Is it debate fatigue or was CNN’s pre-South Carolina primary debate intensely boring? Thank God for THE BLAZE’s live chats. Here are the kibbles and bits: 1. How awesome was the audience? It forced John King , who moderated, to get with the program and allow Ron Paul to answer a question about abortion, given Paul’s background as a medical doctor. If it weren’t for the audience, King would have coasted by the obvious choice of letting a doctor talk about health care. 2. But speaking of Paul, someone get him a new tie. This was the third debate in a row in which he wore same terrible 1970s-patterend necktie. On the other hand, Paul called Rick Santorum “overly sensitive” at one point , and that was pretty funny. 3. Santorum did very well for himself. “Grandiosity has never been a problem with Newt Gingrich . He handles it very well,” Santorum said, responding to a question about a suggestion by Gingrich that Santorum should drop out of the race. It’s about time someone called Gingrich out on that, am I right? He also accused Gingrich of not having “cogent thoughts.” 4. Gingrich consistently performs well in the debates. He sticks it to the moderator(s) and the audience loves it. But his outrage over being asked about the new interview his ex-wife granted to ABC News was a bit of pious baloney . Most Americans care more about jobs, I’m sure. But it was an issue that would have inevitably been brought up and better sooner than later. 5. Finally, Mitt Romney stood up for himself and his record as a CEO at Bain Capital. “I’m not going to apologize for being successful,” he said. But it would have been more impressive had he kept his hands out of his pockets. 6. Rick Perry : Gone but not forgotten.
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GOP debate on the surface: S.C V.2.0
This is an amazing story. At New York Times, ” Suit by Conservative Sees Bias in Law School Hiring “: WASHINGTON — Teresa R. Wagner is a conservative Republican who wants to teach law. Her politics may have hurt her career. An official of the University of Iowa College of Law, where Ms. Wagner applied for a job in 2006, certainly seemed to think so. “Frankly, one thing that worries me is that some people may be opposed to Teresa serving in any role, in part at least because they so despise her politics (and especially her activism about it),” Associate Dean Jonathan C. Carlson wrote in 2007 to the law school’s dean, Carolyn Jones. Ms. Wagner, who graduated from the law school in 1993 and had taught at the George Mason University School of Law, was not hired. She sued, alleging discrimination because of her political beliefs. Late last month, a unanimous three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, in St. Louis, ruled that her case should go to trial, saying she had presented enough evidence to suggest that “Dean Jones’s repeated decisions not to hire Wagner were in part motivated by Wagner’s constitutionally protected First Amendment rights of political belief and association.” Ms. Wagner’s lawyer, Stephen T. Fieweger, said the decision was a victory for an important sort of academic freedom. “It’s gotten to the point where the law school’s diversity efforts are to eliminate everyone from the mainstream,” he said. “They espouse cultural diversity, but won’t consider the conservative viewpoint.” According to Ms. Wagner’s lawsuit, the law faculty at Iowa in 2007 included a single registered Republican among its 50 or so members. The Republican professor was appointed in 1984. In 2009, The Des Moines Register found that there were two registered Republicans on the faculty. Ms. Wagner would have added some balance, her lawyer said. “My client is an ideologue,” Mr. Fieweger said. “She does believe in conservative values.” Ms. Wagner has worked for the National Right to Life Committee, which opposes abortion and euthanasia, and the Family Research Council, which takes conservative positions on social issues. Althouse posts on this, focusing on libertarian scholar Walter Olson’s comments at the article. I don’t have misgivings about the lawsuit. I can’t imagine Ms. Wagner going to work at the law school, however. This kind of stuff generates an enormous amount of ideological hatred. Seriously. To call out the law school deans for that kind of bigotry and win the matter at the appellate level? It’s a crushing repudiation of the left’s hypocrisy on difference and diversity, to say the least. And here’s hoping that Ms. Wagner prevails should there be further appeals. Universities need to hold their faculty accountable to the very principles of inclusion they mouth when allegations of bias are lodged against those bastions of discrimination and favoritism so historically hated by the left.
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Lisa Wagner’s Lawsuit Against University of Iowa Law School
Janet Jackson (Ms. Jackson, if you’re nasty) was named PETA’s “Grinch of the Year” on Saturday. In a blog post , the animal rights group listed the most ”animal- un friendly celebrities of the year.” They included Jackson, filmmaker Cameron Crowe and Kim Kardashian . From the post: When Janet Jackson had her infamous “wardrobe malfunction” during the Super Bowl, at least the flesh that popped into view was her own—unlike the stolen animal skins that she drapes herself with, which are as dead as her taste in fashion (not to mention her career). Ms. Jackson, you’re just plain nasty As Gossip Cop points out , Jackson launched a fur clothing line with fashion company Blackglama in late November. I have to ask: PETA, what have you done fur me latelyyy?
At Los Angeles Times : GREEN BAY, Wis. — Aaron Rodgers threw five touchdown passes for the first time in his career and helped the Green Bay Packers nail down the No. 1 seeding in the NFC and claim another round of bragging rights in the NFL’s most storied rivalry by knocking the Chicago Bears out of the playoff chase. Rodgers threw two touchdowns to Jordy Nelson, another two to James Jones, and he found tight end Jermichael Finley for a score as the Packers beat the Bears, 35-21, on Sunday night. Clay Matthews made a key first-half interception for the Packers (14-1), who needed the win to tie down home-field advantage in the NFC. The loss eliminated the Bears (7-8) from playoff contention and put the Atlanta Falcons in the playoffs as at least a wild card. PREVIOUSLY : ” Leianna’s Hot Green Bay Packers Lingerie .”
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Aaron Rodgers Leads Packers Over Bears, 35-21
Recent general-election wins don’t seem to count much in the GOP presidential primary this cycle. Three of the contenders won last year, and while Ron Paul has a shot at winning Iowa, he’s certainly far from being the frontrunner; the other two candidates who won last year, Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry, will be in considerable trouble with disappointing finishes in Iowa. It has been roughly a decade since either of the recent frontrunners won a general election, and Romney’s 2002 win in the Massachusetts gubernatorial race was his only general-election win of his career. Keep reading this post . . .
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It’s Been a While Since Mitt or Newt Won a General Election
It was all doomed by design from the start. What I wrote in July about the Reid-Boehner-Obama fake bickerfest over the debt-ceiling hike deal: Fast-forward past the sound and fury …The debt ceiling is going up. Government is getting bigger. Real spending cuts are getting kicked down the can. Entitlement reform is going nowhere. Reid and McConnell will dilute Boehner’s already diluted plan behind closed doors. And everyone in Washington will rush to take credit for nothing much. And: Fiscal conservatives fought the good fight. But after all is said and done, we are getting another debt ceiling increase with the bare minimum of spending controls and another bogus commission with a balanced budget amendment bone thrown to the base. And so it has come to pass. The gesture BBA failed on Friday. Today, the “Super Committee” is expected to announce its gobsmackingly obvious Super Fail: The congressional “supercommittee” stumbled its way toward failure Sunday, with final staff-level discussions focusing mostly on how the panel should publicly admit that lawmakers could not meet their mandate of shaving $1.2 trillion from the federal debt. Rather than making a final effort at compromise, members of the special deficit-reduction committee spent their final hours casting blame and pointing fingers, bracing for the reaction from financial markets that are already jittery over the European debt crisis. The only winners in the game? The lobbyists . Flashback: The only thing “super” about the so-called budget control super committee is the size of lobbying muscle exerted on its members. Almost 100 registered lobbyists who are former employees of super committee members are now “representing defense companies, health-care conglomerates, Wall Street banks and others with a vested interest in the outcome of the panel’s work,” the Washington Post found in September. This includes two dozen former staffers to Democratic Sen. Max Baucus of Montana, including three former chiefs of staff. On the other side of the revolving door, 10 out of the panel’s 12 members have now raked in donations from foreign registered agents totaling more than $50,000 in direct campaign contributions during 2011 alone, according to government watchdogs. The additional amount raised through fundraisers held by these lobbying firms is unknown, according to the Project on Government Oversight. Moreover, all 12 super committee members have been contacted by foreign lobbyists, eager to secure targeted exemptions, loopholes and protectionism. Super committee co-chair Patty Murray, who refused to step down from her fundraising duties as head of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, recently met with South Korean lobbyists employed by D.C. powerhouse firm Patton Boggs. Roll Call reported that while the panel’s negotiations wouldn’t have direct bearing on free-trade deals, Murray “could have access to information about how the timing of the debt deliberations could affect passage of the free-trade agreements.” Patty “Pork Chop” Murray’s in-your-face embrace of influence peddlers has her populist Pacific Northwest constituents cringing. Mind you: Murray’s office boasts no fewer than 17 revolving-door staffers turned lobbyists. That’s on top of her DSCC fundraising conflicts of interest. This week, the Seattle Times disclosed that Murray held a two-day staff retreat at heavyweight lobbying outfit Strategies 360, which was founded by Democratic political operative Ron Dotzauer. The group donated meeting space to Murray’s team and skirted ethics rules by offering similar deals to nonprofits. Murray’s former deputy state director, Karen Waters, is now a senior vice president at the firm. Another of its lobbyists, Melanie Mihara, used to work for Murray’s Democratic colleague Sen. Maria Cantwell. According to OpenSecrets.org, Strategies 360 has conducted $985,000 worth of lobbying targeting more than a dozen government agencies this year. A spokesman for the senator (who made her name attacking the Beltway insider culture) sniffed that the report was a “non-story.” Given Murray’s status as the second highest recipient of lobbying money among all members of Congress behind Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, her staff is right: This little perk is chump change compared to her career haul. Lobbying, of course, is perfectly legal. It’s Murray’s pretense as a white hat public-interest crusader that should gall both sides of the aisle. One left-wing Seattle blogger rather generously called Murray “tone-deaf” and spelled out the rank hypocrisy of Murray’s entrenched and unrepentant lobbying ties: “This while members of her own party are up in arms over the increasing influence of money in American politics. This while a giant hunk of the liberal electorate is “Occupying” the streets to protest corporate greed and disproportional representation. This while the very term ‘lobbyist’ has come to represent all that is bad about special interest influence.” Yep, all that and a bag of back-scratching chips. Murray’s backroom meetings come as business as usual as House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi grandstands over the need for more “transparency” in the super committee dealings. After ramming through Obamacare in secret (with the help of top staffer Brendan Daly, who is now a lobbyist for groups opposed to the law he helped pass), Pelosi has now called for televised debt panel hearings. On publicly broadcasting the debt panel members’ meetings with lobbyists, Pelosi will no doubt remain mum. Remember: The “K” in “K Street” stands for “Kabuki.” The disease: Entrenched incumbency. The cure? Fresh fiscal conservative blood. Remember in November.
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Doomed by design: The SuperFail Committee
Scroll down for updates…funny business in the courtroom…hoo-boy… As of 4:10am Eastern. Clean-up time. Finally. NYPD is in full riot-gear tonight and the Occupiers are up in arms on Twitter. A police officer has reportedly announced with a bullhorn that the encampment at the private park is a “fire hazard” (among many other health hazards ) and that those who don’t clear out will be arrested. Hope the police brought extra Lysol and rubber gloves. If not hazmat suits. With a h/t to The Right Scoop and CBS News, here are some more screencaps I took of some of the activity taking place at the camp right now: *** The Occupiers’ livestream is here . Overheard: Occupier fumes, “We will not be moved.” Famous last words. Now, move out. 1:56am Eastern . They are literally HOWLING in Zuccotti Park. I am thinking they shipped in the Occupy Denver dog leader to bolster the Occupier troops. The same loons who shout “F**k the Police” are now screaming “WE LOVE YOUUUUUUU!!!!” Occupier whines: “They’re throwing and breaking everything!” Ranting about 60 days of “work” going to waste. Karma. NYC has sent in a sanitation truck. Occupiers shriek in horror. Like garlic to vampires: Fox News Radio’s Todd Starnes tweets that NYC Mayor Bloomberg will allow protesters back into Zuccotti Park “after it’s cleaned.” Ummmm, how is it possible to “clean” the park without removing the human filth? *** Here’s the NYPD scanner link (h/t Erick Brockway). 2:38am Eastern NBC News New York tweets that there have been at least 25 arrests , shoving of police by Occupiers, garbage cans thrown into the street. Also: Protesters have reportedly turned away an ambulance. WOO-HOO!!!! Update 2:56am Eastern Occupiers tried to drown out an officer informing them of the fire hazard rules. They chanted some sort of Indian war chant “WAWAWAWAWAWAWA!” thing. It was…bizarre. Then they’ll turn around and complain that they never heard the police warn them of anything. From NYPD police scanner, a group of 200 Occupiers is trying to get into the park and has been stopped. Here’s General Michael Moore directing #OWS troops from his Twitter feed: An occupier screams that “30,000 people” are watching the livestream, ergo “THE WHOLE WORLD IS WATCHING!!!!” Occupiers claiming media have been blocked from park. Also decrying use of tear gas (not confirmed by MSM), shut down of “the people’s kitchen.” Local media say pepper spray was used during park evacuation, not tear gas. 3:59am Eastern The Kamp Alinsky Kids have now been split up into roving bands of brigands wandering NYC. Here is NYT coverage. Latest word from local NYC media: “From a producer on the scene with sources from the NYPD: Small group remains inside the park…they are chained together.” Chained around their necks. Occupy Locksmiths!!! *** Update: Tuesday morning….Rise and whine! They’re baaaack. The Occupiers are marching back to the park. Reports of arrests as of 10:47am. There’s an 11:30am court hearing over the restraining order limiting the city’s ability to evict the campers. Update: Hmmmmm…. ACLU-tied judge who assisted Occupiers is ordered off the case: When the cops raided Zuccotti Park, lawyers for Occupy Wall Street immediately woke up a judge with a civil liberties background and asked for help. Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Lucy Billings signed an early-morning order temporarily barring cops from keeping protesters and tents out of Zuccotti Park. But within hours, she was off the case as court administrators prepared to randomly choose a new judge — and excluded Billings’ name from the list of candidates. Billings’ biography notes that before she became a judge in 1997, she spent 25 years as a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union. “I have devoted my career to public service, especially the disadvantaged in desperate circumstances,” she wrote in a 2007 pre-election statement. Lawyers for Occupy Wall Street phoned Billings after cops moved into Zuccotti Park early Tuesday, evicted the protesters and got rid of their tents and other camp equipment. Asked why they called her first, protest lawyer Daniel Alterman wouldn’t say, remarking that he’s not a “gossip guy.” The lawyers also called an emergency hotline set up to assign judges to after-hours cases. A staffer told them that since Billings had already been contacted, she should handle the Zuccotti matter. He said Billings came to the lawyers and at 6:30 a.m. signed an order declaring cops cannot evict protesters who aren’t breaking the law or stop protesters from entering with tents. Billings’ involvement will be short-lived. At 11:30 a.m., court officials were scheduled to use a computer program to pick a new judge for an afternoon hearing on the restraining order — the proceeding that will determine if the tents can be erected again. Meantime, The Blaze reports a nearby church — Trinity Church — has had its locks cut by Occupiers. *** Update 5:03pm Eastern After several false reports on Twitter this afternoon, a judge announced that the eviction is being upheld. Gird your loins and get our your surgical masks. The Occupiers will no doubt be raising a stink…
Image via the Seattle Weekly In August, I highlighted the debt panel’s Profligate Pork Patty Murray Problem . As the super committee remains deadlocked by design , today’s column spotlights the orgy-tastic levels of lobbying expenditures and activities tied to the dog-and-pony show. Same old, same old. Related: Freedomworks – The 12 Super Czars Can’t Reduce the Debt Zero Hedge – All You Need To Know About The Aptly Misnamed US “Supercommittee”, Complete With Trading Cards *** K Street’s Super Committee Splurge by Michelle Malkin Creators Syndicate Copyright 2011 The bipartisan debt panel to nowhere is exactly where K Street lobbyists want it to be: hopelessly deadlocked. A November 23 deadline for agreement on $1.2 trillion in budget savings is looming, but no real reductions in the size, scope or spending of government are on the table. Instead, we are witnessing another obscene special-interest splurge to preserve the status quo. All in the name of “reform,” of course. The only thing “super” about the so-called budget control super committee is the size of lobbying muscle exerted on its members. Almost 100 registered lobbyists who are former employees of super committee members are now “representing defense companies, health-care conglomerates, Wall Street banks and others with a vested interest in the outcome of the panel’s work,” the Washington Post found in September. This includes two dozen former staffers to Democratic Sen. Max Baucus of Montana, including three former chiefs of staff. On the other side of the revolving door, 10 out of the panel’s 12 members have now raked in donations from foreign registered agents totaling more than $50,000 in direct campaign contributions during 2011 alone, according to government watchdogs. The additional amount raised through fundraisers held by these lobbying firms is unknown, according to the Project on Government Oversight. Moreover, all 12 super committee members have been contacted by foreign lobbyists, eager to secure targeted exemptions, loopholes and protectionism. Super committee co-chair Patty Murray, who refused to step down from her fundraising duties as head of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, recently met with South Korean lobbyists employed by D.C. powerhouse firm Patton Boggs. Roll Call reported that while the panel’s negotiations wouldn’t have direct bearing on free-trade deals, Murray “could have access to information about how the timing of the debt deliberations could affect passage of the free-trade agreements.” Patty “Pork Chop” Murray’s in-your-face embrace of influence peddlers has her populist Pacific Northwest constituents cringing. Mind you: Murray’s office boasts no fewer than 17 revolving-door staffers turned lobbyists. That’s on top of her DSCC fundraising conflicts of interest. This week, the Seattle Times disclosed that Murray held a two-day staff retreat at heavyweight lobbying outfit Strategies 360, which was founded by Democratic political operative Ron Dotzauer. The group donated meeting space to Murray’s team and skirted ethics rules by offering similar deals to nonprofits. Murray’s former deputy state director, Karen Waters, is now a senior vice president at the firm. Another of its lobbyists, Melanie Mihara, used to work for Murray’s Democratic colleague Sen. Maria Cantwell. According to OpenSecrets.org, Strategies 360 has conducted $985,000 worth of lobbying targeting more than a dozen government agencies this year. A spokesman for the senator (who made her name attacking the Beltway insider culture) sniffed that the report was a “non-story.” Given Murray’s status as the second highest recipient of lobbying money among all members of Congress behind Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, her staff is right: This little perk is chump change compared to her career haul. Lobbying, of course, is perfectly legal. It’s Murray’s pretense as a white hat public-interest crusader that should gall both sides of the aisle. One left-wing Seattle blogger rather generously called Murray “tone-deaf” and spelled out the rank hypocrisy of Murray’s entrenched and unrepentant lobbying ties: “This while members of her own party are up in arms over the increasing influence of money in American politics. This while a giant hunk of the liberal electorate is “Occupying” the streets to protest corporate greed and disproportional representation. This while the very term ‘lobbyist’ has come to represent all that is bad about special interest influence.” Yep, all that and a bag of back-scratching chips. Murray’s backroom meetings come as business as usual as House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi grandstands over the need for more “transparency” in the super committee dealings. After ramming through Obamacare in secret (with the help of top staffer Brendan Daly, who is now a lobbyist for groups opposed to the law he helped pass), Pelosi has now called for televised debt panel hearings. On publicly broadcasting the debt panel members’ meetings with lobbyists, Pelosi will no doubt remain mum. Remember: The “K” in “K Street” stands for “Kabuki.”
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K Street’s Super Committee Splurge: Party time for Pork Chop Patty Murray
