Top Stories You Missed While Media Talked about Rush.

The media has spent a lot of time over the last two weeks attacking Rush Limbaugh.  A Georgetown University female student testified to Congress that she spends so much money on birth control that she needs government assistance.  She asked that taxpayers help cover the approximately $1,000 a year she currently spends on contraception.  For this, Rush called the woman a slut.  He has since apologized.  However, the media has covered this so much that you may have missed a few other important news stories from the last few weeks.

Gas is getting more expensive.  If you’ve filled up at your local gas station, you already know this.  However, the news isn’t covering this as much as they did during the last presidential campaign.  As of this writing, the website Gas Buddy reports that gas in the Atlanta area is between $3.59 and $3.99 per gallon depending on where you fill up.  AAA reports that the national average for a gallon of gas is $3.76.  For comparison, four years ago the national average was $3.16.  The most expensive gas has been reported in California at $6.00 a gallon.

Iran is about to get the bomb.  The International Atomic Energy Agency is now warning that Iran may be months (not years) from having a nuclear weapon.  Iran has ramped up their nuclear production in the recent months, is beginning to move production facilities deep underground to avoid a military strike, and is continuing to draw out the negotiations process.   I would argue that they are at the diplomatic table to buy time and not to seriously reduce their nuclear ambitions.  Experts believe that Israel has a very narrow window when it can make a strike against Iran to stop its nuclear program.  Within a few months, Israel must either attack Iran’s nuclear facilities, or trust the United States to protect them if Iran gets a bomb.  While this is going on, the White House has admitted to the Washington Post that, “We’re trying to make the decision to attack as hard as possible for Israel.” If only they showed the same determination to make things difficult for Iran.

Unemployment rose to 9.1%.   Gallup reported that unemployment went up to 9.1% this month.  This is at the same time that many in the media and the White House are trying to convince the public that the US is in a recovery going into the presidential election this year.  Three years ago President Obama famously said that if he hadn’t turned the economy around in three years, he didn’t deserve to be elected to a second term.  At this point four years ago, unemployment was at 5.1%.

The Earth experiences a massive solar flare.  Fox News reports:

The largest solar storm in five years — spawned by a double whammy of flares from the sun — has engulfed the Earth, but scientists say the planet has lucked out, largely missing the predicted dangers.

There was a lot of build up to this storm with forecasts including massive satellite damage.   However, in the end this appears to have only affected a few airline routes.  While I wouldn’t normally report on this here, I think it’s more important than the circus the media created out of Rush calling a woman who wanted others to bear the responsibility of her sexual activities a slut.

How I’m Voting on Super Tuesday

A few weeks ago I wrote to the voters of South Carolina.  In my post, I argued they should be voting for Newt Gingrich.  Super Tuesday is this week, and a number of states will be holding their primary, including my home state of Georgia.  If you had asked me a month ago, I would have told you the same thing I told South Carolina voters:  vote for Newt.   However, a month can change things, especially in politics.  On Tuesday, I will be voting for Rick Santorum.

Last month, I dismissed Santorum because I didn’t think he could get enough voter support to get the GOP nomination.  Recent primaries have proven me wrong.  The current delegate count going into super Tuesday has Romney in the lead, with Santorum in second.  Gingrich and Ron Paul are in third and forth.  If anyone has proven in the last month they can win the nomination, Santorum has.

Additionally, Santorum has been focused through the entire primary process on the most important issue this election cycle, Obamacare.  Obamacare threatens to wreck the U.S. economy.  The President’s promise that taxpayers can keep their insurance policy, if they like it, has proven false.  If Obamacare goes into full effect in 2014, we can say goodbye to the greatest medical care the world has ever known.  Instead, we will all soon be under the governments health care program with Obamacare.

Santorum also has a plan for our economy.  He has a section of his website devoted to his “First 100 Days Economic Freedom Agenda”.  His agenda includes policies such as reigning in the EPA, approving the Keystone Pipeline (and all the domestic jobs that go with it), and balancing the budget.

While Romney and Gingrich have their own economic plans, they have been a little squishy on traditional conservative issues.  Romney has been a successful businessmen, but he has also governed as a moderate.  And both Romney and Gingrich have gone on record supporting the political hoax of catastrophic man made global warming.  Both Romney and Gingrich support some sort of individual mandate when it comes to healthcare.  This part of Obamacare forces individuals to buy insurance simply because they breathe.  A government that can force you to buy insurance for breathing can force you to buy anything it wants.

This election needs to be about repealing Obamacare and improving our economy.  Everything else is a distraction form those two issues.  Rick Santorum has been clear that he is against all of Obamacare through the entire process.  He is the best candidate to hold President Obama to his record and to Obamacare.  Let’s present the voters with a clear choice in November.  Do they want more of Obamacare and the last four years, or do they want to see Obamacare repealed?

The Problem with Insurance Provided Contraception.

President Obama recently stated that he was going to force religious groups and organizations to provide abortion and contraceptive coverage to their employees for free. There was a lot of complaining about this, most notably in the Catholic church. Some religious groups currently don’t cover contraception. They believe contraception and abortion are morally wrong and they don’t want to encourage their employees to do something they believe is wrong. They also don’t want to pay for something they find offensive.

Many people also complained that this was the same as the government telling the Catholic church how to worship. The President then said that if that was offensive to religious groups, he would instead force their insurance provides to cover it so that the church doesn’t have to. This is a slight of hand at best. Seven states have filed suit against the federal government arguing that the federal government is violating the first amendment to the US Constitution.

This looks like an election year campaign trick. The Obama administration wants voters to believe that the only thing standing between their birth control pills and the Republican party is president Obama. In truth, Republicans are not interested in outlawing contraception. There is no candidate running with the intention of outlawing birth control pills.

Besides this being a campaign trick, I think there is a much larger issue here. This is a new power the federal government has just assumed. For the president to wake up one day and suddenly decide that an insurance company has to cover anything at 100%, or any other percentage is illegal. The president doesn’t have that authority. It doesn’t matter if it’s birth control, abortion, flu shots, or aspirin, the president doesn’t get to dictate what an insurance company does or doesn’t cover.

I would also caution those that support the president on this. If any president has the power to dictate what can and cant be covered and at what costs, then all presidents do. This opens a Pandoras box that may never be closed. What’s to keep a future conservative President from decreeing that abortion can’t be covered by ANY insurance company at ANY percentage? Why couldn’t a future president forbid auto insurance companies from insuring hybrid or electric cars, thereby killing that entire industry? If you agree with president Obama’s dictate to cover contraception, then you have to support these as legal as well.

Voters need to recognize this for what it is. The president is trying to distract voters from the economy. In doing so, he has reached for more power than he is allowed in the Constitution. We need to hold the president to the powers he actually has and we need to pass judgement on his economy this November.

Guest Post: The Goal of Education

The following is aguest post submitted by Pack04.  Pack is a regular reader and commenter here. 

“‘The goals of No Child Left Behind were the right ones. Standards and accountability, those are the right goals,’ Obama said. But he said educators shouldn’t have to ‘teach to the test,’ and said the new benchmarks will incorporate other factors for measuring school and teacher achievement. ” -AP