The Goat Pen

Omar was the man.

[img2]http://texasproud.com/wp-content/upload ... s_Flag.jpg[/img2]

When Santorum should have been talking about his grandfather’s working-class roots, he was talking instead about your wife’s birth control pills. When he should have been connecting with blue-collar Catholics, he was instead insulting their martyred president. And when Mr. Santorum should have been talking about how the grandson of a coal miner graduated college with two advanced degrees, he instead mocked the aspirational idea that we should send more of our kids to college.

The Santorum team’s failure to focus on a winning message was maddening to his biggest supporters — and to those who wanted Romney’s candidacy buried up to its neck in his home state.

BuzzFeed’s Ben Smith quoted a frustrated GOP operative who said, “All Santorum had to do to win Michigan was turn his Iowa speech into a f—-ing TV ad and stick to it on the stump.”

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/03 ... z1o51qV7ZG

US President George W Bush has made a personal apology over the shooting of a Koran by an American soldier, the White House has confirmed.

Mr Bush made the apology during one of his regular video conferences with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki.

The soldier was sent home by the US military after the Muslim holy book was found riddled with bullet holes at a shooting range by Iraqi police.

The US military said last week that the soldier would be disciplined.

He was unnamed, but was said to be a staff sergeant in a sniper section.

'People's anger'

Mr Maliki's office said in a statement: "The American president apologised on behalf of the United States... promising to present the soldier to the courts."

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An extremely busy week (my apologies aTm (I've mailed that stuff today). My 10 year old broke his arm just before we were supposed to leave for an interview for my oldest. After Mardi Gras, I was at a conference for a week

Right, and who thinks anyone actually will qualify for this?

Laurens County GOP Requires Purity Pledge

http://springvalley.patch.com/articles/ ... ity-pledge
"You must favor, and live up to, abstinence before marriage....
You cannot now, from the moment you sign this pledge, look at pornography."

At least they could have looked at porn in the past

Why would he initially turn it down? Any regrets Ohioans?

Ohio Gov. John Kasich reconsiders refusal of federal disaster aid after deadly tornadoes sweep through state
Governor was accused of 'playing politics' after he initially turned down federal help



Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politic ... z1oIiOvwgB

The guy is a crackpot.

true? Not sure why they felt the need to add the Eichman story as filler.

The body of Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden was not buried at sea, according to leaked emails of intelligence firm Stratfor, as revealed by WikiLeaks.

Stratfor’s vice-president for intelligence, Fred Burton, believes the body was “bound for Dover, [Delaware] on [a] CIA plane” and then “onward to the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in Bethesda [Maryland],” an email says.

The official version is that the body of Al-Qaeda’s top man, who was killed by a US raid in Pakistan on May 2, 2011, was buried at an undisclosed location at sea in a proper Muslim ceremony.

"If body dumped at sea, which I doubt, the touch is very Adolph Eichman like. The Tribe did the same thing with the Nazi's ashes," Burton commented in another email. Eichman was one of the masterminds of the Holocaust by Nazi Germany. He was captured by Mossad agents in Argentina and, tried in Israel, found guilty and executed in 1962. His body was cremated and his ashes were scattered at sea over the Mediterranean.

"Eichmann was seen alive for many months on trial before being sentenced to death and executed. No one wanted a monument to him so they cremated him. But i dont know anyone who claimed he wasnt eicjhman [sic]. No comparison with suddenly burying him at sea without any chance to view him which i doubt happened [sic]," Stratfor CEO George Friedman replied.

"The US Govt needs to make body pics available like the MX's do, with OBL's pants pulled down, to shout down the lunatics like Alex Jones and Glenn Beck," Burton says in another message.

In another missive Burton says Osama’s body “is a crime scene and I don’t see the FBI nor DOJ letting that happen.”

WikiLeaks began publishing Stratfor emails in late February. The archive was obtained by the hacker group Anonymous, which successfully attacked one of the firm’s servers. More than 5 million emails were apparently stolen.

Stratfor is a US-based intelligence firm called the “shadow CIA” by some media. Among its clients are several US agencies and many big companies. The company relies on paid tips from informants placed in high circles of business, government and security all around the world.

The whole thing is predicated on what someone "believes" though. It doesn't state that it is factual..."uncovered" emails or not.

not being particularly attached to the GOP front runners I believe gives me a better view to be objective.

I think by any objective viewpoint, this has been a good week for Obama.

Romney barely wins swing state Ohio meaning that republicans are going to stay home on election day, Obama calls out Romney telling him to put up or shut up on going to war with Israel , Rush Limbaugh and Rick Santorum are scaring the independents into voting Democratic - both of which have completely gotten the Republicans off the message of debt spending , taxes and now gas prices.

At this moment - Obama will be re-elected. Of course that is subject to change if Obama goes off the reservation on a republican hot button issue.

If Rick Santorum is the nominee I might vote for Obama.

Obama was going to be re-elected before this whole process even started.

I'm looking at the Republicans and I don't see any spine in them at all. People forget that one of the things that elevated Clinton in 1992 was his Sistah Soldier moment where he stood up for core values against excesses in front of him despite it being a core constituency. As it turned out, many in that core constituency agreed with him as well as independents. Instead, everyone of the Presidential contenders (except Paul) wimped out on Rush Limbaugh. As George Will said, you're scared at Limbaugh but you want to bomb Iran. Can you trust that person?

Santorum can win Michigan, he has the "big mo" and what does he talk about in his stump speech, anti-contraception and anti-college despite his multiple degrees. Not only is Paul not getting coverage, but he's dropping in the vote at the same time, it seems.

Meanwhile, Obama comes off as a reasonable person with a thoughtful response in foreign affairs. If we end up attacking Iran, do many people truly think that he wouldn't have exhausted most other avenues? And watch as the Republicans will hang their hat on the pipeline, and Obama will approve it in October in a less enviromentally sensitive area. Then what are they going to say, drill even more even though drilling in the U.S. is markedly up?

It'll still be a close race, Republicans are eliminating millions of qualified voters off the roles to stack the deck and gas prices will continue to rise and who knows what effect that it'll have on the economy. But right now, this Republican field is irritating.

The best thing going for Romney is that neither his supporters nor his detractors believe he is as conservative as he is spouting; that he really is a RINO.

aTm wrote:If Rick Santorum is the nominee I might vote for Obama.

I'm not voting

Santorum will not stop Romney, anyway. No need to talk about it. It will be Obama or Romney.

Personally, their economic policies are both bittersweet to me. I think under Obama my job gets more difficult and the margins are slimmer, as far as making money, but philosophically I like the regulatory moves he proposes. I think under Romney my job gets extremely less difficult but the potential for more financial malfeasance and chicanery grows tremendously.

I think Obama will win in the Fall because I still believe the Mormon issue will send a lot Conservative voters to the sideline and it will open up Obama to win North Carolina and the Primary rhetoric on immigration will give Obama a big push in the Southwest. The Rust Belt never really votes in their economic interest, so maybe Romney has a shot there.

If Rick Santorum is the nominee I might vote for Obama.

I'm not voting

I think that pretty much sums up the attitude of this election cycle

Romney's biggest problem is he thinks he has to go "all in" on being the anti-Obama

Obama doesn't want war with Iran? I"ll park an aircraft carrier...no wait TWO aircraft carriers AND a Battleship!, yea, that's the ticket, a battleship, off Iran's coast

Obama wants to tax the wealthy? I'll cut taxes for the wealthy...no wait, I'll give money TO THE Wealthy!

His platform is being anti-Obama because he thinks that's the only way to get the nomination. Now granted , he isn't shallow like Santorum, he actually has a 59 point plan that if he ever had a chance to talk about more than 2 points of it without going back to anti-obama people might warm up to him.

Doesn't matter to me anymore. I have no interest in waiting for Rand Paul to get his shot.

think Obama will win in the Fall because I still believe the Mormon issue will send a lot Conservative voters to the sideline and it will open up Obama to win North Carolina and the Primary rhetoric on immigration will give Obama a big push in the Southwest.

So, Obama wins because he's not a Mormon. Nice.

Mormons are the new irish