As I’ve written in this space many times I’m a big fan of online gambling. Sports gambling mainly, however, over the last few years more and more sites are adding political prop bets to the list of things you can wager on. With the primaries in full swing and a tight race between Santorum and Romney shaping up here is where Vegas has each candidate going into the Michigan Primary, which takes place on February 28th:

Odds to win the Michigan Primary

Mitt Romney -130
Rick Santorum - EVEN
Newt Gingrich +5500
Ron Paul +5500

Romney is only a slight favorite in what most people considered a home state for him. Also, If you think Ron Paul or Gingrich could pull off a stunner there is a lot of money to be made. Here is a look at a more national odds:

2012 US Presidential Election – Odds to be Next President

Barack Obama 5/11
Mitt Romney 11/4
Rick Santorum 9/1
Newt Gingrich 40/1
Ron Paul 50/1
Hillary Clinton 100/1

As a sitting president, President Obama is the clear cut favorite to win in 2012. However Romney has made progress in the last few months, at least in the eyes of Las Vegas handicappers. Finally will finish up taking a look at the odds for the Arizona Primary which takes place the same day as Michigan:

Odds to win the Arizona Primary

Mitt Romney -400
Rick Santorum +275
Newt Gingrich +4000
Ron Paul +5000

Romney is a heavy favorite in Arizona, but if polling in Michigan continues to move towards Santorum who knows where Romney might end up.

What we can glean from this is that Romney is still the Republican favorite Santorum is making a strong push – and oddsmakers are noticing. Sports books rarely lose money – and for that reason alone is why I trust them as good indicators of how the race is going.

Grounded in history, these civic-minded young activists understand the best traditions of America.

Armed with astute policy understanding and a clear, laser-like vision of reform, the 99%ers resemble no-one so much as the Founding Fathers.

Back in 2008-2009, one of the few consolations for we who remained hopeless in that dawn of hope and change was the chance to see some world-class Chicago-style corruption. No more of this Halliburton-told-Cheney-not-to-worry-there’d-be-WMDs-piled-in-the-streets-of-Basra tomfoolery, none of this third-rate Arkansas sleight-of-hand with the cattle futures records.

No, we were gonna see some brazen Windy City politicking. Tony Rezko in charge of HUD. Secretary of Defense Herb “Hefty” Kowalski (formerly Ward 57 waste-hauling commissioner). Somebody’s ex-con uncle in charge of the FBI. Ambassador Blago.

But nearly three years into the reign of the Sun King, and the administration’s corruption is no more effective than its legitimate policies (though, given the way ObamaCare came into being, one could be forgiven for confusing the two).

"And right over there, Mr. President, is where we're gonna store that pile of cash for your re-election campaign."

It would be understandable were it just the president himself. He probably learned no more in Chicago than he did at Occidental, Columbia or the Harvard Law Review. (Constitutional scholar? Please.) The affirmative action didn’t end at graduation. They were stealing h

im elections while he concentrated on attaining the proper air of cool, analytical detachment and getting that pants crease right. About the only thing he seems to have taken from the City with the Big Shoulders is a community organizer’s fondness for mau mauing the opposition.

But he had some real pros around him: Red diaper baby and one-time Chicago Tribune “journalist” David Axelrod. Eric “Pardons” Holder, who helped give us one last Clinton scandal for the road. Heck, wasn’t Rahm “Dead Fish” Emanual Obama’s Chief of Staff? That guy that made $18 million in three years working for Freddie Mac (three years that coincided with a lot of accounting “irregularities”) and then walked away smelling … not like a dead fish?

What a disappointment. Look, nobody expects Democrat programs to work, but the party of Tammany Hall, Billy Bulger and the Daily Dynasty should be able to get corruption right. But this gang has proven hapless.

To wit:

New Black Panther Gate: Are you kidding? If Chicago didn’t invent voting “irregularities” it raised them to an art form. These guys couldn’t even make a simple voter intimidation case go away without publicity. The two New Black Panthers caught on film menacing white voters in Philadelphia during the 2008 election were small-time and, with all the unicorns and rainbows and butterflies unleashed by Obama’s election, should have been utterly forgotten. OK, the investigation was begun under Bush, and a career lawyer, J. Christian Adams, decided to get all ethical and blow the whistle on Holder’s … indifference to the case. But Great Scarface’s Ghost! have Chicagoans lost the

"And here's the best part, Blago: the guns will only kill Mexicans! It's not like they'll be used to shoot our ICE agents. Great idea, right?"

ability to shut up an inconvenient witness?

Fast & Furious: What has it come to when the party of government can’t manage to use government in a nefarious manner to help grow government? On the surface, it’s kind of a neat idea, and super-attractive to liberal statists: get the ATF to buy legal guns in America, ship them to drug gangs south of the border and be shocked-shocked! when they turn up in violent crimes down there. “Why, we need to severely curtail the sale of weapons in our country, so they don’t go to Mexican narco-terrorists.”

But, as the left never seems to learn, liberals aren’t as smart as they think, and the rest of us aren’t as dumb as they think. The wrong people got killed. Someone added 2+2, and suddenly it’s “Yes Congressman Issa, no Congressman Issa.”

Solyndra: Do liberals think their corruption is more excusable if it’s in the service of failure? That would help explain this high-speed train-wreck. You slam through a half billion dollars in loan guarantees to a solar panel-maker (who’s other main investor just happens to have been a big-time bundler for your election campaign).

Of course, said manufacturer needs those guarantees because the market isn’t willing to capitalize it without them. Why? Oh, its competitors in China are making the same product for pennies on the dollar, and it’s got warehouses full of unsold solar panels. Oh, and nobody else has been able to make the business work without government subsidy.

OK, liberals’ blind faith in government means they don’t get business, so maybe that’s understandable. But if you’re gonna do something shady with $550 million of taxpayer money, have the good sense not to publicize it ahead of time. But Solyndra was the poster child for Obama’s green jobs pipe dream. They had a ceremony. Joe Biden was there by satellite – presumably, Amtrac didn’t run there.

We’re left with the spectacle of Obama cronies taking the fifth while even the mainstream media are publishing embarrassing details about whistling showers and robotic spas, or something.

This is embarrassing. The French are having a hearty laugh at our incompetence in extra-governmental activities. Tin-pot dictators in Latin America are cringing. Superpower, indeed!

Like all liberals, Obama’s always on about investing in our “competitiveness.” Given the sad state of corruption in his government, he may want to remember that investment begins at home.

But this funny advertisement has created uproar among traditionally conservative groups, and JC Penney has since pulled the advertisement.

OneMillionMoms.com an online group of mothers dedicated to “stop[ping] the exploitation of our children,” has decried the advertisement as “offensive” and “blatantly disrespectful to all women, especially mothers and wives.”

Is the ad sexist? Absolutely. Is it sexist on purpose? In the words of Sarah Palin, “You betcha.”

Celebrity website Jezebel.com admits the advertisement confused them, saying, “It might – might – be excusable to use a bikini-clad Phoebe Cates … to sell your men’s dress shirts if it made ANY SENSE WHATSOEVER. But it doesn’t!” They then echo the sentiments of One Million Moms, saying, “This ad isn’t offensive because it’s sexist (though it is), it’s offensive because it’s stupid.”

It’s no secret that men like to look at attractive women. That fact has been established since David lusted after Bathsheba in the Old Testament (see 2^nd Samuel 11). And let’s be honest, Adam probably thought Eve looked pretty damn good.  So JC Penney has tapped into what they know about men, in order to get their attention, and hopefully sell some clothes in the process.

However, One Million Moms, Jezebel and others who took issue with this ad need to be careful of exercising selective sexist outrage. There are PLENTY of commercials currently airing that make men out to be completely useless idiots. In fact, I highlighted this phenomenon 15 months ago on this very blog. It sickens me to see men so degraded. And yet, it continues.

Recall the recent Fiber One commercial with the wife tricking her husband into eating a tasty candy bar that he doesn’t know contains healthy fiber? Or how about the Windows 7 “Cloud” commercial with the dopey father who can’t discipline his own son? In that commercial, the mother completes the photo editing task and says, “Windows give me the family nature never could.” Then there’s the Yoplait commercial in which the husband goes rifling through the fridge to find the “key lime pie” and “Boston cream pie” his wife claims to have eaten, but misses the clearly labeled yogurt containers.

All of the above ads can be found at http://stupidmancommercials.blogspot.com/.

The JC Penney ad objectifies women, no question about it, however, every person, organization, company, etc. is entitled to their opinion, JC Penney included. But it is the hypocrisy and inconsistency that bothers me, and I hope in the future, these outlets will point out sexism that occurs in stereotyping and objectifying women as well as men.

Frankly, one could argue the constant dumbing down of men in commercial advertisement is doing more harm than a 30 second advertisement simply pointing out a fact everyone knows.

Okay, how about: professional gas-bag Michael Moore has signed on to professional gas-bag Dylan Ratigan’s petition to get the professional gas out of politics. That is, the two well-paid leftists want a constitutional amendment banning “corporate money” from “our political system!”

That’s right. Michael Moore, who’s given the equivalent of the starting salary of one of his beloved UAW bowling buddies to Democrats, supports Ratigan’s effort to curtail political speech in the United States. “No person, corporation or business entity of any type,” reads their amendment, can give money “directly or indirectly” to any candidate or campaign for federal office. First Amendment Shmirst Amendment.

Ratigan, presumably, has seen up close the corrupting, nefarious impact of corporate largesse in the workings of government. Until recently, his checks were signed by GE CEO Jeff Immelt, who threw the full weight of his corporation into electing President Obama, and then reaping the benefits of flagrant crony capitalism.

I’m sure Ratigan’s outrage is further fueled by the Solyndra scandal, in which well-connected political fundraisers received sweetheart federal loan guarantees for a highly dubious business model that just happened to dovetail nicely with someone’s “green” ideology. And you can be sure he finds Silicon Valley’s embrace of liberal issues and politicians deeply troubling.

While we wait for Ratigan and Moore to denounce President Obama as a corporate stooge (or, in lingo I’m sure they’re nostalgic for, a “capitalist running dog”), let’s see who else isn’t really happy with this whole republican democracy thing.

Why there’s former Obama Budget Director Peter Orszag taking time out from raising his 17 families to moan in the New Republic that we need “less democracy” to control the gridlocked that has gripped Washington lo these many months. How about North Carolina Governor Bev Purdue suggesting, “I think we ought to suspend, perhaps, elections for Congress for two years and just tell them we won’t hold it against them, whatever decisions they make, to just let them help this country recover.”

Yes, what politics needs is less accountability.

Look, anyone who’s observed American Lefties long enough knows that the only actual democracy they like involves getting homeless guys to vote in exchange for cigarettes. And who could blame them? They know better than the rest of us. So their natural inclination is to get our opinions out of their political system.

But this volley of complaints about our “small r” republican system is as sure a sign of lefty desperation as the sound of seeds and stems popping in their hash pipes. Obama has failed and failed big. He’s failed the country, yes, but that’s of little account. The problem is, he’s failed them. The union agenda is going nowhere. Green jobs are a grim joke. His environmentalist supporters can forget meaningful, economy-destroying action. The Earth would be better served if they pulled over their Priuses and flogged themselves in public for their crimes against Gaia (‘tis a consummation devoutly to be wished!)

No, the hot exhaust of failure is blowing up their white skirts of democracy and giving us a peek of their totalitarian iron underpants. It’s a desperate predicament, and an equally desperate metaphor.

Lets take a look at some of the numbers:

2012 US Presidential Election – Republican Nominee

Mitt Romney 5/4
Rick Perry 5/4
Ron Paul 11/1
Sarah Palin 14/1
Jon Hunstman 18/1
Michele Bachmann 22/1

At this point it’s safe to say that it’s a Romney/Perry race, however Sarah Palin could surprise everyone and get in. Who knows how that would effect the odds. Here are the odds for the Presidential winner:

2012 US Presidential Election – Odds to be Next President

Barack Obama 10/11
Mitt Romney 4/1
Rick Perry 4/1
Ron Paul 20/1
Jon Hunstman 25/1

Obama, being the incumbent is the clear favorite, but if you think Perry or Romney will win the Republican nod you can parlay that with a Presidential win and get really good odds. This is a fun thing for gamblers to do, but it’s football season, and football is king.

From: Dave Axelrod, Obama For America Chair

To: Obama For America Web Staff

RE: AttackWatch & next steps

Hey gang I really must congratulate you all on AttackWatch.com. I mean, wow! The Twitter buzz alone is overwhelming; literally thousands of tweets with the #AttackWatch hash tag. (Incidentally, we’ve got some experts in – Hollywood comedy writers – to look through and tell us what proportion, if any, of those tweets are sarcastic. Personally, I’m confident the vast majority aren’t.)

This is a bigger success even than the “Reality Check” website that let people tip off the government to healthcare reform sedition er, misinformation. Or http://www.fightthesmears.com/. BTW—the IRS guys are still talking about how many audits they got to do based on tips from that effort.

So since you guys are hitting home runs these days, I wanted to run a few ideas by you that I think might really build momentum going into next year. The bus tour really got things going, and I know you guys were very proud of the “black is the new black” color scheme you came up with. I think it really brought an upbeat, optimistic message to the folks in Arkansas, or Missouri, or wherever that was.

So tell me what you think of these ideas:

President Obama’s Little Red Book – I personally came up with this one. Think about it, all the president’s great sayings, maxims and quotes in a small, pocket-sized book. It would fit right in kids’ back packs or lunch boxes. We could talk to Arne Duncan about maybe getting some time carved out of the school day for reading and reflection on the Little Red Book.

President Obama’s Little Red iPod – I admit it, POTUS himself came up with this years ago, when he first gave one to Queen Elizabeth. (The old girl was knocked out, BTW, according to Rahm.) But you get all the president’s speeches, radio addresses and maybe him reading some of the more inspirational passages of “Dreams from my Father” and “The Audacity of Hope.” We could even tailor some to kids, with Sasha and Maliah reading about their mom’s new food guidelines, set it all to some JayZ beats and you’ve got a cultural phenomenon!

ObamaEyes – This one is imaginative. It plays off something that helps create that POTUS charisma – his intense and soulful eyes. We can do up posters of his face with holographic that follow you wherever go go. It’s like, “he’s always watching over you.” It could be reinforced with novelty glasses with his holographic eyes. Maybe we can make a deal with some of our Hollywood friends to have those be the 3-D glasses. How’s that for product placement?

Personal Visitations – if we could somehow make the logistics work, this is a proven winner. We’ve already seen what a hit POTUS’s backyard town halls are – how he connects with real people who actually have garden hoses and resin patio furniture. If we could figure out a way for him to appear in every backyard in America between now and Nov. 2012, we’re talking landslide lock. Hey, wait, I know! Garden Obamas! Yes, he can’t really be there, but what about The One in the form of outdoor garden statuary. Like gnomes, but much more magical. And it would be a Garden Obama with holographic eyes! Too exciting.

Let me know what you think of these ideas. Again, guys, congrats on AttackWatch! Unbelievable home run.

Best,

Dave A.

Of course, he was just sick of seeing it on TV instead of “SpongeBob.” He didn’t know why Mom and Dad were so upset or why all these bad pictures and sounds were coming off the TV.

But I’ve always kept that image, and whenever 9/11 comes up, it’s not very far away. Little blonde boy outlined against monstrous destruction. Life and death.

In that moment, I resolved that, whatever else my kids knew or didn’t know, they would understand who attacked their country and why. They’d understand why better men than their dad have to fight and kill and die in places they can’t pronounce.

Today on National Review, Michelle Malkin writes about the pitiful curricula many schools use to teach 9/11 in elementary school. It’s outrageous. But it’s not surprising.

We were told that 9/11 “changed everything.” If only. Sometime shortly after 9/11 someone, perhaps the NEA, came out with teacher guides for addressing the attacks with students. Except there weren’t attacks, they were “tragedies.” Teachers should let students know that crying was a natural and healthy response to thinking about 9/11. It was filled with the usual blather about misunderstanding and fear of “the other.”

It was the same mindset that that had pundits and academics wringing their hands about “why they hate us.” It produced the embarrassing travesty of the Flight 93 monument. It was the soft, feminized sensibility that found strange gratification in our being the victims. It’s the cultural rot that brings “grief counselors” parachuting into every unpleasant situation, that wilts before “hate speech” and demands to be shielded from the vicissitudes of competition and conflict. We’re the most comfortable and coddled society in history, and yet we don’t have the fundamental self-confidence not to doubt our virtues.

I’ve heard opponents of school choice advance the argument that a public education is sort of a cultural glue – if we all share the same experience of pledging allegiance to the flag everyday and all learn civics and history from the same textbooks we more easily cohere as a society. That may once have been true (although I never noticed the products of Catholic schools having any difficulty fitting in), but today it’s hard to examine that cultural glue and not conclude that it’s toxic.

There are no longer many heroes in the American story our kids get from school, except for the Martin Luther Kings and Frederick Douglasses – those stood up to America’s inequality and bigotry. There’s no longer any sense of America’s innate goodness, uniqueness, exceptionalism. Kids know less and less about history and government. The cultural glue is made up of historical ignorance and ambivalence toward our nation.

Conservatives long ago stopped trusting public schools to teach … well, much of anything. I can’t teach my kids math and science, so I defer to the school there. But I can teach them history and civics, right and wrong. My boys are 11 and 6, and they can tell you (to the degree their age allows them to really understand it) why we’ve been at war since the oldest was two. And they know who the good guys are.

While I would dearly love the school to teach them the truth about 9/11 in particular and American history in general, sadly, I don’t trust it to.

I’d thank my lucky stars,
to be flyin’ outa here today.
‘Cause those latex gloves mean freedom,
so let them grope away.

And I’m proud to be a Somalian,
cause I know they won’t touch me.
Or the Saudi standing over there,
his eyes shifting nervously.

And I gladly stand here,
next to you and wait on line all day.
I don’t care if you miss your flight,
God bless the TSA.

From O’Hare in Chicago,
to ol’ Dulles IAD.
And the delayed planes of Logan,
To that dump in Miami.

From Detroit down to Houston,
and LaGuardia to L.A.
Well there’s pride in every Islamist heart,
and its time we stand and say.

That I’m proud to be a Somalian,
cause profiled I won’t be.
And I won’t forget the ACLU
That gave that right to me.

And I gladly laugh as you worry ‘bout missing
Your meeting in Eerie, PA.
And the man in blue snaps the glove on his hand,
God bless the TSA.

And I’m proud to be a Somalian,
a stone cold jihadi.
And I won’t forget that when I die,
72 virgins are waiting for me.

And I gladly pat you on your back,
and tell you it’ll be OK.
‘Cause there ain’t no doubt you’ll love his hand,
God bless the TSA.

Uh, hello ma’am. Heading into the pharmacy? Are you planning on getting birth control? Please, wait! I just want to pay for it. No, I’m not a pervert. I just … the Secretary of Health and Human Services wants me to pay … Kathleen Sebelius? Ring a bell? …

Hi, I’m looking for women who are at this pharmacy to get contraceptives. See, I just want to pay for them … No. No, I’m not hoping to try them out with you. See, whether you knew it or not, your plunking down $10 every time you wanna make a little whoopie was a grave injustice. Now, thanks to ObamaCare, I’m supposed to pay for your contraceptives. Really. Except it’s through higher insurance premiums. See, Kathleen Sebelius, HHS Secretary, says it’s really important that women get contraceptives under their insurance plans with no co-pay.

But I thought I’d just cut out the middle man, so to speak. Simply paying more to a faceless company is so … impersonal. I like to see and talk to the women I’m helping and, you know, make sure they’re getting the contraceptive solution that’s right for them.

So what’ll it be today? The Pill? Diaphragm with spermicidal gel? The old reliable condom (ribbed, for her enjoyment!)? Maybe a nice photo of Helen Thomas?  Ow! No … you don’t need a cop! Ow. That hurt! Please, it’s ObamaCare! It’s gotta be … Ow! …