Mitch Daniels: GOP Savior?

It's perplexing to me. I've thought about this ever since Mona Charen gave Daniels a shout out at the Jewish Policy Center panel last September. I can't say yet either way. Daniels delivered an opening keynote speech at CPAC. I didn't pay all that much attention, but he's a former White House budget director and he puts a Cold War gravity on our our current fiscal crisis. Here's a clip below (and the full video is here and transcript here):

And see Politico, "GOP elite see Mitch Daniels as 2012 savior" (at Memeorandum):

Republicans say that barring an addition to the field, the fight in coming weeks will be for the spots as the most viable alternative to front-running Romney. The former Massachusetts governor is expected to far surpass his rivals in fundraising and has a vast political machine left from his previous run.

Romney’s support remains lukewarm. “People say, ‘I wrote him a check, but I’m not going to kill myself for him, like I did last time,’” a well-connected Republican said. “If you listen long enough, to enough people, you pick that up a lot.”

So insiders are closely watching a Pawlenty vs. Huntsman subrace, to see who else might show staying power.

There is one other scenario, and it terrifies Washington Republicans. That is the possibility that some very conservative, insurgent candidate will become the Romney alternative: former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum or former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, if she defies conventional wisdom and winds up going for it.

“Republicans could have the situation that Democrats did in 1972, when the base of the party was so far outside the mainstream,” said one top Republican. Back then, George McGovern was the Democratic nominee and lost 49 states to President Richard Nixon.

Obama to Give Middle East Address Thursday

Yeah, and a lot of good it's gonna do.

See Los Angeles Times, "Obama's upcoming speech will spell out his Mideast rationale."

President Obama will seek to define his administration's stance toward the rapid changes in the Middle East and North Africa in a major address Thursday in which he will cast the U.S. as a facilitator rather than the instigator of political change in the Arab world.

As uprisings have swept through the region, Obama has been criticized from both the left and the right for taking too passive an approach. In Egypt, as demonstrators began demanding the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak, a longtime U.S. ally, the administration initially seemed to vacillate on its course, and ended up angering Mubarak's supporters as well as his opponents.

In Bahrain and Syria, the U.S. has largely remained on the sidelines as authoritarian regimes have sought to crush domestic opposition. And in Libya, the U.S. has backed the use of NATO military power against Moammar Kadafi's regime in a limited fashion.

Critics have said the administration is merely reacting to events and lacks an overall strategy. Obama's speech, aides say, will give the president an opportunity to lay out the rationale for his approach.

See also, Wall Street Journal, "Obama to Pledge New Mideast Aid."

Hope that helps, or ... well, from Barry Rubin, "Read It Now: The Possible/Probable Main Crisis for 2012."

'All the Dangerous Reptiles and Insects, and All the Lethal Bacteria, Are Far Less Dangerous Than the Jews'

This is terrorist Yunis Al Astal of Hamas, Member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, calling for death to the Jews in Israel (via Bare Naked Islam):

Arab Spring Fails to Improve U.S. Image

Hmm ....

Support for suicides bombings is up in Egypt, unchanged among Palestinian Muslims. See the Pew Global Attitudes Project. (Via Blazing Cat Fur, who has screencaps.)

RELATED: At IBD, "Is the Invasion of Israel Imminent?"

Expectation Grows for Michele Bachmann Presidential Announcement

It's looking more likely she'll be a candidate, and I'm not going to surprised at all. I've been expecting Bachmann's entry since at least the Horowitz West Coast Retreat. That said, it's still speculation at this point. See Fox News, "GOP Braces for Bachmania" (via Memeorandum).

Newt Gingrich Glittered!

Boy, he's getting it from all sides, metaphorically speaking, of course:

And of course, the extremists at Rachel Maddow's are down with that. Amazing thing is Gingrich is such a GOP loser. He must have REALLY built up some resentments. Seriously. Good thing these guys weren't leather-clad bomb-throwers. No doubt there's some gay Weather Underground-wannabes out there. And Gingrich is fail on the security. Sheesh.

Also, at KARE11-TV Minneapolis, "Gingrich hit with glitter at Minneapolis event." And KSMP-TV Fox 9, "Protestor Hits Gingrich, Wife with Glitter before Speech."

Newt Gingrich Apologizes

To Paul Ryan, for his amateurish attack on the House Budget Chairman's Medicare reform plan. At Politico (via Memorandum):

Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich apologized in a telephone call to House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) on Tuesday afternoon for his remarks on “Meet the Press,” where the presidential candidate referred to Ryan’s Medicare proposal as “radical change.”

“Newt apologized,” said Rick Tyler, his press secretary and longtime aide. “The call went very well.”

Gingrich, his nascent campaign in jeopardy, has shifted into fervent damage control following a furious conservative reaction to his comments — and is even expressing a rare bit of contrition.

More at that link above.

Frankly, Newt's presidential star is setting before it even came up. See also, "Newt Gingrich owed six figures to Tiffany's." Lots more at Memeorandum. Pathetic.

Added (with video): At Nice Deb, "Newt Gingrich Is Done."

Herman Cain Interview at PJTV

And see also Robert Stacy McCain, with video, "Herman Cain: Georgia GOP Speech."

The French Are Mad — Mad! — at the Arrest of Socialist Dominique Strauss-Kahn on Sexual Assault Charges

At New York Times, "As Case Unfolds, France Speculates and Steams."

PARIS — France’s shock at the arrest of Dominique Strauss-Kahn on sexual assault charges has turned among some to suspicion and anger, with his defenders questioning the initial New York police account and speculating about entrapment, and many others characterizing the photos of the handcuffed suspect as insulting and unfair.

Mr. Strauss-Kahn, 62, was arrested on charges of attempted rape and illegal imprisonment of a chambermaid in a French-owned hotel in Midtown Manhattan, the Sofitel, and was arraigned on Monday in New York.

The charges against a man thought to have had the best chance of becoming France’s next president in elections only a year away, and who is the prominent managing director of the International Monetary Fund, have exploded most political assumptions here.

Poor dears.

Actually, I'm with Judge Melissa Jackson on this, as she remarked when denying Strauss-Kahn's defense attorneys' request for bail: “When I hear that your client was at J.F.K. Airport about to board a flight” ... “that raises some concern.”

Well, yeah.

See also Matt Welch, "BHL: France's National Disgrace" (on Bernard Henri-Levy, via Althouse).

Cindy Crawford Mitt Romney Demonstration Video

Everybody's blogging on this, although I can't find the actual demonstration video. Mitt Romney Central has video of Romney's Q & A livestream from yesterday's National Call Day: "In Case You Missed It: Video of Mitt Romney’s Facebook Town Hall + Romney Headlines Drudge." Meanwhile, Pirate's Cove has a fabulous photo-round up of Cindy Crawford, "Cindy Crawford Abandons Obama For Romney?" (Via The Hill and Memorandum.)

And here's some alternative Cindy Crawford video:

Arnold Schwarzenegger Love Child!

I'd say this proves he was a Democrat all along, but a Democrat would have just paid for an abortion and been done with it.

At Los Angeles Times, "Schwarzenegger fathered a child with longtime member of household staff." (Via Memeorandum.)

Dems' Thuggery Knows No Bounds

Michael Walsh's column is here.

But see also National Review:

For years now, I’ve been saying that the modern Democratic party is the unholy issue of thirties gangsters and sixties Marxists, a criminal organization masquerading as a political party, composed of thugs, lawyers, layabouts, and guilt-ridden dupes, and motivated entirely by a lust for power disguised as the phony virtue of “compassion.” And I mean that in the nicest possible way: The Republicans could use a little — no, make that a lot — of their ruthless moxie.

More at Cold Fury, "Pin the tail on the radical" (via Memeorandum).

Israel Will Never Have Peace

It's Bret Stephens, at the Wall Street Journal. There's no brief passage to capture it, so RTWT. Stephens was former editor-in-chief at the Jerusalem Post, and his commentary reflects it. (Google link is here.)

Carl Salonen Threatens Libel Action

Okay, an update to this morning's post: "Outing Tintin at Sadly No!"

As mentioned, I'm still researching information, although now it looks as though Carl Salonen's going to make the job a lot easier. Salonen, who Amy Alkon has identified as the Sadly No! ringleader in the attacks on her book, now indicates that he's "brought" suit against me, in the comments at Racist Repac3 = Casper:

"It's brought" is reference to the verb phrase as "bringing a lawsuit," and as of 10:00pm EDT the announcement flew right over the heads of dimbulbs James Casper and Brendan Keefe at the thread. Idiots.

Carl Salonen's an idiot too. Not only will I file a motion to dismiss for lack of venue, I'll file counter claim for abuse of process, and I'll reverse the libel charges. While keeping Tintin in the loop, Carl Solenen has libeled me on Twitter "child pornographer":

Carl Salonen isn't the first to call me a paunchy middle-aged child pornographer. Scott Eric Kaufman made the allegations previously. And "too little, too late" is a reference to my entry this morning, and my pulled posts.

Not only that, see Glenn Reynolds, "Libel in the Blogosphere":

Blog-culture also frowns on libel suits, and threats of libel suits. Anyone threatening a blogger with legal action—even if that person is a blogger as well—can expect a generally hostile response from many, many other bloggers. This is what happened, for example, when economist-blogger Donald Luskin threatened then-anonymous blogger “Atrios” (since self-unmasked as Duncan Black). Many bloggers, including myself, urged Luskin to withdraw his threat, as he finally did.

When a non-blogger threatens such a suit, the result is usually even more fierce, resulting in far more bad publicity than the original statement is likely to have produced (publicity that, because of blogs’ strong representation in the Google ranking scheme, will be prominently displayed to anyone researching the threatener). In addition, bloggers and blog readers tend to do their best to discover any other embarrassing matter regarding the threatener, adding an “Army of Davids” effect to the old lawyers’ saying that if you sue someone for libel, they’re “liable to prove it.”

Finally, speedy correction of factual errors is another cultural value of the blogosphere. When errors of fact are pointed out, most bloggers correct them immediately (something that is easy with blogging software as it is not for newspapers, television broadcasters, or book publishers) and generally do so with the same degree of prominence as the original error. This practice makes libel suits less likely, of course, and would arguably serve as evidence of absence of malice.

I'll have more later.

I took my posts down while gathering more evidence, and that goes to show "absence of malice."

But whatever. I'm especially looking forward to how "bloggers and blog readers tend to do their best to discover any other embarrassing matter regarding the threatener, adding an “Army of Davids” effect to the old lawyers’ saying that if you sue someone for libel, they’re “liable to prove it.”

I mentioned this last night, when I suggested that Carl Salonen doesn't really want the publicity. Sadly No! is reviled across the conservasphere. But if Carl's cruisin' for a bruisin', hey, bring it on brother.

Penélope Cruz in 'Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides'

I caught a brief preview of the new "Pirates" while watching television with my little guy the other day. I had no idea another version was coming out, and I think I skipped seeing the last one in theaters; but Penélope Cruz is fabulous, so perhaps the franchise is worth another look. The film preview is at the Disney page. And at Los Angeles Times, "'Pirates of the Caribbean' the latest film franchise to go for a four-peat":

When "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" debuted in May 2007, many critics derided the third installment in the Disney franchise, calling its plot incomprehensible and 169-minute running time torturous. Newsweek prayed it was the final movie in the series; the New Yorker said a monkey delivered the best performance in the film; and Time suggested an alternative title for the picture: "Pirates of the Caribbean: At Wit's End."

Yet rather than sheath their swords, Johnny Depp and Co. restocked the eyeliner supply and relaced the corsets, signing on a little more than one year later for a fourth go-round. The copious haul of doubloons that Capt. Jack Sparrow pocketed worldwide suggested that with a little freshening of the franchise, audiences might be lured back aboard for yet another film.

"Even though the reviewers weren't crazy about the third one, it did almost a billion dollars. That's a big movie," says "Pirates" producer Jerry Bruckheimer, who, along with Disney, a new director ("Chicago" helmer Rob Marshall) and a new supporting cast, including Penélope Cruz, will bring another adventure in the eye-patch saga to theaters this week. "If we do a little less [money] on the fourth one, we'd be happy."

The return of "Pirates of the Caribbean" on Friday (this one is titled "On Stranger Tides") is part of a major shift in Hollywood, with studios now routinely pursuing a fourth picture in a series, often after an extended layoff — or even a fifth, in the case of Universal's current hit "Fast Five."

That "Fast Five" is of the "Fast and Furious" series, which has already made a cool $140 million and could get a sixth installment.

More examples at the link up top.

Last Launch for Space Shuttle Endeavour (VIDEO)

And Gabrielle Giffords was on hand: "Gabrielle Giffords, Mark Kelly met privately before shuttle launch."

Also at AubreyJ's.

Althouse Slams Robert 'Porn Guy' Farley!

Ha!

Robert "Porn Guy" Farley (a.k.a "Che") gets slammed by Althouse. Added bonus is this cached version from the archives: "Candyass blogger move of all time: Lawyers, Guns & Money bans Meade!"

Cool porn hat too!

Added: Ann slaps down LGM in the comments:

I don't like [link] to his blog anymore. I used to go back and forth with them over some things, such as when they attack me. But deleting all Meade's comments? Fuck them.

Turns out LGM's getting f-bombed all over the place, for example, by R.S. McCain.

Trump Won't Run

Well, it was fun while it lasted.

At The Rhetorican, "Trump Won’t Run For President."

Also at New York Daily News, "Donald Trump will not run for president in 2012 after toying with possible Republican candidacy."

Added: Trump's statement is at CNN (via Memeorandum).

Runoff Expected in Special Election for California's 36th Congressional Seat

And it looks like Marcy Winograd, the hardline progressive who took 41 percent of the vote against Jane Harmon in the Democratic primary last year, won't make the cut. See Politico, "Class divide in war for Jane Harman's seat":

Washington has largely ignored the special election here Tuesday, focusing instead on a competitive House race across the country in New York. But the winner of California’s 36th District contest could reveal who’s leading the fight for the soul of the Democratic Party heading into the 2012 cycle.

Los Angeles City Councilwoman Janice Hahn is an urban Democrat with strong labor backing. She will square off against Secretary of State Debra Bowen, a progressive candidate supported by environmentalists.

Under new California election rules, the top two vote-getters will advance to a July 12 runoff. With 16 names on the ballot, that means a divided Democratic vote won’t tip the seat to a Republican.

Hahn, the front-runner, is a “beer-track” Democrat from a political dynasty. She has support from such politically muscular unions as the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, an AFL-CIO affiliate representing 800,000-plus workers in the region, and the California Service Employees International Union.

Bowen, who previously represented most of the district in the state Legislature, is a “wine-track” Democrat who made a name for herself as an environmental crusader, co-authoring one of the country’s most ambitious laws to curb global warming. That’s earned her strong support from the national Sierra Club and the California League of Conservation Voters.

“Whoever’s voters show up on Election Day, that’s what’s going to win this,” Hahn told POLITICO. “The labor piece in this election is key, and particularly, again, because it’s a special election. L.A. County Federation of Labor knows how to win these.”

Actually, there's really not that much of a "class-divide" here. The South Bay labor constituency boasts major backing from the left's communist organizations. Winograd marched with ANSWER and antiwar veterans groups, but the Los Angeles teachers unions and SEIU recently "dropped the mask" on their communist orientation, so clearly the local Democrat Party has been captured by the hard left. Hahn? Bowen? It doesn't really matter. The 35th District is pulling far left and whoever wins the runoff will be doing bidding for America's ideological enemies in Congress.

More on this at WaPo, "Fighting to be the real progressive in California special election."

Outing Tintin at Sadly No!

I'm on the verge of obtaining the mother of all tips on Tintin's identity. So until that information becomes available, and since Carl Salonen is threatening punitive retaliation against those looking into his shady activities, I'm temporarily pulling my previous posts in the series. Still available is "Excavating Pure Evil — Failed New York Actor Carl Salonen Revealed as 'Tintin' at Sadly No!??"

Interestingly, Tintin has agreed to delete any mention of Carl Salonen at Sadly No! The scrubbing conspiracy is complete:

For the record: Links to the mentions scrubbed from Brendan Keefe's (here), Lawyers, Guns and Murder (here and here), and Whiskey Fire (here and here).

Updates forthcoming.