Mitt Romney Will Have to Work for Libertarian Support

Many libertarians might be inclined to cast their ballots for Johnson in order to send a message to the GOP. But anyone who is inclined to believe that Johnson could actually win the general election should disillusion himself immediately. The electoral game is too rigged in favor of the two major parties for a third party to break through and in any case the Libertarian Party’s nomination process occurs too late in the year for Johnson to have time to assemble the kind of grassroots coalition he would need to accomplish such a feat. Casting a vote for Johnson will only have...

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Tom McClintock on Victory Over SOPA/PIPA

Congressman Tom McClintock (R-Calif.) delivered this speech on the floor of the House of Representatives yesterday: You can find the transcript at United Liberty. I don’t know about you, but I’m thinking Paul-McClintock 2012 or Johnson-McClintock 2012.

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5 Things You Need to Know About ACTA

In the midst of last week’s protests against the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and its Senate version, the Protect IP Act (PIPA), I suggested that “[w]e’re fighting an uphill battle” against the powerful forces that want to censor the internet in the name of anti-piracy. Since then, many pundits and bloggers have been striking a triumphalist note now that both SOPA and PIPA appear to be dead in the water. But the best rule of thumb when you think you’ve beaten those who would erase our civil liberties is to reject complacency and assume that you haven’t. When they look like...

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The State of Our Union is Dire

You probably won’t hear about Sen. Paul’s detention by the TSA in President Obama’s address tonight. You’re not likely to hear anything about it in the GOP response delivered by Governor Mitch Daniels (R-Ind.), nor even in the Tea Party response offered by businessman and former presidential candidate Herman Cain (R-Ga.). You probably won’t hear about the National Defense Authorization Act, the Stop Online Piracy Act, or any of the other manifold ways that Washington has undermined the Bill of Rights. But whether our politicians want to raise these issues or not, these are the issues that define the state...

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Draft Jeb Bush? You Can’t Be Serious!

At NRO, former Congressman Artur Davis (D-Ala.) suggests that Republicans should draft former Governor Jeb Bush (R-Fla.) for president. Excerpt: The fact is that Jeb Bush bent Florida, a famously interest-group-ridden state, in a rightward direction; that’s an accomplishment Romney can’t begin to claim vis-à-vis Massachusetts. Bush is not just an authentic movement conservative, but a groundbreaker on an array of issues that drive votes, such as accountability for teachers and reining in the costs of private health insurance. While his record has blemishes that Democrats would exploit, from his stint in the Eighties lobbying for southern-Florida business interests to his...

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Regulator of Unions Will Keep Getting Paid By Unions

What could go wrong? From Heritage (h/t Hot Air, Instapundit): Financial disclosure documents filed by two of President Obama’s illegal appointments to the National Labor Relations Board show that one will continue to receive payments from a major labor union during his time on the board. Richard Griffin, the former general counsel for the International Union of Operating Engineers, will receive regular payments under two different IUOE pension plans. The payment amounts are not listed on the disclosure form. He will also receive a single lump sum payment equal to three weeks of salary (one week for each of the three years since he...

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Should We Scrap the State of the Union Address?

James Joyner references an article by NPR’s Linton Weeks arguing that we should scrap the State of the Union address. Joyner agrees, writing: We’re in the midst of an election campaign to decide whether Barack Obama gets to keep his office another four years and yet, for 90 minutes or so, we’re supposed to pretend that he’s our king. The entirety of both Houses of Congress, the Supreme Court, the Joint Chiefs, and the Cabinet–minus, of course, some token unelected apparatchik kept in a safe location somewhere to reconstitute the government in the event a Japanese airliner rams the Capitol– is supposed to clap like...

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Announcement

Blogging isn’t easy. Oh, sure, it may look it — but give it a try. It can take an hour or longer to craft just one post of a few hundred words, especially if you’re a political blogger who wants to be absolutely certain that what you’re blogging is correct. Maintaining one blog is time-consuming enough. Maintaining your own blog while trying to write for another blog is damn near impossible. What I’m getting at here is that I won’t be maintaining The Daily Radical as a full-time political blog anymore. Rather, I’ll be treating it more as a personal...

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Championship Sunday Open Thread

Can the New England Patriots’ offense repeat last week’s superstar performance today against the Baltimore Ravens and coast all the way to the Super Bowl? Will Eli Manning’s New York Giants persevere over the San Francisco 49ers? Could we see another Patriots-Giants match-up at Super Bowl XLVI? Discuss, discuss! Or post a comment to cheer on your favorite team. This is an open thread. You can follow me, @TDR_Editor, on Twitter for updates on today’s games.

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Rule 5 Sunday

What you see to your right are Spicy Bacon Cowboy Chili Cheese Fries. It’s one of ten recipes that BuzzFeed (h/t Neatorama) has dubbed The Most Extreme Super Bowl Party Recipes. Check out the link to find out how to make these bodacious fries and to see the other nine recipes. Some of my other favorites include the Black Bean-Habanero Lime Dip, the Bacon Explosion, and the Maple-Beer-Chili Chicken Wings. And if you need something to wash down those chili cheese fries, you might want to grab a brewski. It’s good for you! Switching gears a bit — or, really, a lot — this...

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With Broncos’ Season Over, Tebow Derangement Syndrome Has to Go

Writing for Salon.com, Marcus Cederstrom has fired the latest shot in the Tebow Wars: So I ask, what if Tim Tebow were Muslim? How would our society react if during every interview, Tebow said “Insha’Allah” or “Allāhu Akbar” rather than thank his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ? Or instead of falling to one knee and praying,  Tebow pulled out a prayer rug and faced Mecca? A recent study by the Pew Research Center suggests it would not be well received. While American Muslims in general tend be satisfied with their lives and communities in the United States, 55 percent report that being Muslim...

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Rule 5 Sunday

The deliciousness you see to your right is Beer Cheese Soup, a concoction created by Nick at DudeFoods.com. You can find the recipe at EatWisconsinCheese.com, along with Nick’s recipes for Deep Fried Chocolate Cheese Fudge (guaranteed to kill you before halftime) and a Slow Cooker Reuben Dip. As you can imagine from the name of the latter website, all of these recipes are cheese intensive. Speaking of beer, why can jocks drink quantities of it that would leave us nerd-inclined folk staggering to the nearest bathroom to cuddle up with the toilet seat? It’s because they’re so jacked and tan, yo (h/t Andrew Sullivan):...

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AFC Divisional Playoffs: Broncos @ Patriots Live Blog [UPDATED: Pats Win 45-10, Advance to AFC Championship]

I’ll be live blogging the AFC Divisional Playoffs: Broncos @ Patriots game this evening. Coverage will include my own reaction as well as live, real-time reporting from sports reporters and the two teams on Twitter. Can Tim Tebow beat back the Patriots defense and take the Broncos to the AFC Championship? Or will Tom Brady lead the Patriots one step closer to their fourth Super Bowl win at Super Bowl XLVI? Join The Daily Radical’s live blog to find out! Coverage will get underway at 7:30 P.M. EST. Please disable your pop-up blocker if you want to follow the live...

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Every American Needs to Know: Ron Paul Saw It All Coming and Tried to Stop It

I was sent a link to the above video by someone on Twitter, who asked me to take it viral. I hope that it will go viral because it provides a definitive answer to the question: “Who could have known beforehand that things would turn out this way?” Ron Paul knew and he warned his fellow members of Congress in 2002. He predicted virtually every crisis and problem we have faced over the past decade. He knew and everybody in Washington should have known too, because he warned them. So the question isn’t: Who could have known? The question is:...

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Oh, Grover, Even Paul’s Endorsement Can’t Save Romney

We’ll give Grover Norquist points for honesty. At least he knows that Republicans can’t hope to win in November without Ron Paul and his supporters. But in his commentary on the New Hampshire GOP primary results for The Guardian (h/t Andrew Sullivan), Norquist seems to be operating under the delusion that Congressman Paul’s endorsement could save Romney’s presidential candidacy in the general election: However, Ron Paul is the only candidate for the Republican nomination whose endorsement will matter to Mitt Romney. It is the only endorsement that will bring votes and the only endorsement, if withheld, that could cost Romney the general election. If...

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