The Republican Nomination For President: The Race For The Race For The White House

Ignorance is not prejudice nor does it care what color you are. OK maybe that is what prejudice is, I should have used a different word.

Glasses Half Full/Half Empty
Two things I read today. 3 fresh polls are out re FL, taken in the last couple of days but ahead of the debate last night. Averaging them together, they show Newt @38%, Mitt @ 30%, Rick @ 12% and Ron @ 10% along with Undecided.
The Repub establishment is terrified that Newt could win FL.
Meanwhile, Nate Silver of 538 had an interesting article today. He notes that, of Republican senators and governors, only 35% have endorsed a candidate in 2012 (most of those going for Romney).
In 2000, two weeks after NH, 87% had endorsed and in 2008 it was 47%.
To him that suggests that the party's centrists are not convinced that Mitt is the right fit.
Silver (I am not a huge fan of his, by the way) goes on to claim that many Repubs now believe that there will be a 50-50 chance of the Repubs not having selected a nominee prior to the convention.
I am probably not at 50-50 yet but I have been predicting the possibility of that for awhile.

Might as well flip a coin because they both equally suck.

What we want John is a prediction. A prediction of a 50-50 possibilty hardly classifies as a prediction at all.

I suppose that's possible if Paul manages to capture 6-8% of the delegates and Romney and Gingrich split most of the others. I don't know if Santorum can stick around long enough to get many delegates in the ones that aren't "winner take all."

Mitt Romney 2012 tax returns reveal that the former Massachusetts governor donated more than $4 million to the Mormon Church, which is actively opposing marriage equality around the country. Last night, CNN reported that the Romneys’ Tyler Charitable Foundation also gave to the anti-gay Massachusetts Family Institute over a period of several years. The group opposes same-sex marriage in the state and warns parents about literature that promotes so-called “pro-homosexual books” to school children. If he wins we might move to Canada, do they allow Puerto Ricans in Canada?

I imagine so under certain circumstances.

Does that mean Mitt is claiming a tax deduction on tithing? Is tithing charity? Weird.

Yes, it's a "charitable contribution."

you betcha!

and we have tons of houses that need renovating

on the downside we have temperatures that you are not going to be able to tolerate

I think Mitt calls it getting rid of Gays and he gets a tax deduction for it. I wonder if that is where most of his charitable contributions go.

I would think that getting a tax deduction on that should be illegal.

Why are Mormons asked to donate 10% of their income to their Church?

Last night (our time) on The Daily Show NYT's Joe Nocera was the guest and mentioned that a lot of people working in venture & equity weren't happy with Mitt because his nom bid was shining a light on their sector (or turning over a rock depending on your opinion). I wonder if the Mormon church will share that opinion.

I'm already wondering who heads that church and how its finances are managed. 10% income tax with no responsibility for infrastructure or defence sounds like hay.

Most churches will be standing while our infrastructure, schools, and other government buildings will look like what one finds in Cuba; mostly degraded buildings that once were representative of a strong economic country.

This could not be true could it?

You mean, is the Mormon Church less a church than any other, or are you asking about churches in general? Churchs are usually incorporated in such a was as to be able to receive tax exempt contributions. The Mormon Church has some pretty fair lawyers.

I guess the management structure of the Anglican and Catholic churches is pretty transparent - it may be the same in the LDS and I'm just ignorant - who determines where the cash goes? Is it any sort of democracy? How does one move up the ranks? Even the pope gets elected.

I'm just not aware of enforced tithing in the Anglican and Catholic churches, there is no doubt some 'peer' pressure for regular donations in A&C but LDS tithing appears to be a little different, from my perspective (full disclosure - I'm an atheist who has never been affiliated with any church). I think scientology has a similar approach to tithing.

Baptists are big on tithing. If you don't tithe enough in some branches, you will not be moving up the internal ranks.

Addendum Roger - I guess my main point is that a lot more people will be asking the same questions - because of Mitt's run - and I was wondering how the Church felt about that.

Mitt Romney's tax returns are a glowing artifact of inequality in the tax code!