You Can Find It Any Time

Taxing
It's Republican primary time so we have to have a national conversation about the tax filings of the contenders. (Precious little time was spent - by the way - on Bill Clinton's returns. You remember - the one where he deducted the donation of his used boxer shorts. Likewise, there was almost no discussion about the Obamas' stingy charitable contributions.)


Anyway, here is another way of looking at the question of Mitt Romney's taxes. Did he pay what the tax code said he was supposed to pay or did he break the law? If he paid what he was supposed to pay then this part of the discussion is over. Critics can then work to change the tax code so he is forced to pay whatever they think is the right amount. Put another way, do we want to elect a president who is dumb enough to pay MORE taxes than he is supposed to pay?


One more thing. Romney tithes ten per cent to his church. How much - we wonder - does Obama give to his?


LGBTQRSPWC
In South Carolina, Rick Santorum has fielded fewer questions on LGBT rights than he did in New Hampshire, but things got tense on Thursday when a transgender activist stormed his press conference in Mt. Pleasant. 


Kneena Raheja, 20, yelled, "Mr. Santorum, you have spilled queer blood!" as the GOP presidential hopeful finished speaking, according to BuzzFeed. (Huffington Post, 1/19/2012)


This is what Republican candidates for president have to endure.


Banished
But he stays out of those halls, thanks to restrictions on his ability to lobby Congress until 2013. (NYT, 1/19/2012)


Former high-ranking Democrat Chris Dodd (who along with Barney Frank attempted to exculpate his own sins by burdening the country with the Dodd-Frank legislation) has become.....A LOBBYIST! Well that was fast. What we don't get in this puff piece by the New York Times are the insinuations of nefarious doings that we get when a Republican is outed as......A LOBBYIST!


Block and Tackle
A federal judge on Thursday blocked Vermont from forcing the Vermont Yankee nuclear reactor to shut down when its license expires in March, saying that the state is trying to regulate nuclear safety, which only the federal government can do. ...Vermont Yankee produces more than 70 percent of the electricity generated in the state... (NYT, 1/20/2012)


So for now at least, the lights will remain on in Vermont. Sales of candles will decline, but that should not hurt the local economy which will see the 600 jobs at Vermont Yankee preserved. Notwithstanding Governor Shumlim's protestations, we cannot help but think that he is secretly relieved. By publicly supporting the closing of the plant he maintains his credibility with Vermont's mooonbat Left. Further, the judge's decision gets him off the hook for figuring out how to replace almost 3/4s of the state's energy. On the downside, he can now focus full-time on state-run health care.