low vote totals, will define him for the rest of his career.

He earned the support of just 14,323 voters – a good turnout for a Texas high-school football game, but piss poor for a presidential campaign rolling in dough. The final reports aren’t in – and the spending is likely to be much higher – but a quick assessment of the amount of money Perry’s campaign and the pro-Perry super PAC spent comes out to $21.16 million. Again, that total will rise dramatically, but right now it looks like Team Perry spent at least $1,477 per vote. He could have given each of his voters a thousand dollars and saved money.

Of course, some will blame it on Texas. And my beloved Lone Star State is the presidential Hall of Shame. John Connolly and Phil Gramm ran presidential campaigns that spent as recklessly as Perry, with similarly disastrous results. And George W. Bush ran a great campaign – and went on to be the worst president in a century. I don’t know what it is, and I can’t explain it. Perhaps Perry will cool the presidential dreams of the next good-looking airhead to rise in the Lone Star State. If so, he will have accomplished something lasting after all.

And so we bid Rick Perry farewell. But not with the socialist French phrase “Adieu.” Instead, we use the pidgin Spanish Perry himself used to say goodbye to a group of journalists in 2005: “Adios, mofo.”

As a good Christian he doesn’t seem to have any kind words for our President, even though it was just news today that Obama directed the same Navy Seal team who killed Osama bin Laden, to rescue the two people who were kidnapped by Somalian pirates.  Santorum said that Obama was the WORST President in the history  of our country.  Compare Obama to:

Bush announced Mission Accomplished in Iraq in 2003.

Florida is one of the four states in the country with the highest number of  GLBT voters.

Rick Santorum is so opposed to homosexuality that he has indicated that  kids are better off without a dad than they would be if their dad is gay, and they’d be better off with a father in jail than with a homosexual father.  Santorum’s judgment regarding people and their value to society is warped. I hope he meets a lot of nice guys while he’ s in Florida.

Like Sarah Palin:

(1) Gingrich blames his own failings on the mainstream media. The example given is the attack of Gingrich on John King at the Republican debate when John asked for a response to the “open marriage” allegations of his ex-wife. Gingrich responded by at assault on “the destructive, vicious, negative nature of much of the news media.” He also referred to “personal pain.”

(2) Palin has repeatedly cast herself in the role of an “outsider.” Gingrich has also cast himself in the same role, even though he’s been the Speaker of the House, a lobbyist, and he served in the House of Representatives for twenty years, from 1979-1999.

(4) Gingrich claims a Tea Party-esque affinity with the “grass roots” and the “real people” but he has a net worth of 7 Million Dollars,  he has a “Moby Dick” problem (flying in private planes), and a Half-Million Dollar revolving line of credit at Tiffany & Company.  Gingrich must think the “real people” just never know when they might need a new piece of jewelry that costs Hundreds of Thousands of Dollars, and simply not have time to fill out the paper work for a loan.

(5) Finally Gingrich’s bigoted remarks about African-Americans is comparable to Sarah Palin’s racist attitudes.

While victory in the Republican primary for the Newt seems unlikely, stranger things have happened. They did elect Christine O’Donnell, the witch,

who was endorsed by Palin,

and Joe Miller, the guy who might have pornography on his computer,

who was also endorsed by Palin.

While the image of President Gingrich might find its way to the top of the list of your worst nightmares, there is hope. --Barack Obama’s likelihood of reelection has soared in the last few days to 56.8 percent, the highest it has been since last July. This movement correlates with Newt Gingrich’s increased likelihood of gaining the Republican nomination, now at 29.7 percent, up from about 5 percent. This upward trend also correlates with a simultaneous downward movement of Mitt Romney’s likelihood of winning the presidency if he wins the nomination, now at 44.0, down from about 48 percent.

Debates in the general election have not begun, but it appears today that if Gingrich wins the nomination, Obama is 2.75 percent more likely to win reelection.

I have documented the reasons Sarah Palin was appropriately given the nick-name “barracuda.” Giving Sarah a name describing a predator with sharp-edged, fang-like teeth which is voracious and opportunistic was a vivid and insightful way to describe the half-term ex-Governor.

Yesterday I learned another valuable lesson about barracudas and Sarah Palin. Both are cannibals, because they eat their own. The barracuda has the excuse that it doesn’t know if a smaller barracuda is its offspring. The barracuda is just hungry and the smaller barracuda may provide a tasty treat.

In the past, Sarah Barracuda insulted and attacked the “lame-stream” media for reporting facts. She called reporters child-molesters and puppy kickers.

Palin has also attacked President Obama for everything he has done from his Christmas card to his decision not to release the picture of a dead man with a hole in his face. She declared that the President should stop “pussy-footing around” and release the picture of Osama bin Laden’s body.

When Ginger White came forward and admitted to a 13 year sexual relationship with “Herb” Cain, apologizing to the wife and kids of Cain, Palin didn’t applaud her honesty or willingness to tell the truth. Instead she called her a “broad.”

Republican New Jersey Governor Chris Christie was elected in 2010, and has served as the U.S. Attorney for New Jersey, meaning he has already served as Governor as long as Palin did before she resigned. Not only was Chris Christie a potential candidate for President, but he may be considered as a potential pick for Vice President. Christie recently gave an interview during which he referred to Newt Gingrich as an “embarrassment” to the party.

Even though Palin has not officially endorsed Gingrich, the barracuda went on the attack stating, “Well, you kind of get your panties in a wad and you may say things you regret later.” Palin’s comment towards Chris Christie was disrespectful and totally unnecessary. Christie was not commenting on Sarah Palin, and had not mentioned her in the conversation. Moreover, Palin’s attack this time was on a fellow Republican who has not quit the office his supporters elected him to fill. Christie was not attacking Palin and had not been disrespectful in his comments. He was making an observation, and telling the truth about Newt Gingrich who had embarrassed the Republican Party by being fined for violating the ethics code while Speaker of the House, and presiding over Bill Clinton’s impeachment proceedings while Newt was having an affair of his own…for the second time.

This was not the first time the barracuda has said something disrespectful.

Remember her “yo mama” outburst?

One of my favorites was her “WTF” moment.

Recently she used the word “dumbarse” ,as if her comment was more polite than simply saying “dumbass”.

Then who could forget Palin’s reference to the President’s testicles?

Karl Rove described Sarah Palin as thin skinned.  Perhaps a voracious, opportunistic, cannibalistic predator would be more appropriate.