I grew up in the Northeast, near the Great Lakes, so I know what it is to get a lot of snow. I thought I knew what it was to be cold, too, but I had never, until I moved to Iowa, experienced a truly extreme chill. I still remember the afternoon in late December when the temperature got up to minus 17, and I went outside in short sleeves because it felt so warm by comparison to the minus 30 it had been for the previous week.

That’s not the kind of winter Iowa is seeing this year. This afternoon in Council Bluffs, Iowa, the temperature almost reached 60 degrees Fahrenheit. Tomorrow, the weather will be the same.

As a result, the Winterfest Ice Fishing Derby that has been held every year in Council Bluffs has been canceled. For an ice fishing derby, after all, you need ice. As a consolation, they’re still going to hold a raffle, in which you can win a warm knit cap… but then, who needs a warm knit cap when it’s 60 degrees outside?

I’d say that this weather is unusual, except that this kind of winter warmth is becoming more common. It might be more accurate to call the weather unnatural.

For Iowans who remember what winter used to be like, and for Iowans who are concerned about the extreme imbalance that has been created in the climate, there’s this bumper sticker: Iowa Wants Action to Stop Global Warming… because the heartland is becoming the heatland.

Voters in Florida’s 22nd congressional district may now be hoping that they can get Allen West the hell out of the House of Representatives this November. But who would be his replacement?

There are two candidates running for the Democratic nomination to challenge Allen West in the general election this fall. Their names are Lois Frankel and Patrick Murphy.

Lois Frankel is a former state legislator and mayor of West Palm Beach. She pledges to protect Medicare and Social Security from Republican attempts to reduce benefits, saying, “Our seniors have spent their entire lives contributing to these programs and they deserve to know that Social Security and Medicare will be there for them when they retire. Lois will fight to protect these programs for current and future generations and will resist any efforts to cut benefits.”

Patrick Murphy is Vice President of Coastal Environmental Services, a Florida company that specializes in cleanup of industrial pollution. In 2010, Murphy took part in the cleanup of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. He hopes to bring insights from that experience to Congress, explaining, “Good environmental policy isn’t just morally correct. It’s good business for America, and especially good for Florida. It preserves the economy, creates jobs, and protects Florida’s fragile ecosystems and tourism industry.”

Either one of these Democrats would be a remarkable improvement over the erratic and extremist Allen West.

The possibilities for a new Gingrich campaign slogan are plentiful:

Gingrich 2012: “I’m Open, America”

I think maybe I should start seeing other candidates, Newt.

Gingrich-Edwards 2012: A Mistress in Every Pot

Gingrich-Ensign 2012: Traditional Marriage, heh heh.

Newt Gingrich for President, Carrot Top for Pope

Gingrich 2012: If We Let Lesbians Marry, Where Will I Pick Up Chicks?

Tawdry-Inappropriate 2012

Newt Gingrich: A New Era of Openness (OK with Callista)

Gingrich ’12: Traditional Values, Unless Your Name Rhymes with “Flute”

Newt ’12: Lookit what the Gays did to my marriages!

There must be more than this. Can you come up with the new Newt Gingrich presidential campaign slogan in this new era of Openness?

A new set of Ron Paul newsletters was discovered and posted by the New Republic. The newsletters include the promotion of a book called Big Sister is Watching You, which Ron Paul promises will disclose “the true and horrifying story of the witch-lesbo-feminists who are running America.”

Witch lesbo feminists are running America? Really, Ron Paul?

I’ve known a few feminist lesbian Wiccans over the years, and I have to say, they were not the types I could imagine secretly running America. They were too busy tracking the moon and making infusions of various obscure herbs.

If a cabal of witch lesbo feminists is really the secret political elite in the United States, then how come there isn’t a single open Wiccan in all of Congress? Why hasn’t there ever been a Wiccan prayer in the National Day of Prayer? How come our coins don’t say “In Goddess We Trust”? How come Christine O’Donnell was so desperate to convince everyone that she was not a witch?

Ron Paul is living in a weird world ruled by conspiracy theories. Americans just can’t trust a politician who really believes that lesbian feminist Wiccans have more power than anyone else in the USA.

If you’re a witch lesbo feminist, well, it’s time to commit to campaign against Ron Paul for President. We’ve made this bumper sticker just for you.

Stephen Colbert for President? Some may say that Colbert isn’t a serious candidate, but really, are any of the other Republican presidential candidates serious? At least Stephen Colbert means to be funny.

Besides, we all know that Republican voters in South Carolina are looking for a non-Romney candidate. Stephen Colbert is not Mitt Romney as much as anybody else!

Republicans want a leader who hates terrorism. Well, Stephen Colbert hates terrorists. How much? A LOT! You don’t want to take sides with Osama Bin Laden, do you?

Finally, the decision to vote for Stephen Colbert comes down to traditional religious values. Traditional Americans have a personal relationship with Jesus. They want a presidential candidate who loves Jesus, and who is loved by Jesus in return. Jesus loves Stephen Colbert. How much? A LOT! That’s why you have to Vote Stephen Colbert for President – or the baby Jesus will cry!

Barack Obama never went along with that idea, pushing instead for a compromised pro-corporate system that the Republicans went ahead to trash in spite of its significant concessions to their demands.

There is a presidential candidate who is advocating for the creation of a universal health care system, however. Yesterday, Rocky Anderson, presidential candidate with the Justice Party, issued the following statement:

“The bottom line is that we should have an ‘everyone in, no one out’ system that will be

Remember, the only reason we are so far behind the rest of the industrialized nations is the corrupting influence of money from the health insurance and pharmaceutical industries. How long will we stand for this?”

Support this ideal of universal health care? Vote your conscience. Support Rocky Anderson for President.

Among the Republicans, Newt Gingrich has emerged as the loud-mouthed ruler of the Raunchy Right. Shooting his mouth off and offending people makes him popular among the extremist voters who dominate the Republican primaries, but his angry, cruel politics alienated most Americans long ago.

At the same time, Rocky Anderson has emerged as a strong liberal voice in the 2012 contest. He’s forming a new political party, the Justice Party.

Simultaneously, a candidate more recognized liberal political party has shown new strength with a challenge to Barack Obama’s weakness on environmental issues. Jill Stein is calling out the Obama Administration’s failure to confront climate change.

In a statement timed to coincide with a United Nations conference on climate change taking place in Durban, South Africa, Stein talked about the urgent need for strong legislation to deal with the climate crisis. “Global warming is already having a serious impact on the United States and the rest of the world,” she observed. “The year 2011 has been a year of extreme weather events marked by record rainfall and flooding, forest fires, and deadly tornadoes, and severe hurricane activity. These events have taken a huge toll on the lives and livelihoods of many thousands of U.S. residents. The global picture is one of growing climate instability and ever rising emissions. Yet the developed countries have made it clear that a new global agreement will not be in effect until 2020 at the earliest. U.S. leadership is desperately needed to galvanize a new world treaty to rescue the climate and our future economy that depends on it.”

Stein reminded American voters that, although Barack Obama promised strong climate action in his 2008 presidential campaign, he has failed to deliver on that promise as President. Stein charged that, in fact, President Obama has been actively working to prevent a strong international climate treaty from being agreed upon. “Climate change is the biggest threat facing the U.S. and the planet. We don’t need a nice sounding but meaningless statement coming out of Durban. The White House continues to block the creation of binding agreements for developed countries to reduce their greenhouse emissions and provide financial support for developing countries to transition to carbon-free economies,” Stein said.

It seems that the street-level energy of the Occupation Movement has now found its equivalent in the presidential campaign. Whether you choose to support Jill Stein or Rocky Anderson, there can no longer be any credible claim that America lacks a strong liberal alternative to Barack Obama.

It was easy for Democrats to support the above sentiment when it was applied to George W. Bush. Many Democrats eagerly promoted the slogan Question Authority when Bush was President are now less enthusiastic about the idea of a critical citizenry. They’re asking voters to put their legitimate concerns about Barack Obama aside, and to get in line behind the 2012 Obama re-election, for the sake of unity.

If you’re a Democrat, this is an important moral test: Will you stand by your principles, or will you stand by a politician?

Rocky Anderson faced this same moral test this summer, when Barack Obama helped Republicans push through legislation that cuts Medicare and education without any shared sacrifice in the form of increased taxes for the wealthiest 1 percent. Rocky Anderson decided that he’d had enough, and couldn’t remain within the Democratic Party any more. Rocky Anderson became an independent.

For Americans who have avoided involvement in political party machines, the decision of Rocky Anderson not to follow in line but to listen to his moral conscience instead, is compelling. Independent voters are usually regarded only as swing voters, but what if, in 2012, political independents discover a new dimension and swing, not toward either the Democrats or Republicans, but to Rocky Anderson?

To say that Newt Gingrich’s politics are extremist is to put it mildly. In a time when economic inequality is rapidly expanding, Gingrich wants to make it worse, forcing working Americans to sacrifice more so that the financial elites can have more spare cash to play with. The majority of Americans support the occupation protests that have spontaneously arisen across the United States, but Newt Gingrich tells occupy protesters that they should just take a shower and get a job – as if there are jobs for them to go to.

Newt Gingrich is an extremely dangerous politician. The Republican presidential primaries begin in just one month.

However, right now, there isn’t any organization in Florida dedicated to opposing the Gingrich for President campaign. All that exists is this Florida against Gingrich bumper sticker.

I am at a loss to explain this? What’s going on?