As Newt Gingrich ends his run for the White House, he shows us what real fiscal conservatives look like:

Newt Gingrich ends his White House dream today with his political committee facing a mountain of debts -- owing about $4 million to scores of businesses and campaign workers around the country who fear they will never get paid.

Campaign watchdogs said the size of Gingrich's debt is extraordinary -- and could have been avoided if the candidate and his team had been more disciplined.

"He was reckless in running up these bills, especially in the last month or so of the campaign when it was quite clear that Mitt Romney would be the nominee," said Craig Holman, a government affairs lobbyist for the watchdog group Citizen Union.

This is common place among conservatives. We hear them preach about "living within your means" and "accepting personal responsibility", yet they never practice it. I'm sure as time goes on the excuses that Newt gives us will continue to amaze. His only real hope is for Mitt Romney to offer to pay off his debt in exchange for an endorsement or maybe sell back some of that stuff he bought at Tiffany's

The Daily Mall has this piece up:

Barack Obama has already held more re-election fundraising events than every elected president since Richard Nixon combined, according to figures to be published in a new book.

Obama is also the only president in the past 35 years to visit every electoral battleground state in his first year of office.

The figures, contained a in a new book called The Rise of the President’s Permanent Campaign by Brendan J. Doherty, due to be published by University Press of Kansas in July, give statistical backing to the notion that Obama is more preoccupied with being re-elected than any other commander-in-chief of modern times.

Doherty, who has compiled statistics about presidential travel and fundraising going back to President Jimmy Carter in 1977, found that Obama had held 104 fundraisers by March 6th this year, compared to 94 held by Presidents Carter, Ronald Reagan, George Bush Snr, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush combined.

Since then, Obama has held another 20 fundraisers, bringing his total to 124. Carter held four re-election fundraisers in 1980, Reagan zero in 1984, Bush Snr 19 in 1992, Clinton 14 in 1996 and Bush Jnr 57 in 2004.

Needless to say the right is starting a storm over this already. Here's Weasel Zippers:

He excels at two things and two things only: Running up enormous debt with other peoples’ money and raising cash for his own self-serving ends. He is nothing more than an ordinary street hustler in an extraordinary position.

JobsOhio has been governor John Kasich's big plan to bring jobs to Ohio, but it is hitting some major hurdles:

A private economic development agency created by Gov. John Kasich to move "at the speed of business" has been slowed to a near halt in obtaining its start-up money as it awaits the outcome of a lawsuit.

A bond sale that JobsOhio expected to complete in the first quarter has not yet taken place, leaving it without $100 million it would have used to create business incentives.

The delay also has left the state without the first $500 million it would get under a deal requiring it to transfer 25 years of profits from state liquor sales to JobsOhio in exchange for the up-front bond money. The deal could raise as much as $1.4 billion for the state.

The hurdles are the real interesting part:

Attorney General Mike DeWine has thrown a further wrench into things by raising new questions about the public records rules lawmakers are debating for JobsOhio. He says broad wording in a bill that cleared the Ohio House on Wednesday and has headed to the Senate could turn otherwise public records private.

DeWine said he is lobbying Kasich and lawmakers to address a provision that says records created or received by JobsOhio are not public regardless of who has custody. DeWine thinks it could shield documents from public view that state agencies share with Jobs-Ohio.

"Once it was shipped to JobsOhio, it would get immunized from public disclosure," he said.

DeWine, a Republican, is upset over legislation passed by the state's Republican controlled legislator and pushed by the Republican governor. The Columbus Dispatch looks even looks further into the issue:

I stayed away from the Hillary Rosen/Ann Romney made up controversy last week, but the latest from Queen Ann really has me going. Last night, while speaking at the Connecticut Republican Party’s Prescott Bush Awards Dinner, Ann made the following comment:

Romney alluded to the fact that not all women can stay at home saying, “I love the fact that there are women out there who don’t have a choice and they must go to work and they still have to raise the kids. Thank goodness that we value those people too. And sometimes life isn’t easy for any of us.”

She "loves this"? I guess she also loves the fact that there are women out there who struggle to even feed their children, or give them medical care, school needs, clothing, etc.?

But this is how the Republican Party thinks. A few years ago Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga) talked how mothers and fathers should work 2-3 jobs each if they have trouble surviving, then a couple of weeks later complained because Nancy Pelosi was making the House work 5 days. His complaint? Family time.

So if you enjoy working non-stop, getting to spend no time with your kids and living pay check to pay check, go ahead and vote Republican. It's obvious that's the American dream to this bunch of clowns.

This is how liberal your Sunday talk shows are:

Single-source interviews are the showcase segments on the Sunday shows, which tend to compete for access to guests they consider the top newsmakers—which, in the world of Beltway media, usually means politicians. In the eight-month study period, partisan-affiliated one-on-one interviews were 70 percent Republican—166 guests to Democrats’ 70.

Then you got this part:

Unlike the one-on-one interviews, these roundtable segments include some voices from outside the two parties; partisan sources—who leaned Republican, 180 to 109—accounted for less than half of the guests. But the nonpartisan guests didn’t alter the right’s advantage, with Republicans and/or conservatives making 282 appearances to 164 by Democrats and progressives (categories that are less interchangeable). Middle-of-the-road Beltway journalists made 201 appearances in roundtables, which serves to buttress the argument that corporate media’s idea of a debate is conservative ideologues matched by centrist-oriented journalists.

So the round table is a little better, with only a 63% domination from Republicans. Still, I don't see how you can consider this the "liberal" media.

Chris Cillizza pulls out this chart from almost 2 years ago:

That's pretty sad when over half the people, who are responsible for choosing the future leaders of our nation, don't even know who the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court is. That's exactly how biased media outlets can push so many falsehoods about the court so that they slant to their own views.

It makes you wonder if there is any hope for our country.

The probably cause affidavit against George Zimmerman in the killing of Trayvon Martin was filed today. In it we learn a couple key things:

It also says Trayvon's mother identified the screams for help heard in a 911 call as those of her son. It also reveals that investigators interviewed a "friend" of Trayvon's who talked to him on the phone in the leadup to the shooting.

Based on the description, it appears the friend was the girl described by Martin family attorneys as his girlfriend.

"During this time, Martin was on the phone with a friend and described to her what was happening," the affidavit said. "The witness advised that Martin was scared because he was being followed through the complex by an unknown male and didn't know why."

Martin tried to run home, the affidavit says, but was followed by Zimmerman. "Zimmerman got out of his vehicle and followed Martin."

The affidavit goes on to say that "Zimmerman disregarded the police dispatcher" who told him to stop, and "continued to follow Martin who was trying to return to his home."

Zimmerman, the affidavit says, "confronted Martin and a struggle ensued."

Key take point one; Zimmerman pursued and confronted Martin. That right there helps explain why Zimmerman is facing a charge of second degree murder instead of manslaughter.

The second point in this document is that his mother has now identified the screaming to be Trayvon's. Remember a few weeks ago a secret witness came out saying it was Zimmerman? Well not anymore.

The very serious Allen West, one of those on the short list for VP on the Republican ticket, made a very familiar claim for this who remember some of the last century:

As many as 80 House Democrats are communists, according to Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.).

West warned constituents at a Tuesday town hall event that he's "heard" that dozens of his Democratic colleagues in the House are members of the Communist Party, the Palm Beach Post reported. West wouldn't elaborate beyond that, however, and didn't offer up any names. There are currently 190 House Democrats.

Really? Well why not release the names then? Maybe because he has totally made that up.

All the GOP has to offer is fear. They don't have any plans or visions, so why not scare up the votes? It's truly disgusting to see our political discourse return to that of the 50s. I just wonder how the GOP would react if a Democrat was out there saying "I heard as many as 80 House Republicans are members of NAMBLA (North American Man, Boy Love Association)?" With former members like Mark Foley, that could very well be the truth!!!!!!!

And for some exit fun, here's who Allen West is trying to be. Not a very good role model, Allen!