Gingrich rips into CNN’s John King at debate, then wins South Carolina GOP primary:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/22/idUS77355438720120122

Did CNN’s John King swing the South Carolina primary to Newt Gingrich?

“That’s what several Fox News analysts said on Saturday, including former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, who said that Gingrich should take King out to a steak dinner for his tough questioning during Thursday night’s debate.”

Did Gingrich plant the open marriage story?  Did he fund the Cain campaign?

Now Cain is hanging out with Colbert:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=969lBpP2eAs

Looking at sausages!

Kim Jong Il recently passed away, but lives on forever!  Check out this link, and find many pictures of the Great Leader looking at various things!

Link:  http://kimjongillookingatthings.tumblr.com/

Looking at corn?

Nixon and LBJ

Politics have always been tense, and LBJ talks about his frustration with Republicans and criticism in 1966.  He is frustrated with obstructionism and those afraid of trying something new.  There is also an explanation on how misunderstood he may have been.  In many ways, this could be a current article, with different names.   http://www.lbjlibrary.org/about-lbj/the-lbj-the-nation-seldom-saw.html

He talked about the difference between Republicans and Democrats: “We’re for something, and they are against everything. Mr. Rayburn was asked one time, ‘What do you think—after 50 years—is the primary difference between the Republican and Democratic parties? Is it the tariff?’

“ ‘No.’

“ ‘Well, what is the difference?’

“Mr. Rayburn replied, ‘I’ll tell you the easiest and best explanation—one that I have observed, and I came here during Woodrow Wilson’s administration. They hate all of our Presidents.’

“He said, ‘I didn’t hate Harding. I felt sorry for him, but I didn’t hate him.’ He said, ‘I didn’t hate Coolidge. I thought he was totally inadequate to the responsibility, but I used to go down and eat scrambled eggs and just watch him. He never said anything. You couldn’t tell what he thought of anything.’

“He said, ‘I didn’t get angry with Hoover. Everything in the country folded up and we had bread lines all over the country and everybody in the Southwest was chasing rabbits in order to eat. But I didn’t hate him. We tried to help him. But look what they did to Roosevelt when he came in. They were after his wife. They were after his daughter. And they finally got down after his dog.’ ”

He brought the audience to its feet when he said, “So I’m doing the best I can and it’s almost like the old man in my county that said he felt like a jackass in a hail storm: He just has to hunker up and take it.”

Keep everyone busy talking about Cain, who was never really very serious or he wouldn’t have run that crazy TV ad, then nobody picks on Gingrich as he surges, just before the primary season!  Click on the picture above to see a similar tactic.

Late August and early September in PNW

Walked down an alley in Everett, WA and smoke was pouring out of this little, wooden shack.  A wooden sign on it said “Smoke house.”  Every other year, the Pink Salmon (Humpy) runs are incredible in the Pacific Northwest, as the fish head back to their birthplace to spawn and keep the cycle going.  Some get caught along the way, cleaned, and hung in cool little shacks like this to be cured with smoke, a tasty way to preserve and enjoy the fish!

Portions below from Theweek.com  September, 9, 2011

“Republicans are steadfastly opposed to raising taxes,” said Adam Serwer in WashingtonPost.com. “Except when they aren’t.”  President Obama wants Congress to extend the payroll tax holiday, which he pushed through last year.  It  put more money in average Americans’ pockets and may stimulate the economy a bit.  It is temporary and reduces Social Security deductions from 6.2 percent to 4.2 percent.  Works out to about $1,000 annually for most working families.  Republicans say they are opposed to extending the payroll tax cut for another year, even though last year they aggressively defended the extension of tax cuts for the wealthy.  Even more puzzling is that Republicans introduced and passed a temporary payroll tax cut to stimulate the economy during the recession in 2001 and again in 2008, when George W. Bush was president.

“The GOP was happy to cut the payroll tax to boost economic growth.”  Jonathan Chait in TheNewRepublic.com

http://www.tnr.com/blog/jonathan-chait/94167/why-republicans-turned-against-payroll-tax-cuts

“I know some of you have sworn oaths to never raise any taxes on anyone for as long as you live,” Obama told a joint session of Congress on Thursday night. “Now is not the time to carve out an exception and raise middle-class taxes.”

James Fallows, TheNewRepublic.com:

“I had thought that Republican absolutism about taxes, while harmful to the country and out of sync with even the party’s own Reaganesque past, at least had the zealot’s virtue of consistency. Now we see that it can be set aside when it applies to poorer people, and when setting it aside would put maximum drag on the economy as a whole. So this means that its real guiding principle is… ??? You tell me.”  James Fallows

Reminds me of this post from last year:

This first link, from History.com, has volume and the commentary is good!  http://www.history.com/videos/elephant-wrestling#elephant-wrestling

http://www.thomhartmann.com/forum/2011/06/fox-news-bubble-angry-white-men-bursting