P90X Day 41: Kenpo X

Yesterday, I said that I expected to be disappointed with the results of Kenpo X today. I was wrong. It was another great workout. My side kicks still need work, but that will come in time as I increase my flexibility. Heart rate was good throughout though. That makes it six days in a row now that I've been pleased with my workout. That must be some kind of record for P90X.

Really don't have much else to say. It's still an hour of punching and kicking at air. Nothing's changed since last week. :)

Tomorrow, I'm making a quick trip to Chicago and back. I'll be leaving here around 5:30 in the morning, and likely won't be back until after 10:30 at night. Tomorrow is "Rest or X Stretch" though. I suppose I could take advantage of my scheduled day of rest. That would be the easy way out, and perhaps the smart way as well.

But there's that calendar staring me in the face. The last day that I did no workout whatsoever was December 25, 2011. That's 166 days ago. I don't want my streak to end. So, I'll be getting up an hour earlier in the morning so I can do the X Stretch before I go.

I told you I was crazy.

I likely won't post tomorrow due to my other commitments, and I am participating in the National Blogger Day of Silence in support of Aaron Walker and other bloggers who are being silenced by Brett Kimberlin and his cohorts.

See you Saturday.

P90X Day 40: Legs & Back

It’s strange how your body changes from day to day.

Last week I remember thinking to myself that I could definitely tell that I’d reached Phase II of the program. Despite only two workouts changing, it felt quite a bit harder. Both the new workouts were pretty hard, and I was pushing myself harder on the other five.

Then came last Saturday, which was a disaster for me, as I mentioned at the time.

However, every day since Saturday has been almost pleasurable, if you can actually call a P90X workout pleasurable. I don’t want to call them easy. If a P90X workout is ever “easy”, then you’re probably doing it wrong. But, it seems like I’ve settled into a sort of routine. I know I’m pushing myself harder. I can see it in the increased weights, increased reps, increased heart rate, and increased flexibility. But there are very few exercises that just make me groan in dread when I realize they’re coming up. Maybe it’s because I know I can do them, now. I don’t know.

And, I’m not watching the clock, wondering when it’s going to end. I’m pushing myself to failure on every single exercise, but at the end of the workout, I feel like I could still do more exercises, if there were more to do. That was definitely not the case the first few weeks.

Today, the only exercise that really bothered me was when we got to Single Leg Raises. The pull ups are getting easier every week. I’m still not where I want to be with them, but I’m starting to get pretty close.

And the same is true with Ab Ripper X. I’ve started doing the harder versions of some of the exercises, and my form is getting better on the exercises that are just naturally harder. I almost feel like I’m doing the workout correctly now. Before I was just doing it as correctly as possible considering the shape I was in.

It’s strange, like I said. I feel like I’m going through some sort of metamorphosis. But, if I am, it’s all on the inside so far, because I still look pretty much the same on the outside.

Anyway, that’s enough self-congratulatory babble for me today. Tomorrow is Kenpo X. I’ve only been truly happy once after a Kenpo X workout, so the odds are my bubble will burst a little bit tomorrow. As Doris Day said, “Qué sera sera.”

June 6, 1944

Walker Survives Recall: What Does It Mean?

I have a slightly different take on the WI Governor race than most of my conservative brethren. Last night, Governor Scott Walker (R-WI) survived his recall election against Mayor Tom Barrett (D-Milwaukee). The margin of victory was about 7 points (53%-46%). This exceeds his victory margin from 2010 (also against Barrett) slightly.

Exit polls showed the race a dead heat, at 50/50. These same polls also gave President Barack Obama (D-USA) a 7-9 point edge over former Governor Mitt Romney (R-MA) in the race for the White House. Conservatives are saying that the exit polls were about 7 points off, so WI is now a battleground state, and is essentially tied.

Maybe. My guess is likely not, but I won’t say that’s certain. I will say that’s the wrong lesson to be taking from last night’s election.

My guess is that Obama still wins WI in November, by about 3-4 points. Now, that’s certainly close enough that it’s worthwhile for Romney to invest some money there and see if he can gain any traction. But, I think it’s unlikely to be a deciding state. If Romney wins WI, look for him to cruise to victory nationally in November, with probably something approaching 350 electoral votes.

That may happen, but few people are betting that way just yet.

I think looking at WI and wondering whether Romney can win it is taking the small view. I’m looking at the big picture. The last 3 elections have all been “wave” elections, with Republicans winning big in 2010, but Democrats winning big in 2008 and 2006. Even 2004 was a small wave for the GOP, in that President George W. Bush (R-USA) expanded his win over 2000 and got expanded majorities in both chambers of Congress, which is exceptionally rare for a 2nd term.

More importantly, the D/R/I breakdowns of the electorate shifted dramatically between 2004 and 2006, and again between 2008 and 2010. We have a very frustrated and volatile electorate right now, which makes prognostication exceedingly difficult. If you’re a pollster and you’re using a model that projects 37% of the electorate will be D, but it turns out to be only 33%, your whole forecast is going to be wrong.

So, the challenge for all the pollsters, and for anyone else who wants to take a stab at projecting 2012 results, is predicting where that D/R/I breakdown is going to land. So far, no one is predicting that 2012 will be a wave election. But, the question in everyone’s mind is whether it will more closely resemble 2008, or 2010.

Walker exceeded his victory margin from 2010 over the same opponent.

That means, in WI at least, 2012 looks like it may be much closer to 2010 than 2008. Perhaps even better than 2010. Will that translate nationally? That’s the billion dollar question. If the answer is yes, Romney can start thinking about who’s going to be in his Cabinet. Obama can not win in a 2010 environment.

Yes, there are some caveats here. Recall elections are oddballs. Also, it’s very possible that WI may be getting sick of elections, so they may not be quite as enthusiastic in November. And, it’s hard to say whether Romney can generate the same kind of enthusiasm in November anywhere that Walker did in WI yesterday.

In other words, it’s just one data point. Don’t read too much into it. But, if you think they’re not smiling in Romney HQ today and panicked in Obama HQ, then you’re not paying attention.

My personal opinion? Lately this feels like a re-run of the summer of 2010. That makes me very happy.

P90X Day 39: Yoga X

Yoga X. Easy peasy.

Ok, that’s a slight exaggeration. Same caveats for Twisting Triangle, Half Moon, and Twisting Half Moon still apply. Also realized I wasn’t doing Royal Dancer quite right. The right way is a little bit harder.

But, overall a nice, pleasant 90 minutes. Pretty sad when Yoga becomes one of the workouts you look forward to as part of P90X.

Tomorrow, Legs & Back. And Ab Ripper X. Let me go ahead and get this out of the way now.

 

Ow.

 

Ok, I feel better now. See you tomorrow.

Chris of Rights Will Always Support Free Speech

My wife is upset with me for my post on Brett Kimberlin last week. I understand why. Aaron Walker was arrested for blogging about Kimberlin. Stacy McCain and his family are in hiding for blogging about Kimberlin. Patterico had police with weapons drawn in his house looking for bodies, and all because he dared blog about Kimberlin. And now, blogger and tweeter who tweets under the handle @ali says his family has been threatened for the crime of supporting the people mentioned above.

So, you can understand why my wife might be upset with me for getting involved in this. I’m only semi-anonymous on this blog. It’s not that hard to find out my real name if you want to do a bit of research. I’ve given enough personal information on this blog that you could certainly find me and my family if you knew my name. She doesn’t want our family to go through what others are going through. And that’s a very reasonable viewpoint. And I don’t want my wife upset with me. The quote “happy wife, happy life” is a true one, after all. Nor do I want my wife and children to be in danger. Particularly over something that I use as more of an expressive outlet than anything else. I know I have very few daily readers, and that doesn’t bother me. That’s never been the point. The point is that I get all of this bottled up inside me, and this is my way of expunging it.

Despite that, I have no intention of lessening my support for Aaron Walker, Patterico, Stacy McCain, @ali, or any one else facing the wrath of Kimberlin and his lackeys.

Why? Am I just crazy?

No. Remember the name of this blog. It wasn’t chosen just to be cute. It’s not just happenstance. As I’ve mentioned numerous times, the Bill of Rights, particularly the First Amendment, are extremely important to me. This isn’t a left/right issue. It’s a right/wrong one. If the roles were reversed, and it was Kimberlin who was attempting to blog, and Patterico, for example, had sent police to his house on a fake 911 call, I would still be writing this, only in support of Kimberlin.

I believe in Free Speech. No matter whose speech it is. The left should be coming out in support of these bloggers as well. They need to be shamed into it, if necessary. Freedom of speech is, in my opinion, the most important of our God-given rights. If you let them take that away from you, then they can take anything away from you, including your life.

You need to understand. What’s going on here is beyond terrifying. I try to avoid comparisons to Nazi Germany. I think they’re overdone. And I think that hyperbole tends to weaken, rather than strengthen your argument. But here the comparisons to the Third Reich are warranted.

This is exactly how it started in the 1930s with the Jews. Jews were targeted, isolated, and attacked. And not just Jews, but the people who came out in support of them. Most of the general citizenry of Germany didn’t agree with this. But it was made clear to them early on what happened to people that spoke up in defense of Jews who were unfairly attacked. So, instead of standing up, they lived in fear that the eyes of oppression would turn next to them. And they did their best to hide from those eyes.

I can’t do that. I’m not trying to be macho here, or pretend that I’m displaying real courage. For me, it’s a decision that I can’t live in shame and in fear. I have to be able to look at myself in the mirror every morning and know that I’m a good person and a good father. I couldn’t do that if I didn’t stand up here.

Kimberlin and his associates are trying to destroy freedom of speech in America. The left, in their silence here, is complicit in this. We cannot allow this to continue.

I have one more link, and I want you to follow it, and read every word. It’s from Ace of Spades HQ. I support his decision, and will be participating in the National Day of Blogger Silence on Friday.

One quote, but do read the whole thing:

On Friday, this site will be absolutely dead-silent, which is what Brett Kimberlin and his stalker crew seeks, and what the media and our supposed Representatives in Congress would permit.

The only post on Friday will be a bold-faced Open Letter to Congress, urging them to act and not attempt to pass the buck to others.

They are our representatives; we would like some representation.

They vowed to defend and protect the Constitution; they can honor that vow now.

I will post links of Congressmen's and Senator's email addresses and offices and phone numbers, and urge every concerned American citizen to let them know, in no uncertain terms, that a crime in progress against the First Amendment (and people's safety) is occurring, and we humbly request they take this seriously.

They are literally going to get someone killed. That is their endgame here.

Will the media and Congress pretend "we didn't know" when this happens?

ABCNews knows.

The Weekly Standard knows.

The Daily Caller knows.

And many, but not yet all, Congressmen and Senators know.

I encourage all bloggers and twitterers to essentially strike that day, or write nothing except your desire that you expect your Congressmen to take threats to your First Amendment rights seriously.

P90X Day 38: Back & Biceps

Hooray! Today was a red-letter day. I didn't hate doing Ab Ripper X. Pretty sure that's the first time. Not that it was fun, but it wasn't excruciating. My form is definitely getting better for that 16 minutes too. I've definitely made some significant progress. But there's a lot more to make.

As for the main workout, this was the second time around for Back & Biceps. I still like this workout. I mentioned last time that I thought that I had done much better at picking good starting weights for this one than I did for others. I was correct, and it definitely helped this week having a good solid baseline from last week. For every exercise, I either increased my weight from last week, or increased the number of reps. And, for a couple, I actually did both. Still, I landed in the 8-10 reps range for almost all of the exercises. I need to review my sheet from today and see if it'll be necessary for me to pick up some more barbells this week. I don't think so, but I could be wrong. After next week, I don't return to Back & Biceps for a few weeks. I'll almost certainly want some more weight by then, but I'll have plenty of time to make those adjustments.

One thing I am noticing now that I'm working with heavier weights is a marked difference between my left and right side. I can usually get out one more rep, and sometimes two, with my left arm, than I can with the right. I'm not sure if I should start working on using different weights or not. If I don't, it seems like they'll eventually get closer together, because the right will be getting more of a workout than the left. However, that also means that I won't get all the benefits on the left side. I need to think about this.

A friend of mine who's also doing P90X has been doing some of the workouts outside. I haven't done this yet. If I could figure out a way to do pull-ups outside, I might for this one though. I think this one would be a fun one to do outside. You need several different weights, and even though I'm doing it in a decently sized room, I have to be careful that the weights I need are both easily accessible, and not in my way.

Of course, the Superman exercise might lead to grass stains, but that's ok. It's amazing how hard that particular exercise is. Try it. Lay on the floor on your stomach with your arms stretched out in front of you like you're Superman flying. Then lift up your arms and legs and hold them up for 10 seconds. Put them back down for another five. Repeat this whole thing 5 times, and make sure you really stretch when you're lifting. You'll definitely feel it.

(And I haven't even mentioned "Superman-Banana"--don't ask)

Tomorrow, Yoga X. I'm actually looking forward to it. Really, I should have my mental health checked. ;)

P90X Day 37: Plyometrics

Or…What a Difference a Day Makes

If you recall, I wasn’t too happy yesterday. And, Plyometrics is one of my least favorite days, so I wasn’t looking forward to today at all.

Still, today ended up being pretty fun. It still kicked my butt, don’t get me wrong. And it probably did so harder than ever before. My heart rate was consistently in the 160s from almost the opening seconds. And that might even be a bit high for me. Still, I enjoyed the workout even though I was completely drained afterwards.

While jumping around like crazy today, I let my mind wander a bit. Not really sure why anyone complains about Plyometrics, to be honest. It’s a mere 58 minutes long. And about 16 minutes of that is warm up & cool down stuff. That only leaves 42 minutes. But it’s not even that bad.

During those 42 minutes, you do 32 exercises that are 30 seconds each. You also do 11 exercises that are 1 minute each. That’s a total of a mere 27 minutes. The remaining 15 minutes, you’re just standing around doing nothing.

There are a few 30 second breaks, but most of that 15 minutes comes from the short downtime between each of the exercises. These breaks are about 10-15 seconds on average. The first couple times you do Plyometrics, you might wonder why these little pauses are there, but by the time you get to week five, you’ve learned to take advantage of them. In fact, you take advantage of every single second of downtime you can get during this particular workout. You need them.

And you’re still drenched with sweat and out of breath at the end.

Tomorrow: Back & Biceps. That’s another of my favorites, so with luck I’ll still be smiling tomorrow. See you then!

P90X Day 36: Chest, Shoulders & Triceps

Did I say this one might become my new favorite last week? No, surely not. It must have been Monday’s workout, Back & Biceps. Today’s was awful.

For the first time since I’ve started this thing, I wanted to quit. Don’t worry. I’m not going to, but I finally understood the people that do. This is a rough workout. To make matters worse, either I didn’t warm up well enough, or I pushed myself too hard on one of the early exercises.

I’m not sure which it was, but around the 8th exercise or so, both of my shoulders started to hurt pretty badly. Not in a good way. It went away after about 15 minutes, and I probably should have taken a break when it happened. Instead, I kept on with the exercises (never even pushed “pause”, and just tried to stretch a bit between exercises. Still, I’m sure that during that period, I was a little more tentative than usual.

And while I was going through this, I couldn’t help but think about tomorrow’s Plyometrics, and how hard that is. Yes, I was down for a bit. Can you tell? Still, I finished the workout, and I’ll finish tomorrow’s too. And the rest of the upcoming 50+ days as well.

Anyway, back to the workout. As I’ve mentioned last time, this is another workout with a lot of weights. And, since last time was the first time, I had a lot of trouble picking out the correct weights for the workout. I think I pretty much got the right ones now. I’ll find out next week. Which of course I’m really looking forward to, after today. But, the only reason I was able to get the right weights even this time around was because of the worksheets. Tony repeats endlessly, “write down what you did”, and he means it. There’s not a lot of room on the worksheets, so you also need to come up with some sort of shorthand for any kind of additional notes.

For example, for a particular exercise, there might be a box with the following: R ____ W ____. You’re supposed to fill in your reps, and what weight you used. But I might put in something like R 10 W 20-. The 20- tells me that I used twenty pound weights, but for whatever reason felt like it was too heavy.  Maybe my form wasn’t good, or I realized 2/3 of the way through that I was doing them wrong. Whatever. There’s not enough room to put that kind of information in there, but there’s no way you’ll remember it after a week, and 100 other different exercises. But you don’t need to know the why. You just need to know that 20 pounds was too heavy.

I might also do just the opposite: R 10 W 20+. This helps me next week, too. Without the + there, I’d have a decision to make. 10 reps is at the top end of what I want to do for most of the exercises. So, if I see I did 10, should I increase the weight or not? The + tells me that I thought that I would be able to do that.

Finally, you know what’s coming, right? It was a strength day, which means Ab Ripper X at the end. Of course, this is the second time that I’d forgotten all about Ab Ripper. The workout finished, and I was cleaning up my weights, and I heard the music. My heart sunk. Still, nothing to do but grin and bear it. It’s only 16 minutes long, and I know it by heart by now. So, I know I can get through it.

And I did. But there’s no doubt. Today was definitely the day I enjoyed least of the 36 so far. Look on the bright side, though. It’s extremely unlikely that tomorrow can be worse. And I only have to do this particular workout three more times. I can get through it three times. I may hate it, but I can do it.

Plyometrics tomorrow. That will be followed by a quick trip out of town, so likely no update until the evening. Don’t worry, though. I’ll do the plyometrics first thing in the morning before I leave.

The Candidates and the First Amendment

It’s hard to believe that it’s been almost four years since I last wrote on this. Quite a bit has changed since then, but one thing hasn’t changed. We once again have two candidates running for President from the major parties. So, once again, I’ll be looking at their records from a civil libertarian perspective.

For those that missed this the last time, I examined and compared then Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) and Senator John McCain (R-AZ) based on where they stood on the following issues: First Amendment, Second Amendment, Third Amendment, Fourth Amendment, Fifth Amendment, Sixth Amendment, Seventh Amendment, Eighth Amendment, Eleventh Amendment, Fourteenth Amendment, Fifteenth Amendment, Nineteenth Amendment, Twenty-First Amendment, Twenty-Third Amendment, Twenty-Fourth Amendment, Twenty-Sixth Amendment, Taxes, Abortion, National ID, Voter ID, Card Check, Legalization of Drugs, Gay Rights, Hate Crime Legislation, Growth of Government, Property Rights, Sovereign Rights, Ninth Amendment, and Tenth Amendment. I devoted one post to each of these topics. Some were pretty short, and others were quite long and involved.

Next, I assigned letter grades to each of the two for each item, and at the end produced a weighted final grade. Weightings were necessary, because some of these civil liberties are obviously more important than others. You may be 110% behind gay marriage, but I doubt that even you think that gay marriage is more important then freedom of speech. If you do, you have my sympathies. But I’ll produce a spreadsheet at the end with all my calculations, and you can change the grades and the weightings if you disagree with any of my analysis.

Enough preamble. Let’s get down to it. How do our current Presidential candidates stack up regarding the First Amendment? Like last time, I’ll be looking at information from the First Amendment Center.

Let's quote the First Amendment as a refresher, before we start:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

We’ll start with President Barack Obama (D-USA):

The First Amendment Center is rather kind to Obama, in my opinion.

In its fourth year in office, the Obama administration has a mixed record on issues involving the First Amendment.

[…]

Previously confidential files and rules have since been released for public scrutiny. In 2009, the Justice Department made public the Bush administration 8/1/02 Interrogation Opinion, commonly known as the “torture memos.”

[…]

Still, critics have assailed the administration for not living up to its lofty standards, citing the Justice Department’s refusal to release information concerning domestic wiretapping and surveillance of tourists and U.S. citizens. The department justified the refusal on privacy and national security grounds, according to spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler.

Open-government activists also point to the president’s handling of the Gulf oil spill as an example of unnecessary secrecy. Despite an official government report in 2010 saying the disaster was worse than anticipated, the Obama administration initially presented an overly optimistic portrayal of the cleanup’s success.

[…]

News outlets, including the Associated Press, have criticized the speed with which the administration has met FOIA requests. In 2011, the administration received 544,360 requests but left more than 12,000 of them unmet. Of the cases reviewed, the government denied requests in more than a third of the cases. The administration maintains that it has released more information than past administrations.

[…]

However, relations between the president and religious groups have not always been harmonious. Catholic leaders recently lambasted the administration’s health-insurance mandates requiring religiously affiliated organizations to provide free contraceptive insurance coverage for female employees.

[…]

Though not restrictive of the press, the Obama administration has repeatedly criticized news outlets. The most notable flap occurred in 2009 when White House Communications Director Anita Dunn called the Fox cable network “a wing of the Republican Party.” The president has also sharply criticized news outlets for seeking to gain greater viewership by incorrectly portraying the Washington political scene as combative.

[…]

Reporters have criticized the administration for filing charges against government whistleblowers under the Espionage Act. Invoked six times, the act has drawn criticism for appearing to be a mechanism to hide government misuse of funds.

In 2010, the administration pressed charges against Thomas Drake, a former senior executive at the National Security Agency, for publicly voicing concerns that the government spent an unnecessary amount of money on software when it could have used a cheaper and more effective program.

[…]

In 2010, the president stood as one of the harshest critics of the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. In the controversial case, the Court upheld the First Amendment rights of labor unions and corporations to fund campaign ads.

Allow me to sum up. The President has been good about disseminating previously “secret” information to the public, when it has furthered his agenda. He has waged war against the Catholic Church, and news organizations that have been critical of the administration, particularly Fox News. He has not pursued implementation of the Fairness Doctrine, which has surprised me. He does support hate crime legislation, which is in direct opposition to freedom of speech.

Finally, there have been numerous reports this year that the Obama administration is keeping an “enemies list” a la former President Richard Nixon (R-USA).

Try this thought experiment: You decide to donate money to Mitt Romney. You want change in the Oval Office, so you engage in your democratic right to send a check.

Several days later, President Barack Obama, the most powerful man on the planet, singles you out by name. His campaign brands you a Romney donor, shames you for "betting against America," and accuses you of having a "less-than-reputable" record. The message from the man who controls the Justice Department (which can indict you), the SEC (which can fine you), and the IRS (which can audit you), is clear: You made a mistake donating that money.

The WSJ may be engaging in a little bit of fear mongering here, but there’s no doubt that this is worrisome behavior from the White House. Still, it’s not like Obama is exposing secrets. All of the donor information is public record, and there’s nothing keeping Daily Kos or Huffington Post or whoever, from doing exactly what Obama has done. It’s just a little different, and a little scarier, when it comes directly from the head of the government.

That’s Obama. Now, let’s look at former Governor Mitt Romney (R-MA):

As Massachusetts governor from 2002 to 2006, Romney proposed legislation that would have exempted religious organizations from having to provide adoption services to same-sex couples.

[…]

In 2005, Romney abandoned plans to exempt Catholic-run hospitals from a state law that requires all hospitals to make the morning-after pill available to “each female rape victim.” Announcing his decision, he said, “I think, in my personal view, it’s the right thing for hospitals to provide information and access to emergency contraception to anyone who is a victim of rape.”

[…]

He did not support a bill to create 35-foot protest-free buffer zones around abortion clinics in his state. Within a year of Romney’s leaving office, his successor, Deval Patrick, signed the legislation.

In the area of campaign finance, Romney vetoed a 2006 bill that would have repealed a ban on printing, publishing or distributing any poster or circular “designed to aid or defeat any candidate for nomination or election to any public office” without identifying individuals who issued or were otherwise responsible for the publication.

Records from Romney’s service as governor became a source of controversy in the 2012 campaign when a Boston Globe article suggested that Romney’s administration tried to purge all e-mail records after his term. According to the report, members of the administration took computers with them and replaced e-mail servers. However, the Associated Press later reported, Massachusetts public-records law doesn’t apply to the governor’s office, so there appears to be nothing illegal in the computer removal. Romney said the messages were deleted because they may have contained confidential information. However, on Dec. 6, 2011, Massachusetts announced that previously closed records from the state’s archives would be made publicly available.

More on his time as head of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City:

At the time, Romney said he supported the designated free-speech zones to promote safety and ease traffic flow. Although the decisions regarding outside protesters fell on city officials, it was later reported that the Olympic committee asked the city to remove two protest zones — which were only large enough to hold 10 people each — located inside the Olympic square. An Olympic committee spokesperson denied that the group made the request.

In addition to the free-speech zones, Romney took a stance on public standards when he set a firm policy on what types of music to play during certain events. For instance, he prohibited music popular among snowboarders from the snowboarding competition because he deemed it too profane.

And as candidate Romney:

In the 2008 and 2012 campaigns, Romney has taken a few stances that directly involve First Amendment principles.

The strongest of these is his position against the McCain-Feingold campaign-finance law: He advocates its repeal.

[…]

In 2007, Romney said, “the American people should be free to advocate for their candidates and their positions without burdensome limitations.” Instead, he said he supports reforms “that promote transparency and disclosure, preserve grassroots activism and protect the ability to criticize or endorse current officeholders and candidates.” He calls McCain-Feingold “burdensome” and “riddled with shortcomings.”

[…]

On the 2012 campaign trail, Romney has continued to oppose campaign-finance regulations, supporting the ability of candidates to collect unlimited donations instead of allowing campaigns to be indirectly supported by money from super PACs. “Let campaigns then take responsibility for their own words,” Romney said in the Jan. 16, 2012, debate in South Carolina.

[…]

In remarks in April 2008, Romney described the goals of the Ocean’s Initiatives: “I’d like to see us clean up the water in which our kids are swimming. I’d like to keep pornography from coming up on their computers. I’d like to keep drugs off the streets. I’d like to see less violence and sex on TV and in video games and in movies. And if we get serious about this, we can actually do a great deal to clean up the water in which our kids and our grandkids are swimming.”

[…]

In the 2012 campaign, Romney has continued to speak in favor of religious freedom. After the Supreme Court unanimously ruled against a Michigan teacher’s challenge to her firing from a Lutheran Church-sponsored school in Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC, Romney voiced his support of the decision to the audience at a Faith and Freedom Coalition event in Myrtle Beach, S.C., saying, “We are very fortunate to have people who are willing to stand up for religious tolerance and religious liberty and the First Amendment of this Constitution in this country.”

Romney has expressed concern about the Obama administration’s treatment of religious liberty, criticizing the Department of Health and Human Service’s decision to require schools and hospitals, including those that are run by the Catholic Church and other faith groups, to cover contraception under their employee insurance plans.

I have to be honest here. Some of the information above surprised me. I’ve done this a few times now, and I generally keep tabs on First Amendment issues. So, I tend to know where major politicians stand regarding the First Amendment. Mitt Romney may be the most friendly major politician to the First Amendment that I’ve ever seen.

Yes, he did require Catholic hospitals to offer the morning-after pill, and he enforced free speech zones at the Olympics, as well as banning some music that he considered profane. Of the three, only the first is all that big of a deal. As the person in charge of the Olympics, his responsibility was to make sure that it went smoothly and was enjoyable to the spectators there as well as at home. His responsibility was not to make sure that people would be able to scream obscenities on national TV. Even with the first, he essentially is saying that religious hospitals can not refuse to provide emergency services based upon their faith.

I’m Catholic, and I’m opposed to the morning after pill and abortions. But from a practical standpoint, I understand his logic here. Still, it does impinge on the freedom of religion, and he’ll be docked a bit for it.

Those of you who read this series in 2008 will recall that I was extremely critical of Mr. Obama on this issue, eventually giving him an ‘F’ letter grade. I have since modified my stance, a little. While it’s clear to me that he’s been no friend of the First Amendment, he hasn’t quite turned out to be the enemy that I feared. Still, he did tell his supporters to “get in their faces” regarding Tea Parties and there is that enemies list.

Still, I’m going to raise his grade from last time, but I will be willing to reconsider, should his campaign start attacking free speech again.

Whew. That’s a lot. what about the grades?

Obama: D (subject to further review)

Romney: B (while he’s terrific compared to his peers, it’s hard to get an ‘A’ on this one)

First Amendment: Advantage Romney.

Results so far:

	Obama	Romney
First Amendment	D	B

P90X Day 35: X Stretch

Another day, another workout. As I’ve said before, this almost counts as a rest day. In fact, in the guide book, it says today is either X Stretch or Rest. And I definitely need it. Tomorrow’s a tough one, as it’s back to Chest, Shoulders & Triceps (and, my favorite, Ab Ripper X).

I’m still noticing increased flexibility, but as I keep saying, the increments are small. I can maybe stretch a centimeter or two farther on the hamstring stretches than I could five weeks ago. And I might be fooling myself when I say “two”. But, I’ll take whatever I can get, particularly at my age.

The best thing about today? Week 5 complete. 8 weeks to go!

The Battle For the Soul of the Democratic Party

There’s been an interesting little feud among the Democrats this last week or so, and I think it may represent more than just squabbles on how President Barack Obama (D-USA) should run his re-election campaign.

First it was Newark, New Jersey Mayor Cory Booker (D), who went on Meet the Press:

Newark N.J. Mayor Cory Booker (D) expressed reserve about the Obama campaign's Bain strategy against Mitt Romney, telling "Meet The Press" viewers on Sunday that he was "uncomfortable" with the line of attacks.

"This kind of stuff is nauseating to me on both sides," Booker said. "It's nauseating to the American public. Enough is enough. Stop attacking private equity."

Booker was referencing the Obama campaign's Monday release of a series of documentary-esque Bain videos.

Booker later back tracked somewhat, but I’m convinced he meant what he said, and the back track was due to pressure from the White House.

This was followed by former Senator Harold Ford Jr. (D-TN):

Booker is not the only Democrat to question the aggressive, negative portrayal of Romney’s work in private equity.  Former Tennessee Rep. Harold Ford Jr. said today he agreed with “the substance” of Booker’s comments and “would not have backed out.”

“I agree with him, private equity is not a bad thing. Matter of fact, private equity is a good thing in many, many instances,” the Democrat said in a separate appearance on MSNBC earlier in the day.

Next came Governor Deval Patrick (D-MA):

Appearing on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Thursday, Patrick called Bain “a perfectly fine company.”

“They have a role in the private economy, and I’ve got a lot of friends there … on both sides of the aisle,” Patrick added. “I think the Bain strategy has been distorted in some of the public discussions.”

And if that wasn’t bad enough, on the same day we also got former President Bill Clinton (D-USA):

Clinton found himself in similar circumstances. “I think he had a good business career,” he said of Romney, when queried about Bain. He also called Mitt’s record “sterling”, adding “So I don’t think that we ought to get into the position where we say this is bad work. This is good work.”

I think what you’re seeing here is far more significant than questioning Obama’s attacks on Bain Capital, or even just a defense of Bain Capital.

For years now, many of us on the right have been saying that there is a radical wing to the Democratic party, and that this radical wing hates the foundations of America. They are Marxist to their core and want to shred the Constitution and remake the United States according to their Marxist ideal. These people are hungry and angry, and extremely determined. Many of us have also been saying that this radical wing now has control of the Democrat party, and that Barack Obama is the face of their movement.

I think what you’re seeing here is the realization by some in the Democratic party that there’s truth to this statement. Don’t be confused here. Clinton and Booker are lefties through and through. They believe in social justice, abortion on demand, and most of the other things you see as part of the Democratic party platform.

But, they’re not America haters. They love America. They love the free enterprise system, and they’re capitalists at heart, even if they don’t always realize that their goals and intentions fly in the face of free enterprise. Why do you think the Clintons went to New York after they left the White House? They wanted to be where the money is.

They see what Obama has been doing as an attack on free enterprise (which it is), and they’re finally standing up and saying “Enough!” Clinton and Obama have never been the best of friends, and I believe that should Obama lose in November, that this simmering feud is going to boil over. Clinton is going to make a very strong effort to wrest back control of the party and restore it to “his” vision.

You’ll see the results almost immediately if he’s successful. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA-08) will lose her leadership position. Blue Dogs will resurface in time for the 2014 elections, and the 2016 Democratic Presidential nominee will be very Clintonesque.

On the other hand, if Clinton fails, expect the Democratic party to move even further to the left, regardless of the outcome of the elections in November. Expect them to become even angrier and more shrill. But don’t expect to see a TIME Magazine cover with Pelosi’s picture on the cover and the title “The Politics Of Hate” like you did in 1994 with Newt.

Frankly, as much as I loathe to see these people in power, the latter scenario is probably a better one for America (as long as Obama loses, that is). The more these people expose themselves and their hatred for America’s founding principles, the more it damages the Democratic party. I’m not stupid enough to pull a James Carville and predict a 40 year rule for the GOP, but I do think that a GOP majority is stronger when the differences between them and the left are more striking and visible.

November can’t get here soon enough. Is it really only the first of June?

P90X Day 34: Kenpo X

This post is a day late. My apologies. I did the workout yesterday. Just didn’t have time to write anything up about it. Which is really an excuse, because this will be a very short post.

Kenpo X. More punching and kicking at air. You know, this might be the only workout that DOESN’T have a part that I hate. Well, that’s not 100% true. A couple of the warm up stretches are pretty brutal, but after that it’s ok.

But, honestly, I have nothing to say about this. I was feeling a bit worn down when I did it, so I don’t think I worked it quite as hard as I have the last 2-3 weeks, but I’m still satisfied with the effort. I definitely still needed a shower when I finished. My daughter said so, while holding her nose, so pretty sure it’s true.

Today, X Stretch. That’s another relatively light one, before starting week 2 of Phase II tomorrow. I can definitely tell that I’ve reached the middle part of this program. Seems like it’s harder every day, but I feel better and better every day as well.