Go read what The Anchoress wrote. Seriously. Don't worry, this post won't go anywhere while you go read her words.
Regular readers here have probably noticed that I do not post a real lot about Republican candidates. In a way, that is my way of adhering to Ronald Reagan's 11th commandment. In other ways, it is pure pragmatism. An old dictum about not burning bridges. Because while I might not yet know who I will vote for, I surely know what I will, no, must, vote against.
I have brought this subject up before. I wrote about the courts - and the possible loss thereof - a couple of times. The Anchoress also sees that . I fear too many 'purists' do not. None of the Republican candidates meets every, single ideal I have. But then, neither did Ronald Reagan. But I voted for him twice and would have done so a third time had he been able to run again. Reagan was a pragmatist with no patience for the purists, as the quote The Anchoress has illustrates. He could be pragmatic about a lot of things - so long as his main goal of winning the Cold War and defending America was met.
I'd just point out one thing here. There is a recent example of absolute, purist politics that should make you think. Joe Lieberman is a die hard liberal with a solid history of supporting liberal policy. But the nutroots decided he was not pure on the Iraq war and supported Ned Lamont.
How'd that work out for them?
If you refuse to vote and sit out the election, you will not be entitled to a voice in shaping the direction you want your party, or the country to go in. You will, instead, lose your place at the table when it comes time to shape that direction. You may feel virtuous in your decision, but you will be mistaken. You will have proven that you are irrelevant. Is that what you really want?
William Tecumseh Sherman, when approached about running for the Presidency of the United States in 1884 made a famous reply: "If drafted, I will not run; if nominated, I will not accept; if elected, I will not serve." A man running for the the office of county treasurer in Kerr County, Texas is channeling Sherman. He promises that if he is elected, he will not serve.
SAN ANTONIO - A candidate for Kerr County treasurer is making a single campaign promise: Elect me and I won't serve. Ed Hamilton, 77, is challenging incumbent Treasurer Mindy Williams for the Republican nomination during the March 4 election. No Democrats are seeking the office.
He said the job is redundant and costing the county money it doesn't need to spend. The duties should be assigned to another county office, Hamilton said.
"I don't plan to do the job," he said. "I won't accept a paycheck."
Hamilton said if elected, he would hand the duties to someone else and petition state officials for a referendum on a constitutional amendment that would allow any county to eliminate the treasurer position if it chooses.
The job pays $46,000 a year. Well, unless Hamilton wins, that is. What isn't clear here is who, precisely, would do the job if Hamilton happens to win.
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Major Asian share markets rallied, with Sydney surging 7 percent on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve's biggest interest rate cut in over two decades tempted investors to beaten-down equities, but recession fears lingered.
The dollar extended its losses against the euro in early Asian trade after the Fed's emergency 75 basis-point interest rate cut wiped out the U.S. currency's yield advantage over its the European one.
Industrial metals, such as copper, recovered some lost ground after hefty falls this week on fears a U.S. recession could derail demand.
Not out of the woods yet, but a positive sign, nonetheless.
Iran happens to be in the grip of a killer cold spell. At least 60 people have died from the cold. But there is an upside: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is in serious political trouble. It seems there isn't enough gas to provide heat for the citizens. People higher up the food chain than Mahmoud are pretty angry about it.
TEHRAN, Iran - President Bush isn't the only leader facing serious economic woes. Icy weather is causing big political trouble for Iran's hard-line president, who is under attack for mismanaging the economy as the country runs perilously low on gas for heat.
More than 60 people have died in the cold, some because of gas shortages in remote and mountainous villages, and even Iran's supreme leader has implicitly rebuked his one-time protege.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was openly humiliated when state radio read a decree by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Sunday ordering him to implement a law approved by Parliament to supply more natural gas to remote villages.
Ahmadinejad had balked — for budgetary reasons — at Parliament's order to spend $1 billion from the country's currency reserve fund to supply the gas.
But Khamenei, who has final say on all state matters under Iran's complicated system, overruled him. That was particularly noteworthy because, although Khamenei has cooled publicly toward the president in recent months, he rarely enters into any outright dispute.
"This was an unprecedented real hit to Ahmadinejad's government," said Tehran political analyst Saeed Laylaz.
It seems that it is awfully cold in some unusual places this year, doesn't it? And brutally cold in places that are usually cold at this time of year.
Fred Thompson dropped his presidential bid Tuesday, after the former Tennessee senator and actor finished third in the South Carolina primary and was unable to score a victory in any of the early primaries or caucuses.
“Today I have withdrawn my candidacy for President of the United States. I hope that my country and my party have benefited from our having made this effort. Jeri and I will always be grateful for the encouragement and friendship of so many wonderful people,” Thompson said in a statement.
The GOP candidate has begun calling friends, family members and supporters to tell them he’s ended his campaign, four months after he formally announced his White House bid. The momentum behind his delayed entrance into the race steadily diminished as his GOP rivals racked up victories in early test states.
I honestly thought he would do better than he did.
MYRTLE BEACH, South Carolina (CNN) — What were they talking about?
Gee, what do you think they were chatting about? The weather? I imagine that quite a few Edwards backers are going to be very unhappy if he joins Clinton.
As soon as the markets opened this morning, share prices tumbled by 465 points. They have since rebounded to within around 40 points of opening. It's a bit of a roller coaster.
NEW YORK - Wall Street struggled to steady itself Tuesday, climbing back from an early plunge after the Federal Reserve implemented an emergency interest rate cut in hopes of restoring stability to a faltering U.S. economy. The Dow Jones industrials, down 465 points at the start of the session, recovered to a loss of about 40 points.
The U.S. markets joined a global selloff amid growing fears that a recession in the United States could send economies around the world into a downturn. Though stocks regained ground as investors digested the Fed's move to cut its benchmark federal funds rate by 0.75 percentage point and as bargain-hunters entered the market, trading remained volatile and the major indexes fluctuated sharply, at times approaching the break-even point before heading down again.
Maybe the Fed cutting interest rates actually did help.
He's still with his ailing mother. "He's just being a good son."
He has not spoken to any other campaign or any other candidates, nor does he intend to at this time.
He will not endorse, I am told by this source close to Thompson.
I am also told, "he has no interest in a vice presidency or a cabinet position." At an "appropriate time" he will outline his plans for the near future.
People have spent decades searching for Bigfoot and never seem to be able to get any indisputable proof that they exist. Now, thanks to the magic of the internet, we know why: They moved to Mars:
Does this photograph really prove that we are not alone in the universe?
Images beamed back from Mars would suggest so - although to sceptics, it could just be a strange rock formation.
Nasa's Mars Explorer Spirit sent back images from the surface of the Red Planet four years ago, and there was initial disappointment among scientists that they lacked any signs of life.
But space and science fiction enthusiasts are convinced there is more than meets the eye, and after years of studying the images, have found what appears to be an alien figure walking downhill.
The discovery of the life-like figure ambling across the surface of the planet is likely to further boost intrigue in our nearest neighbouring planet.
An earlier rock formation, dubbed 'the face of Mars' showed what appeared to be a human head staring into the night sky.
The pictures, found on a Chinese website, are now creating a stir of excitement on the internet.
Of course, one can simply download the original, massive image file directly from NASA. Then one can figure out, pretty quickly, that the bigfootish-looking object in the internet photo is not on the original. In other words, the image is a fake. But they are obviously circulating this image to hide the real truth.
Reacting to a second day of international stock plunges, the Federal Reserve has acted to cut a key interest rate by 3/4 of a point.
WASHINGTON - The Federal Reserve, confronted with a global stock sell-off fanned by increased fears of a recession, cut a key interest rate by three-quarters of a percentage point on Tuesday, the biggest one-day move by the central bank in recent memory.
The Fed said it was cutting the federal funds rate, the interest that banks charge each other on overnight loans, to 3.5 percent, down by three-fourths of a percentage point from 4.25 percent.
The Fed action was the most dramatic signal it can send that it is concerned about a potential recession in the United States. It marked the biggest one-day move by the central bank in recent memory.
I don't recall a 3/4 point cut being taken all at once before. Funny how the world that so loves to bash America is so utterly dependent on our economy, isn't it?
It got ugly at the Democratic debate in South Carolina last night.
The Politico has the transcript. Every media outlet I am seeing out there is commenting on just how nasty and personal it got last night. There really is going to be a lot of bitterness at the end of all this. It is going to be difficult for whoever wins to get past the wreckage this will leave behind.
Wisconsin, which had the only ban on heated sidewalks in the nation, has repealed that ban in the face of the bitter cold, snowy winter this year. Turn up the heat, folks.
After the second snowiest December on record in the state capital — and with temperatures hovering around 20 degrees Tuesday — the Legislature abolished a statewide ban on heated sidewalks, stairs, entrances and pedestrian walkways.
The bill, which cleared the state Assembly in October and was approved unanimously Tuesday by the state Senate, overturns a law passed in 1980s in response to the energy crisis of the 1970s. Wisconsin is the only state that had such a prohibition in the books.
Supporters of overturning the ban argue that with better technology, and the prospect of using less salt and saving money on snow removal, the ban had outlived its usefulness.
Just in time. Another clipper system is expected with most of the upper Midwest about to get even colder. The forecast is calling for freezing drizzle all the way down into Alabama.
Freezing drizzle across the mid-Atlantic and parts of the Southeast could create hazardous travel conditions. On Monday, freezing rain coated roadways and other surfaces in Kansas, causing numerous accidents and forcing the closure of several highways.
According to the East Regional News story, the major cities along the Interstate 95 corridor will receive a mix of wet snow and rain this morning and mainly rain later today.
Despite the wintry weather, the East will have near-normal temperatures today. The next shot of arctic cold will make it to the region by Thursday behind a clipper system that today will dive into the northern Plains.
The Midwest Regional News story reports the fast-moving system will bring snow by this afternoon. By Wednesday afternoon, the snow will wind down across South Dakota, Nebraska and Iowa.
An arctic cold front following the clipper today will keep temperatures in the Upper Midwest at or below zero. Another round of lake-effect snow will develop after the arctic front passes the Great Lakes. More snow will fall over the eastern Great Lakes after some places received as much as 3 feet of snow over the past weekend.
My old stomping grounds in Oswego, New York was hit with 34 inches of lake effect snow over the weekend. They must be tunneling by now.
Politics | Gaius Tuesday, 22 January , 2008 | 
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