Siezing Defeat from the Jaws of Victory

I'm not liking any choices in the GOP today. Not that there is any in the Democrats party. 

Newt is doing his best to bring in controversy he doesn't need at the last minute. I've heard conjecture that he's trying to keep his name in the news with his courts argument, but I think more likely he's tossing grenades into kindergartens without thinking as is his normal method of politics. He has some real points if he'd just calm down. Andrew McCarthy points out where he's right. You should take a second to read that. Newt is getting bad press on this and he deserves it, but the issue really is that he's fouling the water on an issue that is fixable and which needs redress.

Steyn discusses him as well. I have to say that his statement on the joke that is the NH primary is spot on.

Instead, what’s left of Romney’s softening lead in the Granite State will vanish as legions of nominal “independents” flood the Republican primary to vote for the candidate they figure will be easiest to beat in the general — as happened in 1996, when more than a few of my liberal neighbors figured why waste your vote renominating Clinton when you can cross over, boost Pat Buchanan, and sabotage Bob Dole.

I used to support the NH first primary spot, but at this point the rules of the race have more "independents" disguising Democrats who are just salting the political grounds when they are allowed as an independent to change their affiliation at the polls and vote republican. (and yes I'm well aware that the independents who are republicans are doing the same thing.) The combination of the ability to change and the first primary make the NH voting pretty much a complete waste of time. (I live in NH and this pisses me off to no end.)

Cain melted down, Bachmann has crashed with her nutcase views on Gardisil and the like. Ron Paul has some good stances on the libertarian front, but his Blame America First and the rest of his foreign policy stances are just loony. I can't see Perry getting anywhere and if he does Obama will slaughter him in any debate they have. Whose left, oh Santorum and Huntsman. Yeah there's a pair of non-starters. I won't even discuss Mitt "miracle of Massachusetts" Romney.

What a chance the GOP had to actually win easily with a decent candidate and this pile of dung we're offered is just pathetic.

Christopher Hitchens RIP

Wasn't expecting this. Really sad. I didn't agree with a lot that Hitchens had to say, but he was completely honest in his assessments of many topics which made him refreshing in the world of opinion.

UPDATE: Hitchen's memorialized at Hot Air.

Hitchens being Hitchens, I wonder which he anticipated more eagerly — the end of the pain or finally knowing if he was right about you know what. I suspect he was right. I hope we’re both wrong.

LEO Tank Division

Why does this strike me as a particularly BAD idea?

Through its little-known “1033 program,” the Department of Defense gave away nearly $500 million worth of leftover military gear to law enforcement in fiscal year 2011 — a new record for the program and a dramatic rise over past years’ totals, including the $212 million in equipment distributed in 2010.

The surplus equipment includes grenade launchers, helicopters, military robots, M-16 assault rifles and armored vehicles.

and

“The trend toward militarization was well under way before 9/11, but it’s the federal policy of making surplus military equipment available almost for free that has poured fuel on this fire,” Tim Lynch, director of the libertarian Cato Institute’s project on criminal justice, told The Daily.

Thanks to it, cops in Cobb County, Ga. — one of the wealthiest and most educated counties in the U.S. — now have an amphibious tank. The sheriff of Richland County, S.C., proudly acquired a machine-gun-equipped armored personnel carrier that he nicknamed “The Peacemaker.”

 Military provisioning does NOT aid in protecting the public. It may aid in protecting the police in extremely rare instances and more often giving police the tools to violate citizen's safety and rights.

I'm just trying to imagine officer 5-cupsofCoffee driving that amphibious tank in to serve a warrant on some poor sucker who happens to own a couple of guns. No doubt the internal affairs will continue to find that amount force justified irrespective of how badly misused these armaments may be.

I would think this would require local government to stop this. Here in New England I'd think you'd be best served by requiring any military grade acquisitions be approved by a vote at a public meeting. Only level of control when the police single you out for offending their authority.