Santorum Drops Out

Rick Santorum dropped out of his presidential campaign today. He did not give specifics as to why he decided to drop out, but it is most likely due to Romeny's dominance in across the nation. Santorum stated that he will still give any aid to the Republican Party that he can, of course that mean backing Romney when he wins the candidacy.

The issue of money is brought up in this article, which suggests that Santorum has far less money than Romney. Money has become a huge player in presidential elections, maybe too much of a player. The Super PAC, Restore our Future, has backed Romney by putting millions and millions of dollars toward campaign adds that targeted Santorum. The amount of money that is being put into these campaigns is unbelievable. This leads to the question; is the best candidate being chosen by the country or are the supporting factors behind the candidate putting millions behind that candidate in order for that person to win? Most likely the candidate with the most money or the most financial backing will win the elections or campaigns. But if there are two candidates with about the same amount of financial backing, I think that the country would pick the best candidate because they are seeing more of both sides instead of seeing a majority a single sides propaganda.

The question of financial backing is a tricky question, because the more money behind a candidate, the more good publicity they will get, and the more bad publicity their opponents will be get. But if a candidate has a major financial backing from several sources, does that mean that they are the best candidate? Is it fair to say the people and companies supporting the candidate have a lot of money for a reason; they are successful and educated. But, of course, this brings up another issue of the elites running the country. Is that such a bad thing? Maybe the educated and elites should run the country because they are the most educated and knowledgeable. I don't know, it seems to be a issue that will never be completely answered.


http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/10/santorum-to-suspend-presidential-campaign/?hp

"Holy" Crap

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msT_lI7mNcA  Original assembly.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/god-and-man-vanderbilt_626331.html Blog entry.

Nota bene: Updates will be posted as the media jumps on this. I am blogging this as it is unfolding.

     On the class blog, I will try to keep my personal religious beliefs out of this. It is hard to find an appropriately controversial subject to analyze without it having any sort of personal impact.

     So what we have here is a holy way. Literally. The Vanderbilt administration has placed rules on the student population that a faith-based organization cannot pick their leaders based on faith. While different denominations of Christians, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, and other don’t normally agree, they’ve seemed to come to a strong unity on this issue.

     But what will the media say? As this unfolds, we will discuss the handling especially by mainstream media sources that cater to the left and to the right. God help us when Glen Beck gets ahold of this, and when Nancy Grace states her case.

We Who Are About to Write, Salute You

     While students all over Florida were encouraged to live blog about the Florida primary, the media had different pursuits.

     Sure, there were gallant efforts by the politically-focused press, but the king of this week’s news is not crowned among the realms of democracy. No, almost a week before the actual event, the media is live blogging about the Super Bowl. On a site that boasts, "Where your daily sports conversation begins... and never ends." (http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/early-lead/post/super-bowl-2012-media-day-live-blog-eli-manning-and-the-new-york-giants/2012/01/31/gIQASam7eQ_blog.html)  

     Now, there is no political consequence to this— so much is true. In fact, it is clear that the American publics are more interested in gladiatorial combat than Greek theater. As I have drawn parallelisms between Rome and America before and now, I probably will again. We are plagued by many of the same problems. Human nature has barely changed over thousands of years, and we still prefer sex and violence over more cultured or intellectual pursuits.

Pollice Vero, Jean-Léon Gérôme, 1872

     But that is just it.

     The commercial media and events-based journalism are built not upon the adage, “If you build it, they will come,” as the comment-based presses of many other countries are. No, it is built on supply and demand. The news is a product to be sold—not a scrutiny to evoke thought. As long as our Cerberus is appeased with bread (see: the story of Psyche in Greek mythology), he will silently allow issues to pass under his watchful eye, silenced.

     So too is our press. So long as the watchdog is given ratings and advertising income, he is placated. But while that is a problem rooted in the nature and history of our press, the solution lies in us.

     We define the demand. We can break the cycle. 

Tax Credits for Illegals

http://www.redstate.com/dhorowitz3/2012/01/30/end-refundable-tax-credits-for-illegals/

Two things jumped out at me in this article.  And yes, I decided to read from RedState, as I was inspired by Beth Lukas to channel my inner conservative.  Let's discuss the tax situation in the United States right now, in light of the fact that Obama talked much about fairness in his State of the Union speech last week.  Two statistics jump out at the very beginning of the article: 51% of tax filers paid NO federal income taxes in 2009. None.  Second, 30% of tax filers had a negative tax liability, in other words, they MADE money off of the system.  As a conservative, if you can't read into the unfairness of these statistics, you need to look again.  How can we say that our system is fair when half of the people who benefit from our government that we are all supposed to support, pay no federal income taxes.  I am sure that they pay taxes in other areas, but federal income tax is the big revenue generator.  I see a problem with this.  In addition, 30% of filers MADE money off of the system because of tax credits.  Beyond the fact that this is largely unfair, it simply is not sustainable, espcially considering the path that we are on now in terms of federal income tax.

Thanks to research by Arthur Brooks, we know that in 1986, the top 10% of income earners paid 55% of the federal income taxes in the United States, while the bottom 90% paid 45%.  By 2006, the top 10% were paying 71% and the bottom 90% were paying 29%.  Clearly, we are heading towards a system where the tax progression is increasing and the top earners are being asked to pay more, while the bottom, 51% of people pay NOTHING into the system.  In fact, 31% are almost making money off of the system.  It's even exacerbated by the fact that those pulling money out of the system aren't even legal citizens of this country.

  I don't want to blame either party for this because we get ourselves into these situations as a whole, but I think something should be said about the "fairness" of the system.  I'm not saying that those less fortunate shouldn't be given their fair shot or perhaps even a hand up in the system.  In fact, conservatives are markedly higher charitable givers, "Although liberal families' incomes average 6 percent higher than those of conservative families, conservative-headed households give, on average, 30 percent more to charity than the average liberal-headed household." (Brooks.)   But let's not lie to ourselves and say that the taxation system and policies of the government are the best route or the most effective either.  Were in a financial mess, and we should be careful how we handle ourselves.

Be sure to get statistics from both sides of the story.  I am always more educated when I hear arguments from multiple news sources with various "biases".  Clearly, RedState has a conservative bias, so I promise to make my next post from a more openly liberal leaning source.  It's good to listen to both sides of the story and then really decide.  Cheers to RedState for providing some good statistics.