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The focus of most political observers has been on the primary elections in Virginia last week, and for good reason. But a timezone away, there was another important primary taking place in Arkansas. There, one of the Republican architects of the state’s “private option” Medicaid expansion proposal, state Rep. John Burris, was vying for a state Senate seat that was also being contested by newcomer Scott Flippo. Like Virginia, candidate spending was lopsided with the presumed favorite Burris heavily outspending the challenger. But in the end, the race appears to have hinged on one thing above all else: Burris’...

Best of week's news/views/humor from today's 'new-media' Right....

Several days ago, we looked at the big picture of US immigration, presenting the place of origin of America's 40 million foreign-born residents. However, as is always the case with the US, focusing on the big picture at the national level ignores the nuances at the state level. The following two charts using Pew Research data, compiled by the WaPo, show the dramatic changes in the land of origin of US immigrants, beginning with 1910 when Germany was the primary driver of US-born residents, accounting for 18% of US immigrants, and proceeding through 2010, when Mexico has become the...

One week to the June 3rd GOP primary for senator in New Jersey! This week is CRUCIAL for Rich Pezzullo, as he is running in perhaps the most underwatched yet IMPORTANT primary in the country. He is polling either #1 or #2, depending on the poll or the flavor of the day. Nonetheless, he is the most consistently conservative candidate in the race who will caucus with the Ted Cruz / Mike Lee wing of the Republican Party if he wins the primary, then beats Cory Booker. I'll be blunt: This race is not just important for the senate seat,...

Cass Sunstein, Obama’s former regulatory “czar” and one of the smartest and most devious thinkers on the left, has a highly revealing Bloomberg column out this week reporting on the results of a study of the way China has attempted indoctrination in its school system. This column and the underlying study (it’s an NBER paper, behind a paywall unless you have academic access) are useful as background reading for everyone who is rightly concerned about how Common Core standards will likely become the means of nationalizing a liberal school curriculum. (What? You mean you aren’t reassured by the promises from...

By now most of you have heard of the growing VA scandal in which veterans were placed on waiting lists by bureaucrats with the express intention that they die. Bureaucrats actually got bonuses based on cutting down the waiting list. What better way to cut down the list than to deny medical care to the sickest people? When did Obama find out about this mess within the executive branch he is head of? By media reports of course! This seems to be how Obama finds out about bad news in his administration. No one tells him, he has to read...

A funny thing happened on the way to Michael Sam just wanting to play football -- and on being judged by his performance on the field and not his sexual orientation. After all, we were told ad nauseam, by Sam and his promoters in the sports media, that this is what Sam is about. If you Google “Michael Sam just wants to play football,” some 67 million results pop up. He also flatly stated that he "wanted to stop talking about his sexual orientation" and "let (his) work on the field speak for itself” in a radio interview, among other...

As the impeachment buzz surrounding the Obama administration has finally becomes mainstream, we look back at all of the offenses our president has committed that have brought him to this point. They have ranged from criminal negligence to outright unconstitutional tyranny. Ted Cruz has released a list of 76 of Obama’s “lawless actions,” and we are certain there must be many more where these came from. Such a pattern of disregard for the wishes of the American people and our Constitution simply cannot be stood for, and it seems like Mr. Obama might finally be catching on to that fact.

“This is the law. And every two years — let me tell you something. Every two years I come to the Congress, just like my good friend, Mr. Labrador, we put up our hands to swear to uphold the Constitution and the laws of this country. It is the law.” That’s what Democrat Rep. Elijah Cummings told Anderson Cooper last October. What was he talking about you may wonder. Was it the disastrous Fast and Furious scandal and the cover-up that followed? No, Rep. Cummings dismissed questions over the DOJ Attorney General Eric Hold’s role in the affair as “an...

In truth, the most salient fact of contemporary Catholic life in the West is the way it is pervaded by the pattern of saying things and then acting as if something else were true. (I’m learning, slowly. Everything below that is sarcasm or the voice of a liar, heretic or apostate is in GREEN.) Indeed. This sentence, penned earlier this week by a secular columnist almost sums up what pretty much everyone is too cowardly to say. In fact, it is the base premise underlying the derivative statement above that is the real 800 pound gorilla sitting squarely in the...

1. MTV MTV’s Chairman is on the board of CeaseFire, Inc. Not only are they corrupting society one raunchy music video at a time, they’d also love nothing more than to disarm the public. 2. Staples The office supply mogul frequently bans gun companies from entering their business contests – even though the contests are supposed to be open to “any and all” businesses. Sounds just like our tolerant friends on the left to make such a move. 3. Bank of America Turned down the business of McMillan Group simply because they are a gun company. 4. Google The world’s...

The White House quietly unilaterally repealed the Obamacare individual mandate for two years. That the President doesn’t have the authority to repeal provisions of a law passed by Congress doesn’t seem to matter anymore. The Republicans tried to pass an Obamacare delay as part of the budget impasse back in October. The President refused. One wonders what the point of negotiating with Obama is at this point. He seems to believe he is free to do anything he wants without negotiating with Congress. Obama wouldn’t give the House Republicans a crumb back in October, now he’s unilaterally done just what...

Changing Tires. Blink and you missed it.

Insurgent conservatives seeking to pull the Republican Party to the right raised more money last year than the groups controlled by the party establishment, whose bulging bank accounts and ties to major donors have been their most potent advantage in the running struggle over the party’s future, according to new campaign filings and interviews with officials. Baby Newt The shift in fortunes among the largest and most influential outside political groups could have an enormous impact in the 2014 election cycle, as the warring Republican factions prepare to square off in a series of Senate and House primaries around the...

From the pastoral constitution on the Church in the modern world of the Second Vatican Council In the face of death the enigma of human existence reaches its climax. Man is not only the victim of pain and the progressive deterioration of his body; he is also, and more deeply, tormented by the fear of final extinction. But the instinctive judgement of his heart is right when he shrinks from, and rejects, the idea of a total collapse and definitive end of his own person. He carries within him the seed of eternity, which cannot be reduced to matter alone,...

This video of actual combat in Afghanistan will make you smile and make you angry. It will make you smile because it follows the work of two Apache helicopter crews as they destroy a nest of Tally –ban troops who were trying to set up an ambush of a Special Forces patrol. It will make you angry because it...

If there is one thing I hate, it is spam. I hate spam email, spam snail mail, and most of all, spam comments on my blog. I take great pains to keep spam comments off Political Realities. At the same time, I want to make it easy for normal commenters to leave their thoughts on the blog, even if I disagree with what they have to say. That said, this post may only be of interest to those of you who operate WordPress blogs, but it is important enough for me to share in a post of its own. Every...

What is wrong with this picture? What kind of people are we when we celebrate sleaze and ignore honor and valor ?

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