7 Reasons Why Mitt Romney's Electability Is a Myth

From John Hawkins, who's been one of the leaders of the "Not Romney" movement, at Right Wing News.

Israeli Graduate Student Smadar Bakovic Wins Dissertation Review After Anti-Israel Advisor Spiked It

A great story, from CiF Watch, "CiF Watch exclusive interview with Smadar Bakovic, who fought anti-Zionist bias in UK Academia & won!"

Via Israelly Cool, "Speaking Truth To [The Ivory] Tower":

As we prepare to light the sixth Chanukah candle tonight, here’s a Maccabee-esque story about the few prevailing against the many – a lone Israeli student taking a year to fight an unfair system, and winning. On the downside, it’s only a partial victory, as the university is shamefully backing this ‘professor’, who is an affront to academic integrity, and has forfeited the privilege of guiding the careers of rising young academics like Smadar Bakovic.

Word.

When you take it out on a student because of ideological hatred, there's nothing more reprehensible professionally. Another case of radical left-wing extremism destroying the academy.

Michelle Fields C-SPAN Interview

I watched it.

The Dailly Caller has a write-up, "TheDC’s Michelle Fields discusses journalism in the new media age."

And Dan Riehl steps up with a post defending Michelle from yet another deranged progressive attack from the Betsy Rothstein gang: "FishBowlDC's Ignorant, Inaccurate Sexist Attack on Michelle Fields." The FishBowl piece is a rank hit-job that completely decontextualizes Michelle's comments, even deliberately distorting some of her more significant and substantive points --- points that might elude someone not hip with the game-changing political role of social media communications. Dan has the bingo quote here:

Read the FBDC item, then take time to watch the full hour and decide for yourself which is supercilious and not much worth one's time, as opposed to what appears to be a very substantive young woman well on her way to saying something important enough that many people will want to hear it via New Media.

I found the interview particularly useful from the perspective of a professor of political science who teaches a large number of young people with very limited skills in information technology. A light went off when Michelle explained how she gets her morning news. She just logs on to Facebook and Twitter and checks out what her friends are reading and linking. That's actually not uncommon for people in the industry (in spite of FishBowl's attacks). I'm old fashioned and still get the hard copy Los Angeles Times delivered to the door. It's only a small part of my news diet, and mostly superfluous, but old habits die hard. Michelle, on the other hand, personifies the way today's consumers get their news and how today's reporters cover it. The FishBowl idiots ridicule the idea of citizen journalism as if the very notion itself is a joke. I'm not sure if that's just plain hubris or just a really lame opening shot at Michelle. Probably a little of both. For us old-timers, the laughs come when Michelle admits she has no clue about folks like Jerry Lee Lewis and Chuck Berry! That said, Michelle evinces a savvy sophistication about human nature (her discussion of Washington, D.C., for example) and the importance of family in the preservation and regeneration of traditional values. She goes off track a bit with a kind of grade-school crush for Ron Paul, but that's fine in the context of a well developed sense of libertarianism. She was an activist in college and Ron Paul's been hip with young people for the last couple of electoral cycles. Other than that, it's an impressive interview with a very intelligent young woman who's obviously got a bright future in cutting-edge social media-driven reporting.

P.S. This just came to me before posting, more thoughts on Michelle's comments about "biased" news. The point needs to be developed more analytically. That is, we've moved into an era of a "partisan press," one that resembles the kind of journalism that thrived during the early party system of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. Technology brought changes back then, ultimately towards a national media market and professionalized, mostly objective news reporting. That era's long gone. Michelle understands this intuitively and may well turn out to be a key player in the new journalism that evolves with increasingly overt partisanship in the years ahead.

More Democrat Assploding 'We Are the 99%' Hypocrisy

From Doug Powers, at Michelle's, "Pelosi Spends the Holidays Sacrificing on Behalf of Her Beloved 99%."

And see Hawaii Reporter, "While President Obama Arrives in Hawaii Amidst Security and Fanfare, Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Slips Quietly into Big Island Resort."

It's just too easy to pin these idiots down for their sick redistributionist ideological hypocrisy.

See: "Pelosi: Occupy Movement Enhances Dems’ National Message."

PREVIOUSLY: "Whoo Hoo! Michelle Fields Calls Out Hypocrite Statists on Tax Hikes for 'Patriotic Millionaires'," and "Christmas Smear: MSNBC Hack Ed Schultz Slurs Tea Partiers as 'Sewer Rats' — Assploding Hypocrite W. James Casper Hardest Hit!"

Oh, and something assploding hypocrite Walter James Casper III conveniently ignored in his stupidity-induced rejoinder this morning: "Occupy Wall Street Plans 'American Spring' to Bring U.S. 'One Step Closer to Revolution'." But of course, it's just a "few" on the "fringe" here and there, right? Not representative of anything? Nope. Wrong. The Jew-bashing revolutionary comrades ARE the movement. Democrats are piggy-backing out of pure progressive opportunism, just like racist Walter James Casper III.

Prince Philip Leaves Hospital After Heart Surgery

Well, that's the spirit.

At Telegraph UK, "The Duke of Edinburgh is discharged from hospital and heads straight for a shooting party."

Whoo Hoo! Michelle Fields Calls Out Hypocrite Statists on Tax Hikes for 'Patriotic Millionaires'

Because there's no better form of hypocrisy that Democrat-Socialist redistributionist hypocrisy.

See Daniel Mitchell, "Rich Statists Exposed as Complete Hypocrites" (via Instapundit).

Speaking of hypocrites, see: "Christmas Smear: MSNBC Hack Ed Schultz Slurs Tea Partiers as 'Sewer Rats' — Assploding Hypocrite W. James Casper Hardest Hit!"

Freakin' progressive dirtbags.

Santorum Surging in Iowa?

Well, Santorum's pumped up for a big showing next week, although he's not quite going all in to predict a top spot in the caucuses. Here's the video from Linkmaster Smith:

But check Flopping Aces, "Newt Implodes As Santorum Surges."

Meanwhile, Robert Stacy McCain is on the ground with first-hand reports. See, "Republicans With Shotguns."

BONUS: Mark Blumenthal has a big analysis on the polling situation in Iowa, "Iowa Caucus Polls: Ron Paul And Mitt Romney Lead, But Surprises Likely" (via Memeorandum).

Added: Tina Korbe has this, "Santorum: If I finish “dead last” in Iowa, I’ll drop out." Yeah, maybe Santorum's just putting on the happy face. He couldn't even bag that Steve King endorsement, so what can you do?

VIDEO: Store Clerk Derek Mothershead Clocks Would-Be Robber In Gold Store

Well, my guess is that the robber, Mostafa Kamal Hendi, is Muslim.

And I'm going to fall laughing on the floor when the pro-HAMAS Islamic diversity industry cries RAAAAACISM!!!

At My Fox Phoenix, "Video: Store Clerk Fights Back Against Robbery Suspect."

Occupy Wall Street Plans 'American Spring' to Bring U.S. 'One Step Closer to Revolution'

Somehow I get the feeling this is a little more than stepped up get out the vote efforts.

At Weasel Zippers, "Occupy Wall Street Leaders Promise 'Asymmetrical Warfare Strategies' Bringing Us 'One Step Closer to Revolution' In 2012…"

PHOTO CREDITS: Ringo's Pictures, "The Occupation of Los Angeles - Part 6 - 10/15/2011: The Global Day of Action."

The 10 Big Takeaways from America's Adventure in Iraq

From Ian Livingston and Michael O'Hanlon, at Foreign Policy, "The Damage Done":

With a wave of over a dozen bombings ripping through Baghdad just a week after U.S. troops officially pulled out, new questions are being raised about the country's ability to stand on its own without U.S. security assistance. Before looking ahead to whether Iraq can withstand a potential new wave of sectarian violence, it's crucial to take measure of where the country currently stands and the effect of eight years of war on its people and institutions.

Shortly after the invasion of Iraq in March 2003, researchers at the Brookings Institution began the Iraq Index to keep tabs on how the war progressed. As students of counterinsurgency know, it is difficult to find the right metrics to evaluate how a war effort of this type is going. It is also challenging to obtain reliable data even if relevant metrics have been identified. The most important metrics can also change with time; additionally, some can be leading indicators of change, while others tend to lag broader improvements.

In the war's early days, the general sense of disorder and chaos and the disempowerment of many former Baathists and former soldiers were probably the most important metrics. They augured poorly for the future -- while official U.S. data focused more on restoration of infrastructure and other generally positive indicators that though important may not have been quite as crucial as they seemed at the time. Then U.S. attention turned to building up Iraqi security forces, but, alas, progress in their training, numbers, and equipment could not trump the growing sectarian fissures that were widening within the government, Army, police, and country writ large.

Metrics of violence were recognized as the most important indicators by 2006 and 2007, when the country was being ripped apart. The success of the surge was fairly easy to see, as these numbers plummeted in late 2007 and 2008. Since then, however, tracking Iraq's changes has become harder as progress has slowed and politics have become at least as important as security and quality-of-life indicators.

With U.S. military engagement in Iraq having come to an end, here are 10 key metrics that reveal both the damage wrought by the war and the state of the country that U.S. forces are leaving behind...

Continue reading at the link.

Army Tanks, Heavy Shelling and Gunfire in Homs, Syria's Third-Largest City

At New York Daily News, "Syrian opposition asks Arab League to intervene after killings in city of Homs." And Telegraph UK, "Syria: tanks filmed roaming the streets of Homs."

More at Los Angeles Times, "Syria opposition says at least 20 killed in Homs."

My Love Will Keep You Safe

I saw this at Theo's earlier, and now at SDA, "Military Wives Choir: Wherever You Are":

And see Melanie Phillips, "Military Wives' single tunes into our highest ideals."

Occupy Wall Street: Anti-Semitism, Socialism, Crime and Public Defecation

Following up on my earlier entries: "Occupy Wall Street and the Jews," and "Christmas Smear: MSNBC Hack Ed Schultz Slurs Tea Partiers as 'Sewer Rats' — Assploding Hypocrite W. James Casper Hardest Hit!"

Walter James Casper III continues the lies and distortions, claiming that, for some reason, for him to be called out for his racist, anti-Semitic support for the criminal Occupy Wall Street movement isn't "politics." Nope. Wrong. It's political --- and criminal, and socially deviant, and deranged. Here's the whining man-child prevaricating like a blithering freak:

Even when he does use social or political terms, their denotative and connotative definitions bear no resemblance to what I stand for politically or socially. For Donald, there is no difference between calling someone a communist or racist, and calling that person a fuckwad. As used by Dishonest Don, these political and social labels are nothing more that ad hominem insults and rhetorical ejaculations.

These are like the rants of a child who's been busted for stealing down at the local drugstore. The manager calls the parents and the child caught red-handed mumbles as if he didn't know that stealing was wrong.

Walter James Casper III is a racist who has endorsed the Occupy Wall Street program, tweeting "Occupy wherever you are." To date Walter James Casper has chosen to lash out in anger rather than explain why in the world he would endorse a movement that is anti-capitalist, anti-American, and anti-Jew. By exhorting people to Occupy wherever they are --- a literally global statement of solidarity --- Walter James Casper has given approval and sanction to all the horrible acts of rape and violence, property destruction and public defection, and racist eliminationism --- acts all in the name of the Occupy program. THAT IS where Walter James Casper stands "politically or socially."

This is what the movement is about. People have been reporting on this for months. Bill Whittle nails it at the video above. Progressives justify the hate by attacking the non-existent 1%. By his refusal to even address what's been repeatedly pointed out and documented, Walter James Casper III acts no differently than a petulant child who refuses to take responsibility for his actions --- which is exactly what the occupiers do, blame everyone for their problems but themselves. But we know this. Walter James Casper has basically cried out over and over again, "was that wrong?" Yes, you scumbag loser. It's wrong. After launching a hate blog, recruiting progressives to harass my work and threaten my means to earn a living, after sponsoring and defending racist white-supremacist statements at an attack blog and in comment threads elsewhere, and now after endorsing on Twitter the Occupy Wall Street movement, all Walter James Casper III can do is whine like a spoiled brat that it's all some kind of conspiracy, some wicked pack of lies. WAAAHHH!!! Well, it's not. When you lie down with dogs you wake up with fleas, and Walter James Casper III is the king progressive fleabag and neo-commie Jew hater. It's on the record. Walter James Casper III's tweet of endorsement is on the record. And as always, I will continue to point the spotlight on the hate. I will continue to stand up against the hatred, lies, and anti-Americanism. I will continue to highlight evil in the real world, the world as it is, and not the make believe, irresponsible world of demonic man-children racist hatred. Walter James Casper's world. Stupid criminal idiot.

Democrat Elizabeth Warren is 'Occupy' Candidate for U.S. Senate

What a dirtbag.

She's thrown in her lot with the rapists, drug addicts, criminals, murderers, and anti-Semites (what a totally FUBAR movement).

At Los Angeles Times, "In Senate race, an ally of Occupy."

Democrats: The party of bigotry and hate.

Man Dies After Eating Cocaine From Brother's Butt

A few days late on this one, but it's worth posting for the sheer stupidity of it all.

At London's Daily Mail, "Man dies after eating cocaine from his brother's butt to help hide evidence while the pair were in the back of police car."

There's video at the link. I'm not embedding these stupid freakin' idiots.

Three Years Under Obama

Three disastrous years.

Here's Bill Whittle:

The Persecution of Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff

Jamie Glazov interviews Sabaditsch-Wolff at FrontPage Magazine.

And a bonus video from Blazing Cat Fur, "Michael Coren Interviews Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff Free Speech Heroine":

Maria Shriver Reconsiders Her Divorce from Arnold Schwarzenegger

At Fox News, "Maria Shriver Has Second Thoughts About Divorcing Arnold Schwarzenegger, Report Says."

And lots of pics at London's Daily Mail, "Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver spend Christmas together as she 'reconsiders' their divorce."

I guess Arnold's aggressively wooing his ex-wife. That's a big one, having a child by the maid. But forgiveness is divine, so who knows? He has no future in politics, so perhaps they can grow old together and be happy.

Rick Santorum Hunts for Caucus Success in Iowa

At Los Angeles Times, "Santorum fails to bag endorsement from Iowa's King."

And there's a striking picture at the New York Times, "Santorum Hunts for Birds and an Endorsement, but Leaves Disappointed."

Plus, an update from Robert Stacy McCain, "Santorum Gets 4 ‘Clean Kills’ in Pheasant Hunt With Steve King; No Endorsement."

Fatal Stabbing on Oxford Street at Boxing Day Sales

Well, not all the bad holiday news was stateside.

At London's Daily Mail, "Murdered at Boxing Day sales: Teenager stabbed on Oxford Street and ANOTHER knifed in separate attack as horrified shoppers look on."