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MSNBC has suspended Mark Halperin from being its senior political analyst after he called Pres. Obama “kind of a dick” on “Morning Joe” today. Statement from MSNBC:

    Mark Halperin’s comments this morning were completely inappropriate and unacceptable.? We apologize to the President, The White House and all of our viewers. We strive for a high level of discourse and comments like these have no place on our air.  Therefore, Mark will be suspended indefinitely from his role as an analyst.

But, I remember some statements from Keith Olbermann on MSNBC about President George W. Bush…..ultimately calling him a fascist. Oh but wait, Bush had it coming. Olbermann wasn’t even suspended.

Alas, Mark Halperin has apologized, will be scolded, be back to work soon and I wonder who will next tell it like it is about President Obama?

How about the voters in November 2012.

Therefore, I agree with this analysis from Larry Sabato et. al..

In 2012 the Republican presidential nomination calendar starts off with Iowa, followed by New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina. Florida is jockeying for a top position as well. As Chart 1 indicates, Iowa’s GOP electorate is the most conservative of those five states.

Iowa and South Carolina are dominated by evangelical Christian voters who could be more supportive of a religious conservative like Bachmann. New Hampshire and Florida, on the other hand, are more favorable for a moderate candidate such as Romney. (Nevada’s caucusgoers, a quarter of whom were Mormon, went for Romney by a wide margin in 2008.) Remember that ex-Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, an evangelical favorite, won Iowa in 2008, but that proved to be the peak of his campaign.

When considering the makeup of the early states, the map looks reasonably well-suited for Romney, so long as he wins New Hampshire, where polling indicates he is a huge favorite at this early stage. He likely will be favored to do well again in Nevada, and although evangelical-rich South Carolina will be a challenge for Romney, he could make up for a setback there in friendlier Florida.

A Bachmann victory in Iowa could eliminate at least one of Romney’s rivals, potentially even Pawlenty. Romney then could confront Bachmann on friendlier territory in New Hampshire, where her religious conservatism would not play quite as well. That would put Romney in the position of John McCain in 2008, as the ideologically questionable front-runner fending off a challenger more beloved by the base (Bachmann as 2012’s Huckabee). Romney is betting that the GOP establishment will get behind him this time, as it did for McCain four years ago.

Perhaps Romney, who is not participating in the Ames, IA straw poll in August, will mimic McCain’s path in another way: effectively skipping Iowa and letting Bachmann do his work there for him.

Will this strategy work? Can Romney truly count on rescue by a party establishment nervous about offending the Tea Party? Will GOP voters even listen to party and elected leaders after all those grassroots victories in 2010? These and so many more questions will keep us occupied for months to come.

And, then there may be a wild card of Sarah Palin in there. I don’t think Texas Governor Rick Perry will be much of a threat to Mitt Romney.

But, Sarah would…..

You are aware of the FLAP since I have been writing about this California Legislation for months now. Here is the link to the archive of posts.

But, now it is official I am out as an Amazon.com Associate because of the actions of California Governor Jerry Brown last night.

Shopping at Amazon.com Inc. and other major Internet stores is poised to get more expensive.

Beginning Friday, a new state law will require large out-of-state retailers to collect sales taxes on purchases that their California customers make on the Internet – a prospect eased only slightly by a 1-percentage-point drop in the tax that also takes effect at the same time.

Getting the taxes, which consumers typically don’t pay to the state if online merchants don’t charge them, is “a common-sense idea,” said Gov. Jerry Brown, who signed the legislation into law Wednesday.

The new tax collection requirement – part of budget-related legislation – is expected to raise an estimated $317 million a year in new state and local government revenue.

But those taxes may come with a price. Amazon and online retailer Overstock.com Inc. told thousands of California Internet marketing affiliates that they will stop paying commissions for referrals of so-called click-through customers.

That’s because the new requirement applies only to online sellers based out of state that have some connection to California, such as workers, warehouses or offices here.

Both Amazon in Seattle and Overstock in Salt Lake City have told affiliates that they would have to move to another state if they wanted to continue earning commissions for referring customers.

“We oppose this bill because it is unconstitutional and counterproductive,” Amazon wrote its California business partners Wednesday. Amazon has not indicated what further actions it might take to challenge the California law.

Many of about 25,000 affiliates in California, especially larger ones with dozens of employees, are likely to leave the state, said Rebecca Madigan, executive director of trade group Performance Marketing Assn. The affiliates combined paid $152 million in state income taxes last year, she pointed out.”We have to consider it,” said Loren Bendele, chief executive of Savings.com, a West Los Angeles website that links viewers to hundreds of money-saving deals. “It does not look good for our business.”

Although I did not realize a great deal of money from Amazon.com in this program, since I was getting older and blogging more and practicing dentistry less, I was hoping to make a few more dollars from my blogs. But, I guess as Amazon and others gear up for the lawsuits against the State of California, we California Associates are just out of business.

Good move California Democrats and Wal-Mart. We know where you guys hang out and will sign initiative petitions and vote accordingly. Others will simply move their businesses and employees out of California.

A lose – lose for everyone with no real gains by the State of California.

Here is the final notice from Amazon.com.

You are aware of the FLAP since I have been writing about this California Legislation for months now. Here is the link to the archive of posts.

But, now it is official I am out as an Amazon.com Associate because of the actions of California Governor Jerry Brown last night.

Shopping at Amazon.com Inc. and other major Internet stores is poised to get more expensive.

Beginning Friday, a new state law will require large out-of-state retailers to collect sales taxes on purchases that their California customers make on the Internet — a prospect eased only slightly by a 1-percentage-point drop in the tax that also takes effect at the same time.

Getting the taxes, which consumers typically don’t pay to the state if online merchants don’t charge them, is “a common-sense idea,” said Gov. Jerry Brown, who signed the legislation into law Wednesday.

The new tax collection requirement — part of budget-related legislation — is expected to raise an estimated $317 million a year in new state and local government revenue.

But those taxes may come with a price. Amazon and online retailer Overstock.com Inc. told thousands of California Internet marketing affiliates that they will stop paying commissions for referrals of so-called click-through customers.

That’s because the new requirement applies only to online sellers based out of state that have some connection to California, such as workers, warehouses or offices here.

Both Amazon in Seattle and Overstock in Salt Lake City have told affiliates that they would have to move to another state if they wanted to continue earning commissions for referring customers.

“We oppose this bill because it is unconstitutional and counterproductive,” Amazon wrote its California business partners Wednesday. Amazon has not indicated what further actions it might take to challenge the California law.

Many of about 25,000 affiliates in California, especially larger ones with dozens of employees, are likely to leave the state, said Rebecca Madigan, executive director of trade group Performance Marketing Assn. The affiliates combined paid $152 million in state income taxes last year, she pointed out.”We have to consider it,” said Loren Bendele, chief executive of Savings.com, a West Los Angeles website that links viewers to hundreds of money-saving deals. “It does not look good for our business.”

Although I did not realize a great deal of money from Amazon.com in this program, since I was getting older and blogging more and practicing dentistry less, I was hoping to make a few more dollars from my blogs. But, I guess as Amazon and others gear up for the lawsuits against the State of California, we California Associates are just out of business.

Good move California Democrats and Wal-Mart. We know where you guys hang out and will sign initiative petitions and vote accordingly. Others will simply move their businesses and employees out of California.

A lose – lose for everyone with no real gains by the State of California.

Here is the final notice from Amazon.com.