That didn’t take long at all, did it?  For the past several months, I’ve been ranting and raving that it Richard Mourdock wins the Republican nomination for Senate, the national Democratic party was going to spend MILLIONS of dollars in Indiana that they otherwise wouldn’t have dared.

Well, it’s started.  And I f***ing told you so.

What does this mean?  Well, for starters, it means that National and Indiana Republicans and PACs are going to have to spend millions of dollars on a race that SHOULD have been a lock for conservatives (yes, Dick Lugar was a conservative – but he was a statesman, so he didn’t force it down people’s throats like ignorant politicians of this era).

This is money that SHOULD have been spent defeating Democrats elsewhere and giving us a majority in BOTH Houses of Congress.  But hey, what does that matter?  Ron Paulers stopped a loyal Republican from serving one more term in Congress.  They got what they wanted and screwed the GOP just a little bit more.

For a long time, Mourdock’s supporters have been arguing that this WOULDN’T happen.  That Joe Donnelly, the Democrats’ candidate in the Indiana Senate Race, was too weak of a candidate to be a serious contender.

While his Congressional District was slightly more to the left than average in Indiana, Donnelly didn’t win because he ran to the left.  He is a pro-gun, pro-life Democrat – a combination that works REALLY well with rural voters who don’t care who he caucuses with.  Joe Donnelly has defeated some VERY impressive Republican challengers, first Representative Chocola to win the seat in 2006, then Luke Puckett in 2008 and Jackie Walorski in 2010.  The contests weren’t even close, even in a Republican year like 2010.  And now, instead of a highly esteemed and respected US Senator and global leader, we’re running a tax-evading extremist.

Joe Donnelly is probably going to become our next Senator, and he might be the single reason why Democrats hold the United States Senate in 2012.

I’m not saying I like it, or even that I want Mourdock to lose.  But Republican primary voters really screwed themselves this time.

The keynote speaker of the Lake County Right-To-Life Banquet was Abby Johnson, the author of Unplanned: The Dramatic True Story of a Former Planned Parenthood Leader’s Eye-Opening Journey across the Life Line. You can buy the book on Amazon here, I’m probably going to pick it up myself.

I don’t have a video of Mrs. Johnson’s speech (I’m a horrible and slacking blogger, I know), but the summary of her speech was likely a summary of her book.  She was on the fast track to the top of Planned Parenthood, making a killing on killing unborn children and living the good life.  Then, after several years, she saw an abortion performed while the abortionist used an ultrasound machine to ensure nothing was left in the woman’s womb for her own safety (this should be the topic of another blog post).  This eventually leads to her resignation from Planned Parenthood and her involvement in the pro-life movement.

I left out some jokes about Hillary Clinton’s hair, but you at least have a good enough idea of what this woman said for me to continue with this post.

On our way to meet with some friends after the event, Krista and I got to talking about Abby Johnson and how strange it felt as she was giving her speech.  Here this woman stands, having played a direct role in the deaths of tens of thousands of children; but because she says that she’s pro-life now, a room full of pro-lifers were applauding her speech and buying her books.

I made the comparison to a famed (at least in 1940s Germany) Nazi war criminal who was directly responsible for the hundreds of tens of thousands of Jews, Poles, Slavs, Serbs, gypsies, and gays.  Let’s say this Nazi war criminal, we’ll call him Colonel Hans Solo, were to one day throw a child in the ovens and think to himself, “Wow, maybe Jews are more human than I thought they were.”  He then eventually defected and ran to Warsaw, Poland to join the Rebellion towards the end of War in Europe. He goes on to give speeches and write a book called Final Solution: The Dramatic True Story of a former Nazi Leader’s Eye-Opening Journey across the Aryan Line about how he was wrong to be a Nazi mass murderer.

How does Hans Solo’s story differ from Abby Johnson’s?  Well, for starters, abortion kills more children around the world every year than the Holocaust.  3 million children are killed by abortions every year in the United States alone, the entire Holocaust from 1938 to 1945 “only” killed 6 million Jews (some say it started earlier, other say it started later, Ron Paul supporters might say it didn’t happen at all; let’s not get caught up in the dates).

There are more differences. Hans Solo might say he stayed with the Nazis because if he defected, he and his family would be shot.  Abby Johnson?  Because the money was good.  As she put it, “You have to pay people a lot of money to put their morality aside.”

And then there’s this difference.  Colonel Hans Solo would have been executed for his crimes, regardless of how good his book might have been.  Abby Johnson is celebrated by pro-lifers.

Do you see where I have a problem with this?

Please don’t get me wrong, I’m thrilled that Abby Johnson is no longer involved with Planned Parenthood.  I couldn’t be happier that her talent murdering unborn children can no longer be utilized by that evil organization.  (I don’t use the word “Evil” often, so you know I mean it when I say it)

If abortion came to an end the same way as the Holocaust; and the new order had the same sense of justice as the Allies in World War II, Abby Johnson would be thrown in prison for a very long time (assuming a pro-life organization that takes over wouldn’t have a death penalty).  Yet, for some reason, we treat Abby different than any other kind of former mass-murderer.

Is that because secretly, deep down, even pro-lifers don’t consider a fetus to be AS human as a person who can exist outside the womb?  Is my comparison of Abby Johnson and Nazi war criminal Hans Solo extreme because we place a higher value on life outside the womb than life inside the womb?

Am I wrong for equating the worth of an unborn child’s life to the life of a person after birth?

Is it the Christian teaching of forgiveness?  Well, that’s fine and good, but what about justice?  Even the earliest Christians recognized the need for civil authorities to proactively seek justice to maintain an orderly society.  I can forgive someone for killing a child, but that person still needs to be punished… whether it was one child or tens of thousands of children.  (And forgoing the salary you made killing the children doesn’t cut it)

If I’m missing something here, PLEASE enlighten me.

Klout is a really neat service by the way, you should sign up if you haven’t already.

Anyway, Klout allows users to tell them who influences them and what they influence them about.  For example, people say I’m influential about conservative politics.  Mitt Romney is also influential about conservative politics, according to Klout users.  He’s also very very influential about flip-flops in Fashion.

Come to think of it, Mitt Romney does kind of look like a vampire.  Metaphorically, you could argue he sucked the blood (money and jobs) out of a ton of companies his vulture capitalism firm invested in.

Or, if you prefer that I don’t attack capitalism, it could also be used symbolically to reference all the unborn children that were killed because RomneyCare’s public option in Massachusetts provides tax-payer funded abortions.

Either way you look at it, Mitt Romney is an asshole and another Massachusetts flip-flopper.

Hezbollah and other terrorist organizations actively raise money in the United States, and try to hide their activities from our government.

I got an e-mail from Liberty.com (a.k.a. Tea Party Command) – a group I never heard of nor ever gave my e-mail address to – and read of a couple of examples of the US Department of Justice cracking down on farmers who were depositing less than $10,000 into their bank when they actually earned more. Here’s a little bit of that e-mail.

Admittedly, when the Sowers earned over $10,000 in February, and learned they’d have to fill out paperwork at the bank for such large deposits, they simply rolled the deposits over to keep them below the none-of-your-fucking-business amount, rather than waste time on bureaucratic red tape aimed at flagging terrorism or other illegal activities.

“Structuring,” explains Overlawyered.com, “is the federal criminal offense of splitting up bank deposits so as to keep them under a threshold such as $10,000 above which banks have to report transactions to the government.”

I took a look at 31 CFR Chapter X but couldn’t find the “none-of-your-fucking-business amount” defined anywhere.  I’m not sure where the <sarcasm>brilliant legal scholars</sarcasm> at Tea Party Command got that from.

Allow me to explain something to all of you who are buying into this malarkey. The government makes it illegal to hide money from them for three reasons. First, because it’s a red flag for tax evasion. Second, because it’s a red flag for money laundering. Third, because helps terrorists and other enemies of the state hide from the diligent men and women working day and night to kick their asses and keep ours’ safe.

Ask anybody who knows me and they’ll be quick to tell you that I hate paperwork almost as much as I hate waiting in lines or at red lights. BUT I do wait in lines, and I do wait at red lights. Why? Because society would fall apart if people began ignoring the rules that were set in place.  Therefore, when absolutely necessary, I’ll do paperwork (actually, I’ll usually just pay someone to do that paperwork for me). I may not like it, but it needs to be done.

Despite what your average idiot pot-head anarchist will tell you, rules are not made to be broken. Rules are made to be followed for the orderly function and general protection of society and the individuals that make up that society. If Farmer Sower can roll over money to avoid having the government see it, so can Mafia Man Mower or Jihadist Jal al-Jower.

Obviously, the self-proclaimed patriots at Liberty.com lack the analytical power to make this connection.

While being questioned, the Sowers were finally presented with a seizure order and advised that the feds had already emptied their bank account of $70,000. The Dept. of Justice has since sued to keep $63,000 of the Sowers’ money, though they committed no crime other than maintaining their privacy.

Yeah, and while we’re at it, let’s make it a point to maintain the privacy of organized crime, tax evaders, terrorists, sex traffickers, and human smugglers.

The truth of the matter is that this has absolutely nothing to do with privacy. In all likelihood, the Sowers suffer from the same problem as me. We hate paperwork not because it’s boring, but because we’re lazy. Why should I do paperwork when I can pay H&R Block to do it for me? Why should they do paperwork when they can just deposit it in several trips?

Well, because it’s illegal. That’s why.

I’m sure seeing the Department of Justice tracking our money makes you angry when you think the President is an “anti-religion communist Muslim who was never an American to begin with but is still somehow a traitor.” But the law is actually a good one that protects both individuals and our American society as a whole by making it easier to identify and stop organized crime, tax evasion, terrorism, and other illegal activities.

But it’s over.  Mitt Romney will be our Republican Presidential Nominee, and it begs the question: “WHAT THE HECK!?”

Let’s all jump in the time machine and go back to September 2009… (wheeeee!)

What went wrong?

Well, for starters, the TEA Party utterly collapsed under the weight of many of its own members’ stupidity and the self-serving and often ignorant leadership behind the groups.

For example, if given the chance to go back, I wouldn’t have spoken at the event above.  Not only was I told that my 15 minute speech was now cut to 2 minutes… as I was walking up to the podium (I made them compromise); but there were people in that crowd and behind the scenes at the TEA Party Express that I would have preferred not to associate with.

I was particularly pissed when I saw the “Obama is a Muslim traitor and a terrorist!” signs.  I politely asked the person to remove the sign when I was done speaking, but he responded by giving me his “9/11 Patriots” business card and telling me to visit his website for the truth.  You would get pretty much the same response from all the crazy people there.

Vaccines are secretly killing your children!  Read this pamphlet for the truth!

9/11 was an inside job!  Put this bumper sticker on your car for the truth!

Deodorant is secretly giving you aluminum poisoning!  Trust me for the truth!

Ron Paul for President! Wear this tin foil hat for the truth!

You get my drift.  Now granted, not every TEA Party was a failure.  A lot of them survived by telling the crazy people that they weren’t welcome to share their propaganda and hatred.  But all it took was a few (or in this case, a lot) of bad apples to ruin the TEA Party brand for everyone.

What was even more ironic was the leadership response to constructive criticism.  Those of us who dared to speak out were immediately black listed, and all sorts of really ridiculous lies were spread about us.  For example, the Northwest Indiana Patriots (the first group I spoke for) accused me of being a CIA spy sent to infiltrate their group and collect information about them. You were not allowed to question the beliefs of the outright stupid people giving away their garbage literature.  You were not allowed to question the leadership.  You were not allowed to question the direction of the group.  YET!  When it came time to vote, the vast majority of TEA Party groups told their members, “You should vote for whoever you want, as long as you make an informed decision.”

Well, that worked out great, didn’t it?!  They took all the credibility and leverage they might have had left and flushed it right down the toilet.  As a result, their conservative votes were split between several very good and very electable candidates (LINK: See, I told you so).  The “anybody but Obama” crowd rushed to Mitt Romney, totally ignorant of his record.  Evangelicals ran to Rick Santorum.  Everybody else split between Cain, Gingrich, and Perry.  Of course, the lunatics ran to support Bachmann and the anti-conservative lunatics ran to support Ron Paul… but the latter group of crazies were never really Republicans to begin with, so no big deal there.

The sad truth of the matter is that the TEA Party has done more to divide the Republican Party than unite it.  And, in part because we were so divided, Mitt Romney was able to buy the Republican Presidential nomination by out-spending his rivals 50-to-1 with shameless and slanderous attack ads on conservative values and champions.  This is the man many of you will rally around in 2012… and the man I’ve refused to support for President since 2007.

And while we’re on this topic, let me briefly address an issue for conservative voters in Indiana’s primary; which is coming up on May 8th.  For the record, I could give the same speech today, word-for-word, and not lose any sleep over the possibility of selling out.   With that said, Senator Dick Lugar has consistently opposed Obamacare with every vote he’s cast.   Despite all the ridiculous ads (paid for by many of the same people who destroyed the TEA Party for everyone), Senator Lugar is worthy of every conservative’s vote on Primary Day and for the General Election.

Do you want to know why I support him?  Click here to learn more about Dick Lugar’s REAL record serving Hoosiers and being a champion of conservative values.

Forget I said that.

I’m running for Delegate to the Indiana Republican Convention in my local Westchester township.   This is actually pretty freaking important, so even if you don’t live in Westchester Township, take a moment and read what I have to say.  I promise to keep it short.

This year,  a very small group of anarchists are desperately trying to divide the Republican party here in Indiana.  To do this, they have recruited every kind of ignorant fool under the sun to file as a Republican candidate for delegate.  A lot of these people have never even voted before, or if they have, they voted Democrat in the primaries.  Of course, there are the standard “9/11 was an inside job” freaks, you’re used to me writing about those.  But that’s not actually the worst kind of crazy running in this race.

We have people running for Republican delegate places that refuse to wear deodorant because they believe there’s an aluminum conspiracy where companies are putting excessive amounts of aluminum in deodorant to… well, I’m not actually sure what they think is going on.  I never listened to their ranting long enough to find out.

Do you remember the crazed General Ripper from Dr. Strangelove: Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love The Bomb and how he was obsessed with the Soviet conspiracy to corrupt our “bodily fluids” by fluoridating our water supply?  Well, that wasn’t entirely fiction.  NO!  Your bodily fluids are safe!  But there are actually people out there who only drink distilled or rain water because they are convinced the fluoride is doing something to our brains.  Guess what – we have them running for State Delegate.

Not only did they recruit anarchists, but they’ve recruited people who flat out oppose the Republican positions on social issues.  Unless you want our next Lt. Governor to be as pro-abortion as Nancy Pelosi, you need to be careful!

Now, instead of listing a group of names of people who I know to be crazy or a list of people I know to have at least an ounce of sanity in them (either list would be incomplete and result in he-said, she-said arguments); I’m going to leave you with this simple message.

If you DON’T KNOW who is on your ballot, DON’T VOTE for them!

Delegate is pretty easy.  You’re given a list of names and you’re told to choose up to x number of candidates (it varies by township).  You don’t have to pick x number of candidates, you can pick fewer… or you can pick none.

If you don’t know who you’re voting for, don’t vote for them.  We could solve so many of this country’s problems if voters just followed that simple rule when at the polls.

By the way, my fiancee Krista Arvidson is running for delegate in Portage Township (first name on the ballot!).  The only thing that may make her crazy is that she wants to marry me.  Otherwise, she’s the most awesome person in Portage.  She’s worthy of your vote!

There are 8 candidates running for delegate in Westchester Township, you can vote for up to 5 of us.

There are 22 candidates running for delegate in Portage Township, you can vote for up to 8 of them.

Anyway, it may take me a day or two to get KTracy.com and MSPaintComic.com up and running again.

<sarcasm>Which is great, because this is just how I wanted to spend my weekend. </sarcasm>

What I am saying is that most of these people who agreed with me just a few weeks ago are soon going to flip-flop their way onto an enormous hypocrite bandwagon. Pretty soon, -according to these folks- the worst candidate in the Republican field will suddenly be the savior of conservatism, patriotism, and sanity in the United States. He’s going to be the greatest thing since Ronald Reagan. And when Mitt Romney loses, they’ll pretend like it never happened.

How do I know this?

That’s easy. Because it happened four years ago.

In 2006, I made it very clear to everyone that John McCain was on my short list of politicians I would NEVER support for President. In addition to telling San Francisco newspapers that he supported abortion, McCain’s blatant and aggressive support for blanket amnesty in 2006 was a sign to me that he was a leading figure in the BETRAYAL of Republican voters in 2004 – who delivered crushing defeats to Democrats that year. What’s more, a lot a conservatives agreed. John McCain was targeted by Sean Hannity and other conservative commentators for a long time after that.

And then he won the demolition derby that was the 2008 primary process. Suddenly, John McCain was Sean Hannity’s favorite Republican (at least until he picked Sarah Palin as his running mate). Likewise, most of the other bloggers and conservatives who once agreed with me, now were appalled that I was keeping my word… I wasn’t voting for John McCain.

Thomas Jefferson once said we should “Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.” So let me save myself the time of having to write exactly this in 2016.

In 2008, I made it very clear to everyone that Mitt Romney was on my short list of politicians I would NEVER support for President. In addition to running left of Ted Kennedy for US Senate, Mitt Romney’s socialized medicine program provides tax-payer funded abortions on-demand. And throughout most of the next four years, it seemed obvious that these positions were a BETRAYAL of the principles and values that rallied the Republicans in 2010 to deliver crushing defeats to Democrats that year. What’s more, a lot of conservatives agreed. Mitt Romney was targeted by Sean Hannity and other conservative commentators for a long time for his Romneycare program.

And then Mitt Romney out-spent his conservative rivals 50-1 to buy the Republican nomination with more than a year’s worth of deceitful and slanderous attack ads. Suddenly, Mitt Romney was Sean Hannity’s favorite Republican. Likewise, most other bloggers and conservatives who once agreed with me, now were appalled that I was keeping my word… I wasn’t voting for Mitt Romney.

I can’t wait to link back to this post.

Days turned into weeks, and weeks were turning into months. I had applied for literally over 1,000 jobs across the country over this period, yet I received only two interviews; one for a hypothetical job that never materialized and another for a position in Afghanistan that was canceled. I couldn’t even get an interview for an HR position at Toys’R'Us.

Thankfully, my family managed to step up and find me a job about a month before my credit cards were maxed out. Ironically, it was a skill that I learned in high school (10 years ago) that qualified me for this position more than anything else.

Well, I was thinking the other night about how thankful I was for my family’s support. What would I have done without them? I would have more than likely been another statistic about unemployed veterans. And that’s when it hit me. All that trouble I had even getting an interview was because I was a veteran.

My experience in the Air Force, in my opinion, was my greatest selling point. Who knows more about working in a team than a veteran? Who knows how to get a job done (and done right) better than a veteran? Who knows more about loyalty, dedication, and service more than a veteran?

But that’s not how potential employers must have seen it. If you watch CNN or your nightly news program of choice, veterans are unstable. We’re more likely to do drugs. We’re more prone to violence. We can’t adjust back to civilian life. So much attention has been dedicated to the emotional scars of military life, and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in particular, that it black-lists virtually every veteran by employers. We’re a risk and liability they don’t need to take on.

Now let me be 100% clear about this. PTSD is every bit as real as a bullet wound or a severed leg. The fact that the military and VA dance around it like it’s just another case of dehydration is just as disgraceful as anything the anti-war left has done over the last 45 years. This is a serious problem and the media attention on the problem probably doesn’t go far enough to exposing the true nature of suffering that’s going on or the lack of proper response from the powers that be.

Unfortunately, the media does a really horrible job at giving all the facts necessary for people to base any kind of assumptions on. Likewise, employers seem all too ready to buy in to the same mass media stereotypes the rest of society has bought into.

Yes, some veterans have issues that NEED to be addressed. However, the majority of veterans have one issue that needs to be addressed that has nothing to do with emotional stresses or scars. They need a job, and they’re going to continue to have a hard time “adjusting” when they can’t pay their bills.

Unfortunately, as irrelevant as his past sexual conduct may or may not have been, Newt Gingrich was unable to win the support of conservative women voters.  And without women voters, Gingrich was pretty much doomed from the start.  It goes to show all of you politicians out there… KEEP IT IN YOUR PANTS!

Newt Gingrich would have made an incredible President; which is why so many people still support him (16% in Louisiana isn’t bad).  However, it’s time to call it quits on his Presidential bid and endorse Rick Santorum.  Whether or not Santorum was the better candidate is debatable, but he is the better campaigner.  Speaker Gingrich was a debate specialist; but on the ground, he didn’t have the energy, endurance, or even the drive to get his message out and connect with people the way that Santorum did.   That, mixed with the spreading word of his infidelities many voters had forgotten about, is ultimately why he faded away after his win in South Carolina and subsequent loss to Mitt Romney in Florida.

Now, Newt Gingrich is in North Carolina and prepping for the May 8th primary there.  Perhaps he’s laying the ground work for what he hopes will be an epic comeback?  Well, ask Fred Thompson and Rick Perry how that worked in South Carolina.  And while you’re at it, ask Rudy Giuliani how that worked in New Hampshire (and later Florida).

The next round of primaries is going to be on April 3rd, with contests in Maryland, DC, and Wisconsin.  Mitt Romney is favored in all three states, though a strong Tea Party vote in Wisconsin may give some help to Rick Santorum there, though the Chicago media market saturated the more populated areas of southern Wisconsin with news of Romney’s huge win in Illinois.  Rick Santorum didn’t get the same treatment tonight.  Still, expect Rick Santorum to focus his time in that state.

After April 3rd, the candidates will have almost three weeks to prepare for the April 24th primaries in New York, Connecticut, Delaware, Rhode Island, and Pennsylvania.  Given the geography and political tendencies of those states, it is a safe bet that Mitt Romney will win four of the five.   If Rick Santorum loses his home state of Pennsylvania; which is entirely possible; it’s game over.  But game over or not, April is going to be a brütal month for the Santorum team.

So, then again, maybe it’s okay if Newt Gingrich hangs low until May 8th.  If Santorum pulls off any upsets between now and May 8th, a Gingrich endorsement would be pretty helpful after potentially losing 5 or 6 or maybe even 7 of the last 8 contests.  And if Rick Santorum drops out in April, well – there’s always good ole’ Newt Gingrich to fall back on.