Rick Rolls, Twitter Nabs a Killer, and a Mormon Martyr for Motherhood
So many topics, so little time – a rockin’ week in politics
Thanks for nothin’, Rick
Rick Santorum finally admitted he has no chance of becoming president. He left the race just like he came in, against birth control because, “It's a license to do things in a sexual realm that is counter to how things are supposed to be." Quite the English major too, isn’t he?
If Mitt Romney loses his shot at the presidency history will write that running against Rick Santorum was largely the reason. Romney has adopted far out policy positions (like promising to defund Planned Parenthood) in an attempt to out-Santorum Santorum.
These ideas offend independents. It is unlikely that Romney can escape his flirtations with evangelical and tea party radicalism. Combined with the “etch-a-sketch” meme, Romney’s deal with the devil makes it dead easy to paint him as someone who can’t be trusted to honestly report his own views.
Romney also has a 30 point deficit among women. Partly, that’s due to anti-vaginal legislating by mouth-breathing state governments in Arizona, Wisconsin, Mississippi and Virginia. But Rick Santorum offered a national voice to Republican’s opposition to contraception, abortion, equal pay and women’s body sovereignty. He reminded everyone what’s wrong with that party.
What was a slam dunk for Republicans just one year ago is now an uphill climb. Pivoting to the center ain’t what it used to be, eh’ Mitt?
Social media nabs a killer
Back in February, the Sanford police told Tracy Martin that there would be no arrest in the killing of his son, Trayvon. Court watchers blame Florida’s extra crazy version of a “stand your ground” law. But whatever the reason, that was the state of justice in Sanford Florida just 90 days ago – and as far back as anyone could remember.
Fast forward 30 days to national outrage that began on Twitter and spread to Facebook making enough noise that local and national media became interested in the story. The usual suspects picked the shooter’s side mostly, I believe, to defend the National Rifle Association. But they were quickly drowned out by the furor on the Internet.
So much has happened in such a short time that it might be hard to remember that Martin and Sybrina Fulton had to file a lawsuit to get the 911 tapes. Yet before court proceedings, Sanford Mayor Jeff Triplett voluntarily released them. Thank Twitter for that. Like a flock of swallows, all the tweets had combined into an unavoidable din.
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