Sunday, April 22, 2012

Rock n Roller Nugent, Whose Endorsement Romney Camp. Acknowledged, Man Messing Around with Underage Girls

As DemocraticUnderground.com reported (citing Politicus USA), rock 'n roll guitarist Ted Nugent said some violent words at a National Rifle Association convention this weekend, but that's not the only problem with the man whose endorsement the Mitt Romney for president campaign accepted.

Apparently, Nugent said in a 1998 VH1 "Behind the Music" interview that he messed around with underage girls back in his 1990s tours.

Of course, whether this was legal messing around or statutory rape, depends on a few factors.

From the videocafe, with allusions to Nugent's being a chickenhawk:
Lawrence O'Donnell went after Nugent for his draft dodging during Vietnam tonight, but he didn't mention this. I wonder if Romney is still going want Nugent's endorsement if the media picks up on this story as well. Given Nugent's history of violent rhetoric, you've got to wonder why Romney thought chasing after this guy for an endorsement was a good idea in the first place. Now we can add bragging about potential serial statutory rape, depending on just how young and what states these girls lived in, to the list of why his campaign should not have touched Nugent with a ten foot pole.

As this site reports, Nugent's marriage fell apart due to infidelity on the road, including with a 17 year old girl: http://www.roctober.com/roctober/behindthemusic1.html

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Don't Write Off Gingrich, Santorum Delegate Effect After April 10

Yes, Rick Santorum has given up his 2012 presidential nomination bid.

But do you really think that his delegates are going to shift entirely over to Mitt Romney's camp?
At this point most of the Santorum delegates are going to go to Newt Gingrich.

With all the mainstream media pronouncing clear sailing for Romney, with the suspension of the Santorum campaign, you would wonder, have they looked at the primary and convention schedule for the next few weeks?

HOW THE HEADLINES WILL LOOK, APPROACHING APRIL 24, NEXT BIG PRIMARY DAY
The headlines over the next few weeks are going to most likely tell the story of Santorum delegates staying in the anti-Romney camp. The anti-Romney voters probably have not forgotten Romney's aide Eric Fehrnstrom's March 21 comment about Etch-a-Sketch of Romney's positions in September and October.
In the next few weeks we have various district, county and state level conventions. These are important meetings. As GreenPapers, one of the better sites on the primary elections tell us, these are dates at which convention attendees will vote on whom delegates will be, heading toward the August 27 Tampa convention.
So, on these dates, anticipate the affirmation of the anti-Romney position, and a shift of support, and endorsement of sorts, from Santorum to Gingrich:
April 13, Colorado district conventions, April 14, Colorado state convention and April 21, Minnesota's district convention.
Wyoming's convention, April 14, could go a number of ways. Out of the March 10 county delegate selection announcement, Romney won 10 delegates, Santorum 8, Ron Paul 6 and Newt Gingrich 2. If the Santorum delegates all go to Gingrich, then Gingrich would be tied with Romney.

Friendly primaries and delegate assignment meetings in the next few weeks also would more likely go Gingrich's way than Romney's:
Kansas (4/24), Louisiana (4/28), Minnesota (5/5), Indiana (5/8), West Virginia (5/8), Nebraska (5/15), Arkansas (5/22), Kentucky (5/22), Texas (5/29). And much of New York and Pennsylvania consists of red counties, so watch for Gingrich to pick up many delegates in those states on April 22.

So, the Newt Gingrich juggernaut will certainly not die out during April or May.

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

How Will Greek and Other Under the Debt Gun Voters React?

BREAKING NEWS UPDATE:
GREECE TO DISSOLVE PARLIAMENT TODAY; TO HOLD SNAP PARLIAMENTARY ELECTION, SUNDAY, MAY 6
Details in this Reuters story from Tuesday night, April 10. Parliament has been summoned to meet Wednesday, April 11, at 2 PM, GMT.
(Alexis Tsipras, the next #2 leader of a coalition government? Tsipras is a civil engineer, and is the leader of Synaspismos political party, which is a leading party of the coalition of left parties, Coalition of the Radical Left [SYRIZA].)
(Scroll to the bottom for other austerity-strained countries' elections, this year and next.)

Europe is have a sovereign debt crisis.
Greece, most hardest it with austerity in this crisis, is having its parliamentary elections in April of 2012 (Sunday, April 29 or May 6, according to wikipedia). Already, polls are indicating that Greek voters are already set to vote in in increasing percentages for the Communist or other left parties.
Traditionally, either of the two largest political parties, New Democracy (the conservative party) or PASOK (the socialist party), had governed with a majority or a large plurality of 40 or more percent. In this era of the European sovereign debt crisis, it appears that Greece is heading to a party system with no party winning more than one-third of the vote. We are looking to a situation in which a government will be formed from a collection of eight or so parties. And it looks as though left of Socialist parties will pick up a larger percentage of the vote.
Ekathimerini.com reports with an April 1 dateline that the conservative New Democrats are anticipated to receive 22.5 percent. PASOK is polling at 15.5 percent. The Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA) is polling at 12.5 percent, the Democratic Left at 12 percent and the Communists at 12 percent. A new Independent Greeks party of New Democracy defectors is polling at 8.5 percent in opinion polls of voters.
Another ekathimerini.com posting, from March 21, 2012, also addresses the new political system and the great spread of support across different parties.

World Socialist Web Site claims that the various left parties are cozying up to the PASOK party [Socialist], with their eyes on PASOK to form a governing coalition.

Skip over its Trotskyist bias with the slanted adjectives and verbs:
Following a relentless series of attacks on their living standards and social gains, millions of Greeks are angrily turning their backs on the established political parties. According to recent polls, support for the social democratic PASOK party has slipped from 44 percent in 2009 to between 8 and 15 percent. Under these conditions, a number of pseudo-left parties are working to stabilize the situation and prepare the ground for a new government capable of enforcing additional social cuts.

The driving force behind a government of “leftist” parties is the Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA). It has repeatedly called upon the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) and the Democratic Left (DIMAR) to cooperate in such a project, but so far both organisations have turned down the offer.

The last the New York Times addressed the party situation was "Greece’s Socialist Party Changes Leaders," March 19, 2012.

Other Countries Under the Debt Gun --with elections this year include:
France, presidential election, April 22, May 6, 2012; legislative election rounds, June 10, 17, 2012. The Socialist candidate, Francois Hollande, is trailing right behind incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy. The Christian Science Monitor news site has portraits of the top five presidential candidates. From far left, to center, to far right.
Ireland, referendum on EU debt compact, or fiscal treaty, May 31, 2012. So far, the Czech Republic and the United Kingdom have voted against signing the debt compact. Ireland is the only nation that holds a referendum on the treaty.
Iceland, presidential election, June 30, 2012 (a beauty contest for a largely ceremonial position)
Lithuania, October, 2012.
Mexico, with a more stable debt situation than the above countries, is having its presidential election this year, July 1, 2012. Its leading left party is Party of the Democratic Revolution, whose strengths are restricted to the center and the south. It has cooperated in the Broad Progressive Front with the Labor Party and the Citizens' Movement. Its Congressional election are the same day. It will elect a mixture of first-past-the-post (winner take all) seats and list proportional representation seats. Follow the news at La Jornada.
(Other news: Croatians voted in a referendum, January 22, to join the European Union.)
Elections, next year, 2013: Bulgaria, Iceland, Italy)
How Will Their Voters React?