Democrats on Losing Side of 13-Point Polling Swing Since October

Because the government shutdown was supposed to hurt the "hostage taking" Republicans, or something.

At Politico, "Poll: Big gain for Republican Party":

Democrats are on the losing end of a 13-point swing in the polls since October, resulting in an early lead for the GOP heading into 2014, according to a new poll on the midterm elections released Thursday.

The CNN/ORC International survey shows Republicans holding a 49 percent to 44 percent lead over Democrats, a swift reversal from just two months ago, when the Democratic Party stood steady with an 8-point lead over the GOP, 50 percent to 42 percent.

In the generic ballot test, the poll asked respondents whether they would vote for a Democrat or Republican in their congressional district, without providing any specific names.

The survey follows a tumultuous few months for Democrats, who have been hurt by the rocky rollout of the health insurance exchanges created by the Affordable Care Act. In October, the GOP was reeling from the perception that House Republicans were to blame for the government shutdown.

The new numbers will very likely concern congressional Democrats, but CNN Polling Director Keating Holland cautions against making any early predictions on the 2014 elections based on the new poll results.

“There is just under a year to go before any votes are actually cast, and the ‘generic ballot’ question is not necessarily a good predictor of the actual outcome of 435 separate elections,” Holland said. “A year before the 2010 midterms, for example, the Democrats held a 6-point lead on the generic ballot, but the GOP wound up regaining control of the House in that election cycle, thanks to an historic 63-seat pickup.”

That's true, but since the Democrats are collapsing because of ObamaCare, the administration's umpteen delays are only going to keep the healthcare disaster at the top of the headlines for 2014. Panic only begins to describe the response to these numbers among Democrat congressional and Senate candidates. It's going to be a bloodbath. See, "The Coming Democrat Congressional Elections Massacre."

Tourists Flock to Detroit to Witness City's Epic Decline

Throngs are flooding Detroit to witness how shiftless black leaders destroyed a once thriving metropolis. And Democrats. Remember, these are black Democrats who destroyed the city. Tourists now are ogling at their idiocy and moral bankruptcy.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Detroit has seen an uptick in history buffs and photographers visiting its ruins since its bankruptcy filing.

Image from iOWNTHEWORLD, "Detroit Memorabilia."

Added: From Blazing Cat Fur, "VIDEO: Understaffed and with few resources, Detroit-area firefighters battle a plague of abandoned, burning buildings."

Hollywood Hypocrisy: Leftist Movie Industry Slammed for Ethnic and Racial Discrimination

Do as we say, not as we do.

Hollywood is dominated by far-left industry hacks and hangers-on, and they're the biggest racists, it turns out.

Time to get with the program, like the rest of society and the norm of diversity and inclusion. Freakin' assholes. Typical left-wing douchebags.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Hollywood is losing the race for ethnic and gender inclusion":

Backstage Hollywood: Despite people of color being honored by the Academy Awards, movie studios still have a fundamental hiring problem.

If you're among the small number of directors or actors who isn't white, there is finally some cause to be excited about what's happening in Hollywood.

For the first time in Academy Awards history, a black man — British filmmaker Steve McQueen — may win the directing Oscar for his heralded, harrowing film "12 Years a Slave."

Besides McQueen, critics and awards voters are celebrating the work of other people of color, singling out "Gravity's" Mexican-born filmmaker, Alfonso Cuarón, the African American talk show host Oprah Winfrey from "Lee Daniels' The Butler," and a variety of black actors, including Chiwetel Ejiofor and Lupita Nyong'o ("12 Years a Slave"), Barkhad Abdi ("Captain Phillips") and Michael B. Jordan ("Fruitvale Station").

But all of those achievements mask fundamental, enduring problems within the movie industry.

A few weeks of feel-good inclusion can't alter the more troubling fact that opportunities for people of color remain scarce and that, for all of the Academy Award interest these directors and actors are receiving, Hollywood ultimately will judge their value using the only yardstick it believes matters: box-office performance.

"It's a big issue," said Lee Daniels, who directed "The Butler." "People can say, 'I'm sick of hearing about the race issue.' But it has to be addressed. I just think it's time for us to actually be at the party."

Several other prominent black filmmakers say that change within show business remains glacial. Even if Hollywood likes to present itself as magnanimous and liberal, its hiring decisions — including jobs handed to women — continue to be demographically constricted, with most work still going to white men.

It's not just movies that are an issue. The Directors Guild of America recently found that 73% of all primetime TV episodes were made by Caucasian males, and the Screen Actors Guild concluded that 76% of all leading roles in television and film were given to Caucasians. (Separately, the picture for women of all races is similarly depressing, and yet again no female filmmakers are contending for the directing Oscar.)

Following a 2012 Los Angeles Times study that found the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was whiter, older and more male than the organization's toughest critics feared, the academy has tried to diversify its ranks.

The last two classes of people invited to become Oscar voters look far less like members of a country club, even if the invitees hardly mirror the nation itself, where African Americans, Latinos and Asians collectively make up more than 35% of the population. But because the academy has more than 6,000 voters, the more diverse new members haven't been able to change the organization's overall makeup in a meaningful way.

Incandescent Light Bulb Banned January 1st

At Heritage, "Time to Stock Up on Incandescent Bulbs Before They Go Out Permanently."

Commentary at Lonely Conservative, "The Government Is Taking Your 40 And 60 Watt Bulbs Away On January 1."

Details on the ban at Popular Mechanics, "What You Need to Know About the Lightbulb Law."

Candice Swanepoel in January 2014 Edition of Vogue Brazil

Beautiful.

At London's Daily Mail, "Victoria's Secret beauty Candice Swanepoel goes naked apart from a turban in racy new magazine shoot."

Conservative Indiana is Turning Point for Homosexual Marriage Movement

I'm not sure why folks over there think that can preserve marriage, considering how polygamy's already gaining ground in the wake of this summer's homosexual marriage rulings. Utah's fighting a losing battle right now, in the state of the Mormon Church.

So, we'll see.

In any case, at the New York Times, "Indiana Finds It’s Not So Easy to Buck Gay Marriage Trend":

INDIANAPOLIS — Dominated by Republicans and steeped in traditional values, Indiana seemed among the least likely places to become a battleground in the nation’s debate over same-sex marriage when the legislature overwhelmingly chose in 2011 to push forward a state constitutional amendment barring gay couples from marrying.

But in the two years since, the landscape has shifted as voters, lawmakers and courts began recognizing same-sex marriage in places like Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey and New Mexico and as the United States Supreme Court declared parts of the federal Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional. In just the past few days, a federal judge struck down a ban on same-sex marriage in Utah, home of the Mormon Church, and a federal appeals court rejected a request to halt the marriages on Tuesday. A federal judge in Ohio found that same-sex marriages should be recognized on death certificates.

So suddenly Indiana, where lawmakers in the coming weeks are expected to call for the second vote needed to put a ban before voters in the fall elections, is now in a far more tense, unpredictable and closely watched spot than anyone here had imagined — a test case in whether a state will impose new limits on same-sex marriage in this fast-moving political and legal environment.

“What happens in Indiana is critical,” said Brian Brown, president of the National Organization for Marriage, which opposes same-sex marriage. He and other opponents hope the outcome here will reveal that shifts in public sentiment over the last few years are not as widespread as some may think.

Supporters of same-sex marriage, however, are pouring money and effort into defeating the measure in Indiana, a possibility that seemed unthinkable not long ago but one that advocates now insist is conceivable. They say victory in a conservative place like Indiana would be a turning point in a fight that has largely been waged in more predictable, left-leaning states or in the courts. “That would send a clear message to opponents of marriage equality that it’s time to be done fighting this battle,” said Sarah Warbelow, state legislative director of the Human Rights Campaign.

It's probably a done deal, what, with all the other events unraveling traditional marriage around the country.

More at the top link.

MSNBC's 2013 Highlight Reel

Truly vile people.

Warren Weinstein, American Held Hostage in Pakistan, Asks President Obama to Negotiate with al-Qaeda

Man, he's all worn down and weary.

At the Washington Post, "Kidnapped American asks U.S. to negotiate with al-Qaeda for his release":

A U.S. government contractor kidnapped by al-Qaeda militants in Pakistan in 2011 has recorded a video message calling on the Obama administration to negotiate with his captors and saying he feels “totally abandoned and forgotten.”

Warren Weinstein looked ashen and sounded lethargic as he pleaded for renewed interest in his case and asked the U.S. government to consider releasing al-Qaeda militants in its custody. The 72-year-old development expert from Rockville began his address by urging President Obama to step up efforts to get him released.

“You are now in your second term as president of the United States and that means that you can take hard decisions without worrying about reelection,” said Weinstein, who was recorded sitting against a white wall and wearing a gray tracksuit top and a black woolen hat. No one else appeared in the video.

The video, which included the yellow logo of As-Sahab, al-Qaeda’s media production outlet, was sent in an anonymous e-mail to several journalists who have reported from Afghanistan. Included were links to a handwritten note that purports to be from Weinstein, saying “Letter to Media” at the top. The note is dated Oct. 3. It is not clear when the video was made.

Continue reading.

And say a prayer for the guy. I'm sure Obama couldn't care less. Won't be much political upside at this point. Osama bin-Laden's long been dead. Don't expect any Democrat rescue raid football-spiking anytime soon.

Ukraine Activist and Journalist Tetyana Chornovil Beaten Outside Kiev

About that Christmas violence...

At the New York Times, "Journalist Is Beaten in Latest Attack on Ukrainian Opposition":

MOSCOW — A crusading antigovernment journalist and activist in Ukraine who became famous last year after documenting the opulence of the heavily guarded residential compound of President Viktor F. Yanukovich was savagely beaten early Wednesday.

The assault on the activist, Tetyana Chornovol, 34, just outside the capital, Kiev, was the latest attack on government opponents who have been participating in sustained protests that have shaken the country.

On Tuesday evening, Dmitri Pylypets, a protest organizer in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, was beaten and stabbed four times while walking on the street near his apartment, local news media reported.

Just hours before she was ambushed, Ms. Chornovol published a blog post about a “country manor” being constructed for Ukraine’s embattled interior minister, Vitaly Zakharchenko, in the village of Pidhirtsi.

The assaults have occurred as protesters continue to occupy Independence Square in Kiev, where they first gathered last month in anger over Mr. Yanukovich’s decision to back away from sweeping political and free-trade agreements with the European Union...

Continue reading.

The ASA Boycotters: Victims of Hatred and Harassment!

Awww, the poor babies.

The American Studies Association is all butt-hurt after getting some push-back on its anti-Semitic campaign against Israel.

The revolting Philip Weiss reports, "American Studies Association caucus seeks support against campaign to discredit ASA":

Many in the US are unaccustomed to public criticism of Israel. Some organizations and individuals are now mounting a campaign to discredit the ASA. The ASA’s elected leaders have been harassed and are receiving hate mail. The ASA office is being flooded with insulting and threatening phone calls. The ASA Facebook page has been subject to a barrage of inflammatory attacks. National organizations, including Stand With US, are mounting campaigns to undermine the ASA in the academy by appealing to donors and students to call on university administrators to withdraw support from ASA: The Caucus on Academic and Community Activism has already published a press release responding to these attacks but we need more support.

What Can You Do?

Well, Ima just bawl my eyes out! Boo hoo!

More at Legal Insurrection, "Anti-Israel academic boycotters complain criticism violates their academic freedom to boycott."

Britney Spears: 'I love sex. I think sex is great ... but I feel a little different about it now that I’m older...'

Yeah, it takes a lot more work as you get older, but Britney? She's still making these hot videos, so wtf?

At TMZ, "Britney Spears — I LOVE SEX, But ..."



RELATED: At Rolling Stone, "Britney Spears Marks Her Territory in 'Perfume'":

In "Perfume," the latest single off Britney Spears' new LP Britney Jean, the pop star comes up with a brilliant way of letting a mistress know you exist: "mark your territory" on him with your signature scent. And that's just what she does in the video for the song – Britney's the subject of a two-timing, rather chiseled boy who seems to have an affection for jumping in pools late at night, making out on car hoods and (gasp!) brunettes. As Spears runs through the song, she often looks rather glum and angry, a natural feeling for anyone who feels then need to mark someone with their perfume. Will she get revenge, or, at the very least spark an olifactory-based blowout?

Well, So Much for 'Peace on Earth...'

Earlier my timeline was filling up with reports of beatings, bombings, and killings.

I tweeted:

All these bombings, beatings and stabbings in my TL? Dear God, it's Christmas!

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) December 25, 2013

Here's the New York Post:

Christmas day bombings kill at least 37 in Iraq http://t.co/4yaRly3xYU

— New York Post (@nypost) December 25, 2013

And over at the New York Daily News, "Shooting outside N.J. strip club leaves 3 dead, 2 injured on Christmas," and at New Jersey's Star Ledger, "Victims identified in Christmas Day Irvington go-go bar shooting."

And from yesterday, at Raw Story, "Black Santa shot by pellet gun during D.C. toy giveaway while cameras rolled."

I'm sure there'll be more violence. I don't call it senseless. There's clearly purpose to it, the work of evil in the world, which remains unquiet even on Christmas.

Christmas in Bethlehem

At LAT, "Bethlehem comes alive on Christmas Eve":

BETHLEHEM, West Bank – Thousands of Palestinians as well as international pilgrims and tourists descended on Bethlehem on Tuesday to celebrate Christmas Eve.

People stood at Manger Square outside the Church of the Nativity watching a parade of bagpipe- and drum-playing youths, followed by the Roman Catholic patriarch of Jerusalem, Fouad Twal, and his entourage, walk into the church to begin the Christmas religious festivities.

Choirs on a stage in Manger Square sang songs celebrating the birth of Jesus. The area was brightly lighted and decorated with tall Christmas trees.

RTWT.

Research Finds Real Benefits for Kids Who Say 'Thank You'

At WSJ, "Raising Children With an Attitude of Gratitude":

Gratitude works like a muscle. Take time to recognize good fortune, and feelings of appreciation can increase. Even more, those who are less grateful gain the most from a concerted effort. "Gratitude treatments are most effective in those least grateful," says Eastern Washington University psychology professor Philip Watkins.

Among a group of 122 elementary school kids taught a weeklong curriculum on concepts around giving, gratitude grew, according to a study due to be published in 2014 in School Psychology Review. The heightened thankfulness translated into action: 44% of the kids in the curriculum opted to write thank-you notes when given the choice following a PTA presentation. In the control group, 25% wrote notes.

"The old adage that virtues are caught, not taught, applies here," says University of California, Davis psychology professor Robert Emmons. Parents need to model this behavior to build their children's gratitude muscle. "It's not what parents want to hear, but you cannot give your kids something that you yourselves do not have," Dr. Emmons says.

This may seems obvious, but it eludes many parents, Dr. Watkins says. "I think the most important thing for us adults to realize is we're not very grateful either," he says.

RTWT.

And remember, gratitude is the mother of all happiness. See Dennis Prager, "Who Is Happy?"

White House, Desperate to Increase Enrollments, Gives More Time for #ObamaCare Sign-Ups

I first saw this report on my iPhone and thought the app needed to update.

But no, it's at the New York Times for Christmas morning, "Sign-Up Period Extended Again for Health Plan":

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration said Tuesday that it would provide more time for people to complete their applications for health insurance if they could show that they missed the deadline because of problems with the federal health care website.

The move was the latest in a series of deadline changes, exemptions and clarifications that have confused insurers and many Americans and opened the administration to increasing criticism from Republicans who have opposed the Affordable Care Act from the start and have repeatedly tried to overturn it.

It was not clear on Tuesday how many people would be affected, or how consumers would prove that website errors had prevented them from signing up by the deadline on Tuesday night.

The announcement itself was vague, saying only that if website problems had prevented any consumers from enrolling, they might qualify for what the government has called “a special enrollment period.” The administration did not say how long that would last. Nor did it define what website errors might be involved.

Republicans said the announcement — coming a day after the federal website recorded more than two million visits — showed that President Obama was desperate to increase enrollment, widely seen as a measure of the success of the health care law.

We're seeing changes now on a daily basis. This is totally unreal, and I've been following government and politics for a long time!

I simply have no idea what's going to happen, but clearly, as Glenn Reynolds points out in his most recent USA Today op-ed, the law's obviously not settled and the administration expects further problems well into 2014.

As always, I'll be on top of it, if for nothing else but the schadenfreude.

Continue reading.

'When Saul of Tarsus set out on his journey to Damascus the whole of the known world lay in bondage...'

At the Wall Street Journal, "In Hoc Anno Domini":

When Saul of Tarsus set out on his journey to Damascus the whole of the known world lay in bondage. There was one state, and it was Rome. There was one master for it all, and he was Tiberius Caesar.

Everywhere there was civil order, for the arm of the Roman law was long. Everywhere there was stability, in government and in society, for the centurions saw that it was so.

But everywhere there was something else, too. There was oppression—for those who were not the friends of Tiberius Caesar. There was the tax gatherer to take the grain from the fields and the flax from the spindle to feed the legions or to fill the hungry treasury from which divine Caesar gave largess to the people. There was the impressor to find recruits for the circuses. There were executioners to quiet those whom the Emperor proscribed. What was a man for but to serve Caesar?

There was the persecution of men who dared think differently, who heard strange voices or read strange manuscripts. There was enslavement of men whose tribes came not from Rome, disdain for those who did not have the familiar visage. And most of all, there was everywhere a contempt for human life. What, to the strong, was one man more or less in a crowded world?

Continue reading.

Daniel Drezner Quits Blogging

I guess Foreign Policy, where Drezner blogs, is having its bloggers shift to a weekly column requirement, phasing out the magazine's stable of blogs. Drezner was one of the "last holdouts" apparently. Glenn Reynolds expects him to be back: "At least, most bloggers who say goodbye to blogging wind up coming back." (Click through to Drezner at Instapundit's.)

I once quit blogging (at my first blog) and wound up missing it after a couple of months and haven't turned back since. I started about March 2006 and American Power launched in October 2007. I just posted the "5 Million Hits" entry a couple of days ago.

We'll see how it goes. Of course, Drezner's a big-shot blogger and early political science pioneer of the format. I've taken him to task a couple of times for his spinelessness. It's nevertheless interesting he's hanging up his blog keyboard. He's been blogging since 2002.

I usually have an update on blogging on New Year's Day, and I'm sure I'll have more. So until then ... have a Merry Christmas!

2014 Will Be Even Worse for Obama

From Glenn Reynolds, at USA Today, "Obama is a loser at 2013's end."

You gotta read it all at the link: short but sweet.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Christmas Greeting 2013

He's a great man.

Via Algemeiner, "Netanyahu Conveys ‘Warmest Christmas Greetings’ From ‘the City of Peace, Jerusalem’ (VIDEO)."

Nobody Should Fear a Merry Christmas

From Jonathan Tobin, at Commentary:

The notion of a liberal war on Christmas has become something of a seasonal evergreen discussion topic for pundits. As such, at this point at times it’s not clear whether conservatives like Fox’s Bill O’Reilly talk about it more than politically correct secularists wage it. In this overwhelmingly Christian country, there is little doubt that Christmas is a national holiday and is often practiced in such a manner as to make it more of a secular celebration of consumerism than a Christian religious observance.

Nevertheless, it must be admitted that the holiday plays a not unimportant role in the ongoing battle over the height of the so-called wall of separation between church and state. The fight about whether crèches, the lyrics in carols, or Christmas trees constitute an unconstitutional establishment of Christianity has done little to undermine the hold of the holiday or to make religious minorities more comfortable in America. To the contrary, such disputes do much to undermine good community relations between members of different faiths. Dennis Prager is correct when he writes today that those who claim to be “emotionally troubled” by the sight of a Christmas display on public property are indeed emotionally troubled...

Continue reading.