Oh, Canada!

Canada: Home of moose, hockey,
and well-capitalized banks

Looks like our neighbors to the north are doing something right.

Correction: they are doing a lot of things right.

Canada is succeeding by doing things "right," literally. They have implemented many of the same economic policies championed by fiscally conservative Republicans here in the United States, and swiftly began seeing positive effects.

Ted Cruz: "Stronger than Garlic"

What an incredible, amazing, wonderful night for Ted Cruz!

In less than two years, he managed to go from "Ted Who?" and polling in the low single digits, to winning the Republican primary for the Texas Senate by a decisive margin, earning the support of conservative activists across the country along the way.

During his victory speech last night, Cruz made reference to the fact that he only received 2% of the vote at the first poll that was taken in his race, providing yet another parallel with Marco Rubio's Senate race in Florida. Both Rubio and Cruz are attorneys with Cuban heritage, strong conservatives, and Rubio initially had a weak showing in the first public polls that were taken in his race.

UF has more Olympic medals than UK, Australia, Canada

A little bit of Olympic pride for my fellow Gators:

Business Insider | The University Of Florida Has More Medals Than Great Britain Right Now 

The University of Florida has 40 athletes competing in the Olympics, and they are doing some serious medal-winning.

Right now, UF athletes have four medals, two gold, and two silver. That's more than Australia, Canada, and even the home town team, Great Britain...

Happy 100th Birthday Milton Friedman!

Milton Friedman, economic adviser to Ronald Reagan and Nobel-prize-winning leader of the Chicago school of economics, was born a century ago today, on July 31, 1912.

Thomas Sowell, who was lucky enough to be a student of Friedman's, wrote an article about his former professor at National Review:

National Review Online | Milton Friedman’s Centenary

Oelrich campaign reacts to my post...sort of...

I think I smell smoke...

Last week, the Steve Oelrich for Congress campaign sent out a press release expressing outrage at a mailer sent by one of his primary opponents, Cliff Stearns, in which he claimed that the reason he was ineligible for military service was because of injuries he received during his law enforcement career.

However, as I noted in a post last week, publicly available documents show that the injury that made Oelrich ineligible for military service happened in a hunting accident when he was a teenager, before he was a police officer.

This is what supporting Israel looks like: Romney in Jerusalem [VIDEO]

Mitt Romney gave a powerful, moving speech in Jerusalem earlier today, stating unequivocally his support for our ally, as well as his condemnation for terrorists who threaten Israel's security and Iran's quest for nuclear weapons.

Additionally, unlike the current White House administration, Romney had no problem stating very clearly that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel.

The speech is a must-watch:

If this story doesn't make you proud to be an American, nothing will

Here's a great story I spotted at Babalú Blog yesterday:

Awesome advice from a church

Heh. Found this at Buzzfeed...definitely not the kind of advice you normally see on a church sign:

I'm hoping Steve Oelrich can explain this

Are Steve Oelrich's pants on fire?

An alert reader forwarded me some intriguing information about a dispute between two of the candidates in the Republican Congressional primary in Florida's Third District, and I'm posting it here, hoping that State Senator Steve Oelrich has a good explanation for what seems, at first glance, to be a blatant and cynical distortion of the truth, if not a flat out lie.

Here's the background:

"I'm a lifelong Democrat...but this time I'm going to vote for a Republican."

Here is a must-see ad created by the Republican Jewish Coalition, which they describe as the "first in a series of ads...highlighting the real stories of real people who give voice to the nagging doubts that many in the Jewish community feel about President Obama:"

BREAKING: Allen West endorses Sandy Adams

"I fully endorse Sandy Adams...she represents a new generation of Republican
Conservatives who have come to the Halls of Congress to find solutions..."

Sandy Adams locked in another powerful endorsement for her reelection campaign today from one of her fellow freshmen members of Congress, Allen West.

RedState is coming to the Sunshine State!

The annual RedState Gathering is coming to the Sunshine State next month, and you won't want to miss it.

Check out www.RedStateGathering.com for all the details, including information on registration (Note: TODAY is the last day for the early-bird price!) and discounted hotel reservations.

Romney's Full Speech to VFW Convention [VIDEO]

Mitt Romney gave what, in my opinion, was one of his best speeches of the campaign so far, at the Veterans of Foreign Wars Convention yesterday. Here it is, in its entirety, for you to enjoy:

FL-7 Update: Soul Mates, Fact Checks, and Art Museums

If you're not following the Republican primary for Florida's Seventh Congressional District, you're missing one of the most interesting races in recent political history. This is my home district in Orlando, and I have a personal interest in this race, so I've been writing a lot about it (see here, here, here, here, here, here, and here for starters).

Here are some of the latest updates from the campaign:

Netanyahu on Fox News Sunday [VIDEO]

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was a guest on "Fox News Sunday" with Chris Wallace yesterday:

Hey Ya! OutKast's Big Boi speaks out for Second Amendment rights

(License plate available for purchase here.)

Gotta love politicians. Never going to let a national tragedy go by without taking advantage of the opportunity to politicize it.

In the wake of the shootings at "The Dark Knight Rises" premiere in Aurora, Colorado, the usual list of gun control advocates (Piers Morgan, NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg, etc.) pounced and started immediately pushing for tighter gun laws.

Never mind that you can't outlaw crazy or evil. If someone is determined to kill innocent people, some statute that says they can't carry a gun isn't going to slow them down.

More failure from the stimulus: Energy Dept. loses $500K worth of equipment

That's our money (and our children's, and grandchildren's, and great-grandchildren's...) they're spending:

The Heritage Foundation reported earlier today on their blog, The Foundry, that $500,000 worth of equipment purchased as part of the "green energy" grants under Obama's stimulus program have gone missing.

Great new Romney web ad: "These Hands" [VIDEO]

Here's the latest web ad from the Romney campaign, hitting Obama for his ridiculous "you didn't build that" comments attacking entrepreneurs:

Sean Bielat on the Gillespie Show [AUDIO]

Sean Bielat, candidate for Massachusetts' Fourth Congressional District, was on the Gillespie Show with Josh Gillespie (@JoshGillespie on Twitter) on FTR Radio last night.

If you missed the show, you can listen here:

Josh Gillespie | Interview with Sean Bielat

Being a Congressman has its perks - ask John Mica!

Congress is awesome! Why do
 you think I stayed for 20 years?

Getting elected to Congress brings a lot of really cool perks. Besides having people address you as Representative and getting to shape the future of our country, there's the salary, excellent health insurance, multi-million dollar international vacations...

Wait, what? Multi-million dollar international vacations?