The Euro-mess took another turn for the worse over the weekend following news that Standard & Poor’s has downgraded the debt of a flock of European countries, most notably France. Last night markets weakened across Asia as once again the rest of the world looked at Europe and wondered just how those people were going to get out of this debacle.

As Via Meadia readers know, while Franco-German politics are not the root cause of the eurozone’s woes, the deep division between Germany and France over the way a European monetary union should work is crippling the eurozone and has prevented a clear strategy from emerging to cope with the worsening, deepening and widening crisis.

France wants the ECB and the currency union to look like the French state writ large: a strong, centralized authority that supports the big corporations and banks at the heart of the French economy, eliminates the interest rate differential between Germany and France, and accepts external devaluation and internal inflation as reasonable ways to solve chronic budget and adjustment problems.

Germany wants a tight money policy for the eurozone, forcing reform and efficiency on “lazy” Club Med peoples through the impartial and predictable enforcement of firm and inflexible rules.

This is an old policy disagreement; what makes it important now is that overcoming the crisis in the eurozone requires Europe first to decide what kind of money it wants: a French or a German system. The danger of default, not merely in minor countries like Greece, but in large European economies like Italy and even, in a worst case scenario, France, pushes Europe toward answering the question it has long avoided: whose vision will shape Europe’s future?

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Read More at The American Interest By Walter Russell Mead, The American Interest

With one caucus and one primary completed, there is a stampede of media analysts and Republican operatives rushing to proclaim Mitt Romney as the de facto Republican nominee. Despite the fact that only a fraction of the delegates have been chosen and voters in 48 states have yet to cast a vote, there is a definite push to call this political ballgame early.

Why the rush to crown a nominee? A prolonged primary battle with not harm Romney or whoever wins the nomination, it will only make the GOP nominee stronger. A hard fought Democratic Party campaign against Hillary Clinton in 2008 certainly helped Barack Obama become a better candidate.

In contrast, Republicans have not seen a vigorous nomination contest since the epic 1976 race between Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan. Unfortunately, the GOP favors Establishment candidates who have previously lost and are running for the second or third time. Republicans like to clear the field for the candidate that insiders believe has earned a spot at the top of the ticket. This flawed strategy has given the party two nominees who were major losers: Bob Dole and John McCain.

Thus, we enter the 2012 contest with a front runner, Mitt Romney, who lost in 2008 and never stopped running for president. With a massive war chest and a plethora of party leaders pushing for his nomination, the Massachusetts flip-flopper has plenty of momentum. Media analysts and commentators are already claiming that the race is over and the country will be subjected to a Romney versus Obama race this fall.

At this point, it is way too early to end this primary contest. Voters in the South clearly think differently on most issues than the more liberal electorate in Iowa and New Hampshire. Usually, a moderate candidate like Romney would not do well in a conservative state like South Carolina; however, voters will be influenced by media coverage painting Romney as the eventual winner. Voters like to side with a winner and not “waste” their vote. Romney will also have a huge financial advantage and a Super PAC ready to spend $7 million touting his candidacy.

 Read More at Western Journalism By Jeff Crouere

The erosion of merit and fairness in the military took another big hit last Friday with the Navy’s “kid gloves” decision to allow Captain Holly Graf to retire in rank rather than be punished for striking a subordinate.

Physical attacks by any person in our military are never to be tolerated, especially when a Commanding Officer is the perpetrator.

Last month Captain Graf, (whose sexual orientation is regularly questioned in military news websites), was brought before a Board of inquiry to face serious charges.

She was called to explain why, as Commanding Officer of the USS Cowpens she ordered her crew to engage in a “drag race” with another Naval vessel putting the personnel on both ships in danger. She also had to explain why she threw objects at several of her male subordinates, placed an enlisted man in a “time out” directing him to stand alone in an empty room and worse still trying to choke another officer serving with her on the Cowpens.

Graf’s career was a classic military foray into political correctness gone totally wrong. She was a loaded P.R. bomb waiting to explode and embarrass the Navy, and she has done exactly that.

Read More at Western Journalism By Kevin “Coach” Collins

After criticizing Mitt Romney in New Hampshire for his investment practices, one of the first attack ads aimed at the Republican front-runner by his presidential primary rivals in South Carolina highlights his changed position from supporting abortion rights to opposing them.
The shift reflects the contest’s change in location. In 2008, 60 percent of Republican primary voters in South Carolina said they considered themselves “born again,” or evangelical Christians, exit polling showed.

The commercial is one of several anti-Romney messages now filling the Palmetto State’s airwaves. The good news for the former Massachusetts governor: He and his allies have the resources to match them and hit back before the Jan. 21 primary that may winnow the field.

Television ads promoting Romney, the winner of yesterday’s New Hampshire primary, are airing about as frequently as spots attacking him, according to an analysis by New York-based Kantar Media’s CMAG of South Carolina television markets since Dec. 27.

Ads that mention former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Romney’s most aggressive rival on the airwaves, are overwhelmingly negative in tone, the report concluded.

Read More at Newsmax