Le Mars, Iowa – In a q & a at an Iowa restaurant this afternoon, Mitt Romney told a questioner that if he were president and Congress passed the DREAM Act, he would veto it. Romney has harshly criticized both Rick Perry and Newt Gingrich for their stances on immigration, but has also been endorsed by former Florida senator Mel Martinez, who co-sponsored the DREAM Act.
Does it make sense? No. Is it awesome? Yes. My favorite Christmas tree ornament packed away today. Happy New Year you dorks. It’s been a great year. 2012 will be even better because you’ll still have me. BOC, under the…
Best wishes to you all for a happy new year. Open thread!
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Is there anything more ridiculous than being accused of saying “despicable and ugly things” by…Al Sharpton? On Thursday’s Morning Joe, MSNBC brought in Sharpton as part of a tag-team interview with presidential candidate Rick Santorum. Isn't Sharpton a little too sharp-elbowed for the so-called civility squad at Morning Joe? “I could argue with you about some of your ugly statements on the president and all of that, but that would probably help you in the primary if you and I got into an argument this morning,” Sharpton blustered. “Go ahead, Al. Give it to me, Al,” Santorum replied with a jovial smile. “Well, you said some despicable and …
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Follow me after the jump to see the latest poll average out of Iowa. As you can see the TPM Poll Average as of Saturday afternoon is Romney 22.4%, Paul 17.2%, Santorum 16%, Gingrich 13.7%. And Gingrich who’s dropping fast is only a couple points ahead of Perry and Bachmann. The real story you can see in the trend chart is Santorum. I’ve seen a few reports today out of Iowa suggesting his crowds aren’t matching up to his surge in the polls. But look at that surge. Virtually straight up starting about 10 days ago. He’s overtaken Gingrich and it certainly looks like he’s about to move into second place, possibly even first. To zoom in on the chart drag you mouse over the area…
I just watched this remarkable tribute to Christopher Hitchens by Fr. Robert Barron, and it confirms to me yet again that Kathryn Lopez is 100 percent correct about Father Barron: He is the most impressive Catholic apologist of our time. Too many Catholic apologists — and the exact same goes for Protestant apologists, and atheist apologists, and what-have-you apologists; it’s the occupational hazard in that line of work — come across as smug tribalists sneering at the lesser people not fortunate enough to be within their circle. Watch this video of Father Barron on Creative Minority Report and you will see why he is so good at apologetics: He is clearly someone who is catholic in the …
Pure video gold… Iowa coffee shop owner Amy Brehm wasn’t going to let idiot leftists disturb her customers. After they tried one of their goofy chants, Amy promptly gave them the boot. “You’re not allowed to ever come back.” Yahoo reported, via Hotair : On Friday morning before a planned event appearance by Newt Gingrich, some members of “Occupy Iowa” made a stop at Java Joe’s, a coffee shop here that MSNBC has been broadcasting from. The protesters didn’t get far before the owner of the shop gave them the boot. About four or five Occupiers stood chanting in the middle of the crowded coffee shop before they were told to leave. “I just had to shut it down, I couldn’t stand it,” Amy …
So fresh, this story is from tomorrow! Australia has already seen the New Year. So it will be old and slimy and covered with the webs of poisonous spiders by the time it gets to us. Bastards! On the other…
(Ilya Somin) In addition to being the last day of the year, today is also the twentieth anniversary of the official end of the Soviet Union, when the last Soviet government institutions shut down . The dissolution of the USSR was officially announced on December 25, 1991, but it did not fully wind down until December 31. Today’s quasi-authoritarian Russia is far from admirable. But, despite Mikhail Gorbachev’s lame and self-serving claims to the contrary , it is still a vast improvement over the totalitarian state it replaced. …
Blogging. Second biggest error: not blogging. Or is it the other way around? Sometimes I can’t tell. My New Year’s Resolution: to avoid both errors.
He http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/ron-paul-great-societys-great-defender_615036.html http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/ron-paul-great-societys-great-defender_615036.html to have no plan to reform Medicare and Social Security, other than cutting defense spending to make more room for them in the budget.
Horrible. An Afghan 15 year-old child bride describes being locked and tortured by her husband and in-laws. Sahar Gul told officials: “My mother-in-law pulled out my nails.” Via ROP : The BBC reported: A video given to the BBC shows the extent of the injuries suffered by a 15 year-old Afghan child bride who was locked up and tortured by her husband. The girl was left starving after being detained by him and his family for several months. The case came to light this week when police…
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Mediaite's Nando Di Fino reports President Obama has played at least two rounds of golf in Hawaii with a high school buddy, Robert “Bobby” Titcomb , was arrested as part of a prostitution sting, after he allegedly approached an undercover police officer for sex in downtown Hawaii. “What seems particularly interesting (“refreshing”?) here isn’t that President Obama would still hang out with a friend who had been arrested; it’s how many media outlets have either made no reference to Titcomb’s arrest, or simply stated it in passing,” he wrote. “Both The New York Times and The Washington Post briefly made a note of Titcomb’s past in reporting the vacation stories. In this day and age of 'gotcha!' controversy-driven political coverage, is it surprising not to see more of a big deal …
The Attorney General of Virginia “ plans to file emergency legislation to address the inability of most Republican presidential candidates to get their names on the ballot ;” as everyone reading this already knows, the recent Virginia primary ratification process ended up with only Mitt Romney and Ron Paul getting on the ballot. Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry had too many of their signatures invalidated by the process; the other candidates didn’t even try. As I understand the situation, emergency legislation will require a super-majority in the state (well, Commonwealth) legislature; but the fact that Cuccinelli is already getting bipartisan backup (and the reported support of…
“Where they burn books, they will in the end also burn people.”
**Written by Doug Powers Possible good news for any GOP candidates not named Mitt Romney or Ron Paul that might still be in the running by the time March rolls around: Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli is intervening in the Virginia presidential primary dispute and plans to file emergency legislation to address the inability of most Republican presidential candidates to get their name on the ballot, Fox News has learned. Only Mitt Romney and Ron Paul qualified for the Virginia primary, a contest with 49 delegates up for…
Top ten New Year’s resolutions from About.com: Spend more time with family and friends.Fit in fitness.Tame the bulge.Quit smoking.Enjoy life more.Quit drinking.Get out of debt.Learn something new.Help others.Get organized….
Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli is intervening in the presidential primary dispute and will filed emergency legislation. Cuccinelli’s proposal is expected to state that if the Virginia Board of Elections certifies that a candidate is receiving federal matching funds, or has qualified to receive them, that candidate will upon request be automatically added to the ballot. FOX News reported: Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli is intervening in the Virginia presidential primary dispute and plans to file emergency legislation to address the inability of most Republican presidential candidates to get their name on the ballot, Fox News has learned. Only Mitt Romney and Ron Paul qualified for the Virginia primary, a contest with 49 delegates up for grabs. The failure of other candidates to qualify — notably Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry — led to complaints that …
[Posted by Karl] I think it is a healthy development that more bloggers are taking the slow news period at year’s end to audit their own work. It is a practice that ought to be adopted more by those in the establishment media who are actually paid for the opinions and predictions. Thus, it seemed only fair that I promote the trend by auditing my own 2011 blogging. First, I will note the task of scanning an entire year’s worth of blogging — even my relatively modest …
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**Written by Doug Powers About three weeks ago, the LA Times reported that Newt Gingrich was involved in a book project revolving around environmental/economic issues, including a chapter addressing man-made global warming: At a time when the Republican presidential candidates are swiftly backing away from past moderate environmental positions, Newt Gingrich may be the only one with a book pending on the topic. Gingrich and Terry L. Maple have something of a sequel in the works to their 2007 book, “A Contract with The Earth,” tentatively titled “Environmental Entrepreneurs.” The duo’s first book called on policymakers and businesspeople on the right to show they had better ideas for protecting the environment and creating jobs than government did. The new book is a…