Rick Perry?

Oh, Rick. There once was a time when the hopes of the republican party may very well have rested on you. Then you forgot your lines, and bungled your debates, and could only remember two of three targets departments for destruction. Rick's charisma could sustain him through the campaign, but he's too inconsistent in smarts to really have a shot in the general election. He is, however, a decent fund-raiser and would probably carry Texas strong (except Austin) and a good chunk of the south so... VP candidate? we Shall see.

Cartoon #1

This cartoon, by the delightful Mr. Bennett of the Chattanooga Times-Free Press, is a clever commentary on Herman Cain's utter inability to keep his crap straight. Cain recenly also requested secret service protection for reasons that, to be honest, were far from clear- the campaign cited "security concerns" and "increased scrutiny". Bennett has combined Cain's lackluster (being very, very benevolent here) public address skills with the secret service. The artist could be either a conservative or a liberal; the cartoon is pretty ambiguous, as many republicans are not to keen on Cain's sheer ability to bumble.

Is funny.

Cain's got an uh-oh- News! News! NEWS GODDAMNIT! READ IT! REEEEEAD!!!!!

Looks like Herman Cain has a bit of a problem.

It has recently come to light that he may have sexually harassed some underlings while president of the National Restaurant Association. He's been hemming and hawing the past few days, desperately trying to get out of the pitfall he's fallen into, but it's not working.

Instead of coming clean about the incident, he has attempted a Clinton maneuver: deny it all, and retroactively admit little pieces. It's a perfect media storm and the media is storming- storming hard. In short it's not looking too good for mister triple nine until he cleans up this mess. Personally? I think that if Cain screwed up, he should have admitted it in the first place; hell, even from the outset of the campaign. It's a little sad, because I sort of liked Cain- his flat tax idea is new, at least, and with tweaking might actually become an effectual way to maximize revenue. I intend to vote for him in the primary. Or, rather, intended- if he can't handle this "crisis" effectively and maturely, he will lose my vote at least and the public's at most.

Question of the week #4

In my ever-humble and respectful opinion, illegal immigration is the most critical issue facing Virginia today. Though the levels of incoming immigrants have decreased drastically since the recession, we still have a pretty big population of illegal immigrants living in VA, especially in Fairfax county. Herndon has one of the highest concentrations of illegals in the nation.

I am not saying that immigration is a bad thing; quite the contrary. These people are willing to do what white-collar or blue-collar workers are not. They see America as a chance to grasp economic opportunity and make something out of it, just like our (yes, our) ancestors did. Currently VA law is quite unfriendly to illegals, and severely curtails their ability to make a fair wage.

Essentially what i'm getting at is that these immigrants could be a force for economic growth, if we were to give them the most basic of abilities- that of legally generating revenue.