The Dutch Euthanize Their Elderly, and Other Scary GOP Lies About Europe

Oh dear, seems being cretinously ignorant about the rest of the world is still no weakness in the Republican party:
"The American right sure seems to like stories about foreign countries killing their citizens. Most recently, leading GOP candidate Rick Santorum claimed that 10 per cent of the Netherlands' deaths were from euthanasia, 5 percent forced, and that "elderly people in the Netherlands don't go to the hospital" or, if they do, wear bracelets saying "do not euthanize me," all of which is false."
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/03/the-dutch-euthanize-their-elderly-and-other-scary-gop-lies-about-europe/254462

And this is from a man campaigning to lead the world's main superpower. Sometimes one reads a piece of information that really scares you about a candidate, and this reminds me of following titbit I encountered recently about Sarah Palin:  "Schmidt [Mcain's campaign strategist] said he asked Palin about her serenity in the face of becoming "one of the most famous people in the world." He quoted her as saying, "It's God's plan."
Scary deja vu? You betcha...

Santorum back in the race after sweeping wins over Mitt Romney

Santorum won political caucuses in Colorado and Minnesota, along with beauty contest in Missouri securing triple victory
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/feb/08/rick-santorum-victory-colorado-minnesota
"The big results for Santorum were Minnesota and Colorado, whose caucuses were about delivering delegates The potential turning point could be Super Tuesday on 6 March when 10 states hold elections. Gingrich and Santorum victories in some of these states and a share of delegates in others would doom Romney's chances of bringing the race to a close in April."

Another debate, another round of the Mitt and Newt show...

no matter what one's political persuasion, I think these Guardian blogs of the GOP debates are classic...who'd have thought politics could be so amusing?!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/24/republican-debate-tampa-florida-live

some extracts:

• it seems like only yesterday that we were all here for the last Republican debate live blog. That's because it was only yesterday. Well, almost yesterday. This is the 18th debate, and the Republican race is showing no signs of being decided anytime soon, so there could be many more. There's another on Thursday, for god's sake. Then there's a gap of about month, but the ratings are so good, and American Idol is tanking, so the broadcasters will probably drop in even more. It makes you want to scream.
• Dammit. Moderator Brian Williams turns to Rick Santorum.Why, Brian Williams, when you had candidates re-enacting the Sharks vs Jets routine of the West Side Story but without the choreography and more ill will?
• The reason why Newt keeps mentioning Reagan, Pope John Paul and Thatcher, is that he wants to relive his glory years in the 1980s and 1990s. Maybe he should throw Duran Duran in there as well.
• Immigration now – always a hot topic in Florida. "We're not going to round people up," says kindly Mitt Romney. Instead they will be allowed to work without healthcare benefits on one of Mitt's mansions, and then deported. Actually, according to Romney, those without valid ID "will self-deport". That sounds more like something in Star Trek: "Self deport me, Scotty."
• President Mitt will restart the space programme, presumably to shoot his tax records for the past two decades into the ionosphere
• RomneyBot 2000 is back, presumably smuggled on during the last commercial break, and it promptly answers the question about sugar subsidies by talking about Barack Obama having played 90 rounds of golf while presiden
• What I've learned in this debate so far: It is not 1962 (Ron Paul), Americans are insufficiently blood-thirsty (Newt Gingrich) and when Castro dies, someone is going to think it's a good idea to wake up the president at 3AM (Brian Williams). Also, you should not have to apologize for success (Mitt Romney), but if you spend five minutes arguing that point, it will sound a lot like you are apologizing for success. Santorum something something something.

oddest attack ads

two most bizarre attack ads have seen so far...

Santorum's 'values' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhNdmD_I3Aw , claiming he's 'the only one with experience in the fight against radical islam' ?!  Not sure what that is supposed to be based on, and even worse blatant stoking of irrational fears...

Gingrich's body blow to Romney, the man, speaks... French! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyFaWhygzjQ

PAC men

Guide to the super-PACs...

http://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/superpacs.php?cycle=2012

current top 8 by expenditure...

Group	Supports/Opposes	Independent Expenditures	Viewpoint	Total Raised
Restore Our Future	supports Romney	$7,795,104	Conservative	$12,231,700
Winning Our Future	supports Gingrich	$4,204,685	Conservative	$0
Make Us Great Again	supports Perry	$3,793,524	Conservative	$0
Our Destiny PAC	supports Huntsman	$2,453,204	Conservative	$0
Endorse Liberty	supports Paul	$1,165,542	Conservative	$0
House Majority PAC		$1,105,843	Liberal	$2,110,000
American Crossroads		$1,064,223	Conservative	$6,679,887
Red, White and Blue	supports Santorum	$727,200	Conservative	$0

The New Hampshire result...Ron Paul wins in 2nd place...

"Mitt Romney's emphatic win is less significant than Ron Paul's result. And what it signifies is a Republican party fragmenting"
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/ana-marie-cox-blog/2012/jan/11/ron-paul-is-a-winner-with-second-place

Though this might be a case of excessive rune-reading. I do however like the comment: "Gingrich continues on completely out of spite, thank God. He is the grim anti-hero of the GOP, a cross between Richard Nixon and Batman."

Rick Santorum: bearer of the Christianist mantle

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2012/jan/05/rick-santorum-christianist-mantle

Rick Santorum's homophobic frothing

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2012/jan/04/rick-santorum-homophobic-frothing