Marc Comtois

Brien Claims Primary Opponent Violated the Hatch Act

By Marc Comtois | September 27, 2012 |

According to Ian Donnis (via Twitter UPDATE: Ian has more), Rep. Jon Brien is claiming his primary opponent, “was ineligible due to a Hatch Act violation” because “Stephen Casey works for a fire department that gets federal funding.” Without having heard the specific claims, here is what the Hatch Act says, according to a Federal…

Our Scattered Technological Lives

By Marc Comtois | September 27, 2012 |

I occasionally listen to Imus in the Morning and this morning, I was lucky enough to hear John Hiatt perform “Blues Can’t Even Find Me”. It struck a chord–no pun intended–because I think we’re spending so much time being sorta-connected to everyone via Twitter and Facebook and the like that we’re not maintaining our valuable…

Gay Marriage: Winning by Losing, or Something

By Marc Comtois | September 26, 2012 |

Ian Donnis wonders, “Was Laura Pisaturo’s loss to Michael McCaffrey actually a win for same-sex marriage supporters?“ [A] closer reading of the election reveals a more nuanced outlook — one in which same-sex marriage could have a better shot of passing the Senate in 2013 than widely recognized. The outlook remains murky, to be sure,…

Even a 100% Tax on Millionaires Wouldn’t Close Federal Deficit

By Marc Comtois | September 24, 2012 |

“Even if the government took all of the income earned by those who have an after-tax income of $1million or more, the amount of revenue generated would fall far short of eliminating the deficit.” More related charts here.

Early Voting

By Marc Comtois | September 24, 2012 |

“35% of the presidential ballots probably will be cast before election day“: Early voting is often promoted as a convenience for harried citizens. But it may be a bigger boon for candidates, enabling them to deploy money and personnel more efficiently as they work to corral votes as soon as possible. “By encouraging our supporters…

Who’s Got the Power

By Marc Comtois | September 23, 2012 |

Germany and Great Britain are further along the “green energy” path than we are. On Friday, September 14, just before 10am, Britain’s 3,500 wind turbines broke all records by briefly supplying just over four gigawatts (GW) of electricity to the national grid. Three hours later, in Germany, that country’s 23,000 wind turbines and millions of…

Unintended Consequences: Electronic Medical Records Enable “Gundecking”

By Marc Comtois | September 23, 2012 |

Whoda thunk? (via the New York Times) When the federal government began providing billions of dollars in incentives to push hospitals and physicians to use electronic medical and billing records, the goal was not only to improve efficiency and patient safety, but also to reduce health care costs. But, in reality, the move to electronic…

Founding Philosophy on a Friday

By Marc Comtois | September 21, 2012 |

From Matthew Continetti’s review of The Founders’ Key: The Divine and Natural Connection Between the Declaration and the Constitution and What We Risk by Losing It, by Larry P. Arnn: An observer of contemporary American politics would assume that we have rights to just about everything—not only to those freedoms mentioned specifically in the Declaration,…

The Parent Rap

By Marc Comtois | September 21, 2012 |

Let’s lighten things up a bit…. The best part is they are totally believable as a couple and family, in all their dorkiness. Well done.

Campaign Flags of our Politicians

By Marc Comtois | September 21, 2012 |

I posted about the new Obama poster that was an impressionistic version of the U.S. flag wherein the “O” replaced the field of stars and there were a few artsy-ish type stripes. You know the one. Well, apparently the left got their spin machine going and found an example from 150+ years ago to try…