Last Call

John Podhoretz considers President Obama to be "weak" for making this week's recess appointments to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the National Labor Relations Board, which is actually kind of hysterically funny.

Maybe it’s the best hand Obama has to play, but it’s not a very good hand. For one thing, the voters who have turned on him don’t think he has exercised too little power, but rather too much — so bragging about doing things without congressional sanction may not play well.

Second, no matter how resolute he sounds, the fact that he has to act in a somewhat rogue manner is an expression of a profound loss of presidential authority — and one that he can’t successfully blame on Congress.

The hysterically funny part is that we do remember the fact that Podhoretz wrote a book about President George W. Bush expanding the powers of the executive office called "Bush Country: How Dubya Became A Great President While Driving Liberals Insane" right?  The entire premise of the book, in Podhoretz's own words?

''Love him or hate him, respect him or revile him, George W. Bush has made extraordinary use of the powers of the presidency and has changed the United States, its government and the world in ways that have made an indelible mark on the new century.''

In fact, Bush the Younger used the power quite often.  But not as much as President Reagan did.

According to reports from the Congressional Research Service, during their time in office President Ronald Reagan made 240 recess appointments, President George H. W. Bush made 77 recess appointments, President Bill Clinton made 140 recess appointments, and George W. Bush made 171. Obama's first term has seen a paltry 28. In this context, Obama's move seems less like a power grab and more like the proverbial 98-pound weakling taking a second to wipe the sand out of his eyes.

It's okay if a Republican does it, apparently.  Funny how that works in Podhoretz's little corner of non-reality.  The GOP seems especially incensed because they claim the Senate was "in session" at the time, meaning that the appointments were unconstitutional.  Nary a peep out of the Republicans when Dubya was doing the same thing with the power of the executive.  Barely a word when Newt Gingrich last month declared he would simply ignore the Supreme Court if he didn't agree with them.

But Barack Obama makes a recess appointment, and it's TREE OF LIBERTY MUST BE REFRESHED WITH THE BLOOD OF TYRANTS time.  Hey, Republicans?  You have a recourse.  Reconvene the House.  Present articles of impeachment over this.  Let's see what you've got.

Otherwise, you're whinging about a power spelled out in the Constitution itself.  Shut it.

A Funny Thing Happened On The Way Out Of Des Moines

It turns out Mitt Romney may not have won in Iowa after all.

Mitt Romney received 20 fewer votes than are reported from a Moulton precinct in numbers posted by the Republican Party of Iowa, the Appanoose County GOP chairman said today.

The final vote between Iowa caucuses winner Mitt Romney was eight ahead of Rick Santorum.

“We stand by the figures that were presented by the Moulton precinct caucus,” said Lyle Brinegar, chairman of the Appanoose County GOP.

Matt Strawn, chairman of the Republican Party of Iowa, continued to express confidence Friday that the order of finish will not change. He said the party would make no further comment until its two-week vote certification process is complete.

Moulton resident Edward True has signed an affidavit saying that he helped count the vote at the Garrett Memorial Library in Moulton and that the precinct had two votes for Romney, not 22, as reported online by the state GOP.

But here's the kicker: the article goes on to say that even if Santorum did win that it doesn't really change anything, we're told.  Rick's Slick is still going to lose in every other state. 

Drake University political science professor Dennis Goldford said the results – even if the certification reveals a different answer – will change little other than bragging rights.

Santorum, who for months remained in the single digits in polls, wildly beat expectations, and that is the real story, Goldford said. The caucuses don’t result in an actual election, so there’s no additional harm done in terms of having to eject a candidate from a position, Goldford noted.

Now that's odd.  Republicans keep screaming how the voting process is inherently corrupt if it ever produces a Democrat as the winner because they always steal elections, therefore we must have strict voting laws in every state for every election that makes it as difficult as possible for people to vote in order to protect the integrity of the election system.  We have to pass laws to immediately protect the sacred process from the evils of those people who may try to vote 4812 times.  It's the only way one of them could end up President you know, and if you don't agree you're evil vote-stealing scum anyway.

But that election system apparently doesn't matter when it comes to the coronation of Mitt Romney as nominee as fast as possible.  Strange how that works.  Democrats aren't even American as far as most Republicans are concerned, but it's all good if Republicans fiddle with the election system.  It's just a caucus, right?  Besides, ACORN ACORN ACORN BLAH BLOOGITY BLAH CHICAGO WAY.

Everything Old Is New Again: The Clintonization Of The Obamas

Republican First Ladies are all saints, and Democratic ones are all cast iron bitches, apparently.  Two stories indicate that 2012 as an election year means Michelle Obama is fair game.  First, we get one step closer to the n-word...

Kansas House Speaker Mike O'Neal on Thursday apologized for an email that made fun of first lady Michelle Obama's hair style and mockingly called her "Mrs. YoMama."

The emails featured pictures comparing Mrs. Obama to the Grinch, a Dr. Seuss character, because of their similarly wind-blown hair.

"Sorry, just had to forward this latest holiday message," O'Neal reportedly wrote in the email he shared with fellow Republican lawmakers. "I've had worse hair days, but this is pretty funny."

According to The Lawrence Journal World, O'Neal forwarded from his personal computer the email that said, "I'm sure you'll join me in wishing Mrs. YoMama a wonderful, long Hawaii Christmas vacation - at our expense, of course."

Boy, I remember all the horribly racist emails about Laura Bush.  Oh wait, never happened.  And they'll keep doing it and apologizing only when they get busted as long as they can keep getting away with it.

But the story that shows that the GOP absolutely knows that President Obama and his wife are likeable people?  Michelle and Barack getting the Clinton Second Term treatment a year early with a new "White House insider" book by Jodi Kantor.

The dramatics that surrounded the passage of health care reform -- culminating in Emanuel's near-resignation -- reflect the type of struggles that routinely pitted Emanuel against the first lady during the first two years of the Obama administration. The two jockeyed for influence over the president even before he formally took office.

Kantor, who interviewed for the book 33 White House staffers (many on several occasions) but not the president or the first lady, reports that Michelle Obama had "doubts" about the choice of Emanuel as chief of staff. Emanuel, in turn, had been opposed to bringing Valerie Jarrett, the Obamas' longtime mentor, into the White House as a senior adviser.

Once the administration began, the frictions only escalated. Emanuel rejected an effort on the part of Michelle Obama's chief of staff, Jackie Norris, to be part of his 7:30 a.m. staff meeting. The administration did not outfit her with a speechwriter for some time. And the first lady's office grew so isolated from the rest of the presidential orbit that aides there began, as Kantor writes, "referring to the East Wing as 'Guam' -- pleasant but powerless."

Sam Stein, who really ought to know better, gleefully buys the portrayal of the First Lady as pretty much every awful stereotype ever associated with successful black women:  mean-spirited, arrogant, overly controlling, petty and disdainful of her "betters".  Michelle Obama is an asset to the President and to the country, and just a few days into 2012 it seems the plan is to completely trash her in an effort to sink her husband.

Where have we heard this story before?

It just gobsmacks me to see that as much as folks like Stein complain that Democrats aren't given a fair shake in the Village media (and they aren't most of the time) we have Stein guilty of breathlessly pushing this gossipy "Michelle Obama's really an awful person" nonsense.  I thought the Manic Progressive crew wanted Rahm out of the White House anyway.  Instead, we see that Michelle's a insecure screamer and the return of The Democrat In Charge Is An Emasculated Wuss from that "bastion of liberalism", FDL.

And I shake my head as I realize there's now a concerted effort at the top to lower Michelle Obama's likeability ratings as low as possible because she is such an amazing asset to the President.  Yes, official Washington hated Hillary Clinton when she was in the White House.  But they absolutely despise even the thought of an accomplished PoC in the position.

2012 is going to be an unremittingly slimy year for the Obamas.  And the worst part is I truly believe part of the reason this is being done is to get Hillary 2012 folks off the hook.  It's not racism if it happened to the Clintons too, you know.

Except as the top of the post recounts, what Michelle Obama is going through is much worse.

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/01/05/134986/legislator-apologizes-for-yomama.html#storylink=cpy

Boy

2012's First "Worst Thing I Heard All Year" Kicks Off

On December 25th, a 22-year-old woman fell and hurt her head.  She lost consciousness, and woke up in the ambulance to a sexual assault by the lone paramedic in the ambulance.  He has since turned himself in, and has been charged with sexual assault and unlawful restraint.

It is standard practice for a single person to be present in the back of an ambulance.  While they look large from the outside, once you fit in a patient and the medical equipment there isn't room for anyone else.  Patients are not in a position to give permission for cameras, but surely there must be a way to protect patients from predators, and professional rescuers from patients waking up in confusing and frightening situations.  

I spend a lot of time reading about crime, and a fair amount writing about it.  I am constantly thinking of unique ways for fictional characters to pull of crimes.  I would have never thought of this.  You know it has happened before, and that it will happen again.

Taking advantage of a woman who is injured and relying on that person for life-saving care?  We have our first Worst Thing I Heard All Year 2012 contender.

Heroes Abound

With any story like this, I tend to hold on to see if there is anything else going to come out to explain the events.  In this case, it really is as straightforward as it seems.  This young woman deserves to be recognized.  She did something incredibly brave, and she kept her wits about her the entire time.  And though she did what she was forced to, she does not go on with fake bravado or witty sayings.  Instead, she expresses remorse for having to shoot a man to death to protect her child.

"Obviously when somebody breaks into your house with a deadly weapon, they're not here for anything good," McKinley tells NewsOK. "But I am very sorry and it wasn't anything I wanted to do."

McKinley showed tremendous composure and maturity during an unimaginable holiday season that started when her husband Kenneth died of lung cancer Christmas Day and ended when two burglars, reportedly looking for any pain medications left behind, started slamming at the doors of her Blanchard, Okla. mobile home on Dec. 31.

"I walked over and got the 12 gauge, went in the bedroom and got the pistol, put the bottle in [my son's] mouth, then I called 911,” McKinley tells Eyewitness News 5, explaining she wanted the baby to remain quiet so the intruders would not know where she was standing as they charged through the door.

As she laid out the situation to dispatcher Diane Graham, McKinley said, "I've got two guns in my hand. Is it OK to shoot him if he comes in my door?"

Graham responded: "You do whatever you have to do to protect your baby."

You're damn right, Miss Graham. It's unfortunate that a man had to die, but he put a baby at risk to take advantage of a teenage widow mourning her husband. When you commit yourself to a plan like that, you get what you get. I hope she continues to process the event and come to grips with the enormity of it so she can go on with a relatively normal life.

Two Plus Two Equals Bigotry

This story has been pissing me off all morning.

A math worksheet for third graders that used examples of slavery in word problems has angered some parents at a Norcross elementary school, Channel 2 Action News reports.

One word problem stated, "Each tree had 56 oranges. If 8 slaves pick them equally, then how much would each slave pick?" Another said, "If Frederick got two beatings per day, how many beatings did he get in 1 week?”

Such questions can evoke bitter memories in Georgia, where African Americans were enslaved for generations until the Civil War and the elimination of slavery.

"It kind of blew me away,” Christopher Braxton, a parent of a child at Beaver Ridge Elementary School, told Channel 2. "I was furious. … Something like this shouldn't be embedded into a kid of the third, fourth, fifth, any grade."

Another Beaver Ridge parent, Terrance Barnett, said, "I’m having to explain to my 8-year-old why slavery or slave or beatings is in a math problem. So that hurts.”

That's not the infuriating part, although it is unremittingly horrendous.  The part that's absolutely floored me is the school's response:

Gwinnett County School District officials said teachers were attempting to incorporate history into math lessons.

No.  Here's my response: You all should be fired immediately.  Any such justification is a failure on part of the administrators, plain and simple.  We have a zero tolerance policy for such behavior from students precisely because we're told it cannot be tolerated in a school environment.

I think educators and school administrators need to be held to even higher standards on setting examples for students.  This was at best, so brain-numbingly misguided that the school administration should have stepped in and stopped it immediately.

But the millisecond the administrators decided to excuse the behavior, they lost their rights to be administrators, period. Time for heads to roll.

StupidiNews, Weekend Edition!

• A hot air balloon tragedy has claimed the lives of eleven near Wellington, New Zealand as the pilot and all ten passengers were killed in a fiery crash.
• The US Supreme Court will take up a case that could decide if drug-sniffing dogs violate the Fourth Amendment's search and seizure clause.
• A suicide bomb in the Syrian capital of Damascus has killed 26 and left the regime of Bashar al-Assad vowing to use "an iron fist" to go after those responsible.
• All eight Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee are demanding Attorney General Eric Holder explain the legal reasoning behind President Obama's recess appointments this week.
• Gigabit Wi-Fi technology could bring wireless video streaming into a faster era...if the rest of the internet can keep up.

Last Call

Jobs numbers were rather nice for December 2011...maybe a tad too much so.

Employers in the United States added 200,000 jobs last month, the Labor Department said Friday, a report that came on the heels of a flurry of heartening economic news and signaled gathering momentum in the recovery. Consumer confidence lifted, factories stepped up production and small businesses showed signs of life. The nation’s unemployment rate fell to 8.5 percent, its lowest level in nearly three years.

It was the sixth consecutive month that the economy showed a net gain of more than 100,000 jobs — not enough to restore employment to pre-recession levels but enough, perhaps, to cheer President Obama as he enters the election year.

No sitting president has won re-election with an employment rate at 8.5 percent, but Mr. Obama is calculating that he can make a credible argument that he took over a country in an economic disaster and slowly walked it back. 

You're going to continue to hear how there's no way the President can win re-election with unemployment this high, but considering that good news politically is almost always relative, and that the Republican solution is exactly what got us into this mess in the first place,  the President has a better chance than the history books insist.

After all, there was never an African-American president until Barack Obama came along, so it's not like he's unused to firsts.

Having said that, there is the seasonal employment angle, specifically the 42,000 FedEx and UPS seasonal delivery personnel and warehouse jobs that will disappear this month.  We'll see what kind of numbers we get from the weekly jobless claims.

Inevitable Progress Marches On

The long arc of history bends towards Washington State as Gov. Chris Gregoire announces she'll head the efforts to put some rainbow in the Evergreen State.

Gov. Chris Gregoire on Wednesday said she'll put forward legislation to legalize marriage for gay and lesbian couples.


The proposal will be introduced during the legislative session that starts Monday. If it's approved, Washington would become the seventh state to legalize gay marriage.

"Today, I'm announcing my support for a law that gives same-sex couples in our state the right to receive a marriage license in Washington - the same right given our heterosexual couples," Gregoire said before a crowd of gay marriage supporters at her office. "It is time, it is the right thing to do, and I will introduce the bill to make it happen."

The governor spoke for 20 minutes, laying out what she sees as the moral and legal reasons for the move, as well as the evolution of her personal views over the years.

"I have been on my own journey. I will admit that. It has been a battle for me with my religion," said Gregoire, who is Catholic. "I have always been uncomfortable with the position that I have taken publicly. And then I came to realize the religions can decide what they want to do, but it is not OK for the state to discriminate."

Ding ding ding!

So refreshing to hear an opinion that matches my own on this issue.  Ironically, the opposite of that is not Rick Santorum or Rick Perry, but Ron Paul, who wants to fight for the right of states to discriminate all they want to.  It would be another step on the road to equality for sure, but the real battle is of course at the federal level.

Let's remember the kind of justices any Republican president would appoint in the next four years when the Supreme Court would hear California's Prop 8 case, too.

Fire Walker Chronicles, Part 10

The massive political game of chicken that is the recall effort against Wisconsin GOP Gov. Scott Walker (working title? Recall: The Electoral Opera)  entered a new phase as former GOP State Senator and Republican-friendly judge J. Mac Davis ruled in favor of the Governor as expected, saying now that the burden of vetting the recall petition signatures now falls on the state's election officials and not Walker.

The ruling by Waukesha County Circuit Judge J. Mac Davis came in a case filed Dec. 15 by Walker's campaign committee and Stephan Thompson, executive director of the state Republican Party, asking Davis to order the accountability board to seek out and eliminate duplicate and fictitious signatures and illegible addresses in recall petitions.

Davis, who refused to enter injunctions in the case, based his decision on his interpretation of state law, more than on equal protection arguments brought up by the Republicans. He also said that the board must take "reasonable" efforts to eliminate such signatures.

Kevin Kennedy, director and general counsel of the board, said after the hearing that his organization would have to discuss the decision to see what it needed to change in procedures already in place.

In court, Kennedy testified that entering signatures into a database to look for duplicates could take eight extra weeks for his staff, and could cost $94,000 for software and outside help.

Steven M. Biskupic, attorney for the Republicans, argued that not catching invalid signatures violated the constitutional rights to equal protection of people who chose not to sign recall petitions.

The second-best part is now that Democrats will be blamed for the bill after the Republicans sued in a heavily Republican county in front of a judge that was a former Republican state senator.  The best part is that if the board manages to get all the signatures processed and certifies them, it will be a massive Obama/ACORN conspiracy because the signatures weren't vetted by Walker's people.

Win-win for the Kochs, frankly.

Truer Words Were Never Spoken

When I was in my early teens, something terrible happened to our family.  I won't bore you with the story, it wouldn't mean much if you weren't there.  I was young and had no frame of reference to help me process those events.  I became angry, then sad, then resigned to the inevitable.  But when I was at a low, my mother told me something that changed me forever, and equipped me to deal with things this crazy old world was going to throw at me.

"You don't have any power over what is," she said.  "You only have power over yourself."  That has helped me so much in life.  Instead of fighting reality, I only have to make myself handle it the best way possible.  We cannot change death, sadness or loss.  We can, however, decide how we will react to it, and how we process it.  This is different than sticking our head in the sand, or refusing to fight for a better outcome.  It means we need to realize any illusion of control we have is just that.  We are only responsible for ourselves.

Recently, Lifehacker decided to run a piece that reinforces what I know to to be true.  I thought I'd share it with you.

When things aren't working the way you want them to, or you feel you're surrounded by problems, it can be tempting to look outward and try to change the things that you feel are causing issues. Chances are the issues you're facing aren't so cut and dry. The solution to the problem might just be your attitude. That's what pastor and educator Charles R. Swindoll believes:

The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, the education, the money, than circumstances, than failure, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company...a church...a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past...we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. And so it is with you. We are in charge of our attitudes.

We forget that we can choose who and how we are going to be. It's easy to blame outside circumstances for who we are, but even in the face of the best or worst life has to offer, how we react is our ultimate declaration of who we are.  Life is full of choices, but how we choose to look at the world is the foundation of how we will survive in it.  Sometimes, rather than try to change the circumstances we should try to change ourselves instead.  As I get older, I have noticed the same as Mr. Swindoll.  I have made a concentrated effort to focus on the positive, and I have tried to work with what I am given instead of demanding something else.  It has made me happier, and in the last year I have enjoyed more success than in the other years combined.

It's something to think about, at least.

When A Report Card Has More To Say

This snippet from a Huffington Post article made me stop and think.  I do not have kids of my own, but I am extremely involved with my nieces and nephews.  One of the things I try hardest to teach them is how to honor themselves while staying within appropriate boundaries.  I want them to use that creative child mindset to come up with fresh, uncluttered views and bring their unique perspective to problems.

For example, I was looking at my living room this Christmas, trying to decide how to arrange the furniture so everything fit.  I am not great with spatial relationships, and I had a piece of paper and was working it out when my niece came up and asked what I was working on.  I explained, and she took a few steps back to the doorway and looked at my room like she had never seen it before.  She then asked why I didn't move my couch so it sat in front of the fireplace (the one that has never been lit in all our years in this house).  It was the right solution, and we used it.  Because I was being too rigid in my thinking I would have never arrived at that conclusion.  In my fixed brain, one simply did not do that.  However, the finished result was perfect and if you didn't know there had been a fireplace there, the high-backed couch would have never let one know otherwise. I would have never arrived at the one solution that made everything work.

The "minus" mark was next to the "Follows directions" category and, according to the teacher, my daughter is very good at following directions about classroom routines (sitting quietly during story time, cleaning up before snack time, etc). When it comes to completing certain art or craft projects, however, "she likes to do things her own way," explained the teacher.

The incident in question had to do with a picture of a monkey. The teachers wanted the kids to color the monkey brown. My daughter wanted to color it red. The lesson was not about color identification, but rather about animals who live in the jungle.

If my husband had been at the conference with me, he would have gotten a cheering high-five. Seriously, I think that is the best criticism I have ever heard and may just merit a trip out for ice cream. I did muzzle myself long enough to verify with the teacher that my daughter expressed her artistic preferences in a respectful manner. When this was confirmed, I danced a silent jig, knowing that my little one has a mind of her own and likes to exercise it.

I worry that this instinct for out-of-the-box thinking and personal self-expression is often socialized right out of kids -- especially girls who are taught that being "good" means "going along." I felt joyful this morning learning that my girl still has her mojo.

Indeed, this mother was spot on. She made sure her daughter was still appropriate in her behavior, but encouraged her to be different in ways that were special for her and not detrimental to the goal. She is right that we are conditioning our kids to blend in rather than stand out, and that is a disservice to creative people who have a lot to offer. If you go back through history, the people who solved global problems and led revolutions that improved mankind often did so working against the established order of things. Being different may make for a slightly more difficult life, but it paves the way for success and lets us each shine in our own way.  That is more important that using the colors that a teacher suggests.  That is the key to a lifelong accomplishment.

Wrapped Up By The End Of The Month?

If Public Policy Polling's latest results from South Carolina are accurate (and PPP is usually pretty close from my experience) then as Josh Marshall points out Mitt Romney may have the nomination wrapped up by the end of the month.

There’s a real dearth of polling data out of South Carolina at the moment. The last public poll was completed on December 19th, which might as well be a hundred years ago. And remember that in recent years, it’s South Carolina much more than Iowa or New Hampshire where you really need to win to secure the Republican nomination.

We know that Public Policy Polling is currently in the field in the state. And they’ve just tweeted a few polling morsels from there first night of polling. And the first night shows Mitt Romney ahead by 10 points in the state, with Gingrich and Santorum battling for second.

It seems very likely that Romney will win convincingly in New Hampshire. If he then goes on to score a clear win in South Carolina, that would likely be pretty much it in terms of a real battle for the nomination. 

Gingrich had big leads in both South Carolina and Florida in December.  If Gingrich has crashed and burned there as hard as he did in Iowa, and people start coming around to Romney as the inevitable candidate, by the time we get Florida's results on February 1 it's entirely possible that a Romney win will be a foregone conclusion.

And the reason that may happen is Citizens United, pure and simple.  Romney has the backing of SuperPACs that are injecting millions into the race right now on his behalf, just as the rest of the field is sputtering and running out of cash.   Meanwhile, Romney has plenty of his own fortune left to fight with too.  A blitz of negative ads from these Super PACs basically won Iowa for Romney and the other candidates simply can't compete with that sustained level of bombardment.

If South Carolina and Florida go the same way, and what this PPP result showing Romney going from down by 20 in SC to up by 10 means is that the Palmetto State is responding to the ad blitz there, this really could be over by the first of February.  There will be tremendous pressure at that point for everyone else to then fall into lockstep behind Romney and start going after President Obama.

We'll see how the rest of the month turns out, but right now, everything's coming up Mittens.

StupidiNews!

• As the war in Iraq ends and the war in Afghanistan winds down, President Obama unveiled his plans for a leaner, smaller Pentagon.
• Joseph Kennedy III is planning to represent the political dynasty's re-entry into Washington politics, reportedly running for retiring Rep. Barney Frank's seat.
• After 85 years, Boeing plans to close its facility in Wichita, Kansas by the end of next year, eliminating more than 2,000 jobs.
• Analysts are expecting employment gains for December ahead of this morning's unemployment figures from the Labor Department.
• Documents show Spain's increasingly unpopular anti-piracy internet blocking laws passed only after intense pressure from the United States.

Last Call

Rick Santorum fails at spin so badly, it makes me wish for the relative Oscar Wilde-level erudition of one Michele Bachmann.



Epic Fail.

“I looked at that, and I didn't say that. If you look at it, what I started to say is a word and then sort of changed and it sort of - blah - came out. And people said I said ‘black.’ I didn't," Santorum said while smiling away.

“And I can tell you, I don't use - I don't - first off, I don't use the term ‘black’ very often. I use the term ‘African-American’ more than I use ‘black' ... I think sometimes you want to give someone the benefit of the doubt if it's a little bit of a blurred word."

That may in fact be the most lame thing of the year, and the year is 5 days old. It's so lame I'm giving Santorum his own tag: The Misadventures Of Rick's Slick.