For those voters who are seeking a better general understanding of Republicans, here is an excellent video voter’s guide that serves that very purpose:

Very insightful and right on!

This is a plan being considered in the UK, but it looks like it is going to happen. The focus is not on banning internet porn, but on making it something that the customers of internet services have to opt into, rather than the current system of opting out of it. So if someone wanted the porn, I presume they would just call or log in to their ISP and opt to have the porn turned on.

Broadband firms urged to block sex websites to protect children

Internet service providers are to be asked by the government to tighten up on website pornography to try to combat the early sexualisation of children. Ministers believe broadband providers should consider automatically blocking sex sites, with individuals being required to opt in to receive them, rather than opt out and use the available computer parental controls.

Ed Vaizey, the communications minister, is to meet internet providers, including BT, Virgin Media and TalkTalk, “in the near future” to discuss changing the way pornography enters private homes, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills confirmed. The move is designed to protect children from being exposed to pornography on the net.

“This is a very serious matter. I think it is very important that it’s the ISPs that some up with solutions to protect children,” Vaizey told the Sunday Times. I’m hoping they will get their acts together so that we don’t have to legislate, but we are keeping an eye on the situation and we will have a new communications bill in the next couple of years.”

The action follows the success of moves by most British internet providers to prevent people inadvertently viewing child pornography websites. Now ministers want to see adult pornography controlled with similar technology, with sites blocked unless people specifically request access to them. Internet providers had said implementing the scheme would be technically difficult and cost too much. However, some now seem willing to implement the scheme voluntarily.

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I think this is a great idea and that we should consider something like this here in the US. It is a great compromise that might just provide the balance that our society needs on this. Access for those who want it without forcing everyone to inadvertently navigate a sea of unwanted sexual imagery. And I think you could do this without much regulation at all. Congress should work closely with the ISP’s to develop a policy and then pass the bill. If all ISP’s were brought together to implement a scheme like this, then I expect it would not be that hard to do.

Some might bring up the well worn complaints about the difficulty of defining “pornography” in a legal sense. But that would be the beauty of an approach like this. The proposal is not to outlaw porn, or even to charge anything extra to see it. People would just have to “opt in” or it would not be accessible from their computer. This is a great idea! The ISPs could be heavily solicited about their suggestions about the best way to do this in coordination with Congress. As long as they did a pretty good job of it, then they should be allowed to regulate themselves on this. I would not expect that a heavy-handed regulatory approach would be necessary here at all.

This really would probably not even be a very controversial proposal, except perhaps with the porn providers. Let those people bring their lobby to the hill. There will be very few politicians who will want to publicly stand up as advocates for the pornographers with regards to this sort of mild, common sense proposal.

If the UK can do something like this, surely we can too. Let’s do it.

Looks like Coons is in trouble here. The MSM has tried to destroy Christine O’Donnell to the best of their ability and it appears they have failed, again. If the best the Dems have to offer in support of Coons floundering campaign is Barack Obama coming in to rally the liberal base, then O’Donnell has a real chance to win this race. Obama has not actually been very much help to those Democrats he has campaigned for so far. So, why should anyone expect this race to be any different?

If O’Donnell wins this race, the meltdown of the left will be complete.

Obama To Campaign For Coons In Delaware

WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) ? President Barack Obama is set to campaign for Democratic Senate candidate Chris Coons next week.

Coons’ campaign announced Thursday that Obama and Vice President Joe Biden will visit Wilmington next Friday morning and appear at a fundraiser at the Grand Opera House. Tickets for the event range from $100 to $1,000.

Coons, the New Castle County executive, became the Democratic nominee after Biden’s son, Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden, decided against a run for the seat his father held for more than 35 years. The vice president campaigned for Coons in Delaware last month after Republican Christine O’Donnell’s surprise primary win and urged Democratic volunteers to help the party fight to keep the seat.

Well, that was quick. Apparently US troops in Iraq are back in the combat business, notwithstanding President Obama’s recent speech indicating that the combat phase of the war ended August 31, 2010.

From CBS News:

Despite Formal Combat End, US Joins Baghdad Battle

(AP)   BAGHDAD (AP) – Days after the U.S. officially ended combat operations and touted Iraq’s ability to defend itself, American troops found themselves battling heavily armed militants assaulting an Iraqi military headquarters in the center of Baghdad on Sunday. The fighting killed 12 people and wounded dozens.

It was the first exchange of fire involving U.S. troops in Baghdad since the Aug. 31 deadline for formally ending the combat mission, and it showed that American troops remaining in the country are still being drawn into the fighting. The attack also made plain the kind of lapses in security that have left Iraqis wary of the U.S. drawdown and distrustful of the ability of Iraqi forces now taking up ultimate responsibility for protecting the country.

Sunday’s hour-long assault was the second in as many weeks on the facility, the headquarters for the Iraqi Army’s 11th Division, pointing to the failure of Iraqi forces to plug even the most obvious holes in their security. Two of the four attackers even managed to fight their way inside the compound and were only killed after running out of ammunition and detonating explosives belts they were wearing.

The American troops who joined the fight and provided cover fire for Iraqi soldiers pursuing the attackers were based at the compound to train Iraqi forces, said U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. Eric Bloom. Iraqi forces also requested help from U.S. helicopters, drones and explosives experts, he said. No American troops were hurt, Bloom said. Under an agreement between the two countries, Iraq can still call on American forces to assist in combat and U.S. troops can defend themselves if attacked.

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President Obama originally campaigned on “getting out of Iraq” in 16 months. Some may try to spin the meaning of what he meant by that now, but the meaning was quite clear to everyone back during the campaign. Getting out meant getting out.

It was a tremendous disappointment to Obama’s supporters on the hard left when Obama cast this promise aside shortly after taking office and instead deciding to reduce the deployment to 50,000 after 18 months (in compliance with the terms of the security agreement negotiated with the Iraqis by President Bush). Obama’s speech declaring the combat phase of the war was over during a high profile, prime-time, national TV speech was largely intended to impress these same disappointed people. It was Obama’s way of trying to say: “See, practically speaking, we have pretty much have gotten out of Iraq. Just like I promised you we would.”

CBS, the MSM and the left wanted to believe, but it was easy to tell that they were not fully convinced by their lack of enthusiasm after the speech. During the campaign and for months thereafter, they mindlessly swooned and just “believed” Obama no matter what he said. He was almost a sort of liberal messiah figure to many of these people. But he seems to have taken advantage of that blind love one too many times now. The days when he can confidently depend on his loyal base to blindly “trust me,” almost no matter what he tells them, appear to be starting to wind down. And not a moment too soon.

There will continue to be combat skirmishes in Iraq probably for some time to come yet. The Iraqis are increasingly in charge of their own security, but we did not leave 50,000 troops in Iraq to sit around and watch football on satellite TV. This incident was not a major battle, but it does go to show that the combat phase of this war is not over, contrary to what Obama told the American people on national TV on August 31, 2010.

So whatever Obama had hoped to sell to his left wing base during his oval office speech on this topic, his presentation has just turned out to be another self-serving, manipulative, empty gesture. And those people on the left and in the MSM who have been out front in leading the Obama praise choruses find themselves disappointed once again.

Former Governor Palin has kindly offered President Obama a helping hand with regards to the BP oil spill:

Palin to Obama: ‘Give me a call’

JUNEAU, Alaska — Sarah Palin says President Barack Obama’s acknowledgment that he hasn’t directly spoken to BP’s chief executive shows it “bodes well to have some sort of executive experience before occupying the Oval Office.”

The former Alaska Governor made the comment Tuesday on her Facebook page. Then she outlined her own experience.

Palin also urges Obama to contact experts who have held oil companies accountable.

“Give them a call,” she writes. “Or, what the heck, give me a call.”

Palin’s latest missive is extensive, chiding not only Obama, but the media for not calling him out. She also extolls her own administration’s efforts to ensure “Big Oil” operated ethically and responsibly.

Of course President Obama’s lack of executive experience was well known and widely discussed during the campaign leading up to the 2008 elections. But it was time for the pendulum to swing from one party to the other, in this case from Democrat to Republican, and Obama was the duly chosen Democratic nominee in 2008, so he got elected. So now we have him warts and all.

It seems unlikely that Obama will actually call Sarah Palin and take her up on her gracious offer.

However, in lieu of that, maybe Captain Kickass will show up: