Erin Alice Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Casting Call (VIDEO)

Watch, at Sports Illustrated's YouTube page, "Erin Alice Casting Call - Sports Illustrated Swimsuit 2016."

Ellie Gonsalves Perfect Body Video

Watch, "Ellie Gonsalves Workout - Model - Building a Perfect Body - AUSTRALIA."

Palestinian Flag Flies at the United Nations (VIDEO)

Well, if the world body just says Palestine's a state, then the international collective left will just say it's so, a fait accompli.

At the Christian Science Monitor, "Palestinian flag flies at UN for first time."

And watch, at CNN:

Inland Empire Woman Burned by Exploding E-Cigarette Wins Nearly $2 Million from Distributor (VIDEO)

At CBS News 2 Los Angeles:

Donald Trump Holds Strong at 23 Percent in Latest USA Today/Suffolk University Poll

You know, folks keep saying Trump's support is tanking, that he's shooting himself in the foot, blah, blah.

But frankly, he keeps chugging along, in this case running almost twice as strong as his nearly rivals.

At USA Today, "Poll: Donald Trump still on top as outsiders Fiorina, Carson rise":

WASHINGTON — Billionaire businessman Donald Trump has strengthened his lead at the top of the USA TODAY/Suffolk University Poll while two other outsider candidates, Ben Carson and Carly Fiorina, have gained ground over rivals with electoral experience.

Jeb Bush, who  was second to Trump two months ago in the USA TODAY survey, has tumbled to single digits and fifth place. The third-place finisher last time, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, suspended his campaign  this month.

"Unfortunately, I'm leaning toward Trump, only because he's a non-political figure," said Ginger Mangam, 58, a customer service representative from Little Rock who was among those surveyed. Asked about his lack of electoral experience, she replied, "I don't think it's a problem; I think it's a message."

Anthony Edelen, 37, a small-business owner from Vermillion, S.D., likes what he hears from Trump and Fiorina. "I just want somebody who is going to move our country in a direction different from where it is currently," he said in a follow-up interview.

The shifting landscape underscores an electorate that is fed up with politics-as-usual and willing to embrace contenders who promise to shake things up. Some presidential hopefuls with significant political experience — New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham among them — have failed to gain traction and  score at 1% or below, a standing that may make it harder for them to raise money and command a spot on stage in televised debates.

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio has risen to fourth place, backed by 9% of those surveyed.

The poll of 380 likely Republican primary voters, taken Thursday through Monday, has a margin of error of +/- 5 percentage points. The full sample of 1,000 likely voters has an error margin of +/-3 points...

Still more.

I'd be blogging a lot more polls but most of them keep finding the same thing: Donald Trump floats in the mid-20 percent range consistently, regardless of whatever latest controversy the leftist media tries to gin up.

Dana Loesch Slams Far-Left Ghoul 'Pin Head' on 'The Kelly File' (VIDEO)

Following-up from the other day, "Dana Loesch's Birthday Today, and She's Standing Strong."

She contacted the FBI about this ghoul, who's a typical leftist anti-gun extremist.

Here's Megyn Kelly's interview with Dana from Tuesday:



RELATED: At Twitchy, "Awful: Somebody made a DISGUSTING video of Dana Loesch shooting herself in the head [video]."

BONUS: At Mediaite, "Dana Loesch Speaks on Threat Video: Always Gun-Haters That 'Want You to Die by a Gun'."

Naked Man Who Terrorized Drivers in Victorville Has Schizophrenia, Was on Drugs (VIDEO)

Well, clearly the dude had problems.

Serious problems.

Watch, at CBS News 2 Los Angeles, "Mom: Naked, Bloodied Teen Has Schizophrenia, Was on Drugs."

PREVIOUSLY: "Naked Man Terrorizes Drivers in Victorville (VIDEO)."

Kelly Gissendaner Executed, Georgia's First Woman Put to Death Since 1945

At the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, "Gissendaner executed":

Before the drugs that were to kill her were administered, Kelly Gissendaner asked her lawyer to be sure her children knew that she left this world singing "Amazing Grace."

She cried and sang with joy until the powerful sedative took over and she closed her eyes.

Then she drifted off and minutes later died, punishment for her part in the murder of her husband, Douglas Gissendaner, in 1997.

For the next few minutes, the only sounds were sobs from one of her attorneys.

Two doctors checked her for signs of life and nodded to the warden that she was dead.

And it was then that warden Bruce Chatman announced to witnesses that it was done.

“The court-ordered execution of Kelly Rene Gissendaner was carried out,” he said before the curtains on the window to the death chamber were drawn.

More, "Gissendaner executed early Wednesday morning."

SDSU Students Face Possible Expulsion for Flying U.S. and Military Flags on Campus (VIDEO)

At ABC News 10 San Diego, "SDSU students facing possible expulsion for refusing to remove American, military flags from balcony."

And the update:



Seems to me this is more a matter of college policy on hanging objects over the balcony, rather than a restriction of free speech rights. But hey, maybe the case will go to court and clarify the rights of students to fly the American flag? Remember, the Supreme Court already ruled that students can't wear American flag shirts to high schools on Cinco de Mayo, so it's not like speech rights aren't at issue.

More at Campus Reform, "Military students at SDSU forced to take down American flag under threat of expulsion."

Lexi Oliver Fretz, Mother of Baby at Center of Planned Parenthood Investigation, is Strongly Pro-Life

Leftists have gone on a lying spree in a desperate attempt to discredit and destroy the Center for Medical Progress, the group behind the investigation of Planned Parenthood's baby-part harvesting operation, as well as the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform, the organization which provided the footage of the baby kicking its foot in the video segment, "Human Capital - Episode 3."

Lots of leftist deception at Memeorandum, especially, Raw Story, "'This wasn't an abortion': CNN forces anti-Planned Parenthood group to admit Fiorina was wrong."



Also at Fusion, "The latest anti-Planned Parenthood video uses an unrelated photo of a stillborn infant." And idiot asshole Scott Lemieux, at Lawyers, Guns, and Money, at Memeorandum, "Fake but Inaccurate."

The key to this deception is a selective account of views of the mother of the infant in "Human Capital -Episode 3," Lexi Oliver Fritz. All these far-left reports are claiming that Ms. Fretz didn't consent to the use of her son's image in the investigative videos, and the taping of the clip itself was allegedly illegal. What the despicable leftists are not reporting, because they can't, is that Ms. Fretz is strongly pro-life, and in fact has spoken with the relevant parties and does not object to the continued use of her deceased son's image in the investigative coverage.

See Live Action, "MSNBC’s attempt to tarnish undercover Planned Parenthood videos backfires." It's a long post, which includes an interview in which the mother indicates she didn't give consent for her son's image to be used, but then says she's fine with it now, and that she's strongly pro-life. At issue is an interview Ms. Fretz gave with Thomas Roberts yesterday at MSNBC, seen here, "MSNBC Got a Big Surprise While Pushing the Abortion Agenda." And as noted at the entry:

MSNBC anchor Thomas Roberts interviewed Lexi Fretz, a photographer and mother who shared images of her son Walter, born prematurely at 19 weeks, on Facebook. One of the photos of Walter was used in a Center for Medical Progress video, depicting what a child at approximately 19-20 weeks looks like.

Lexi’s photos of her son have now saved countless lives and helped change people’s minds about abortion.

In an interview with Live Action in March, Fretz said:

For someone who survived so few minutes outside of me, he’s left such an impact, more than I ever could. For someone so tiny, he’s touched so many. I hope he keeps educating the world and the masses as to what the preborn looks like on the inside – that it’s not just a blob – it’s not a clump of cells.

But Roberts must not have been aware of this. He asked Fretz, “How do you feel about Walter’s picture being used to discredit Planned Parenthood?”

Fretz replied, “Well, my husband and I are actually extremely pro-life so we were a little shocked at first and surprised […] but we are extremely proud of our son and the path that the Lord has put us on, just to help. I mean, he has saved many, many unborn lives.”

Fretz then shared stories of people walking out of abortion appointments, or finally learning what a preborn child looks like thanks to Walter’s photographs. She also told Roberts – who kept referring to Walter as ‘stillborn’ – that Walter was born alive, with a beating heart, and lived for a few moments.

Roberts then said:

I know that Walter’s story is very precious for you and your family. This has been really distorted out of context in this larger political conversation. Have you felt betrayed in any way by Walter’s life being used and mischaracterized in such heavy — and in some ways mischaracterized political debates?

Fretz replied:

I was a little surprised at first. Not being directly asked. But at the same time, […] our lives are in God’s hands. Me and husband are trusting God and the ultimate perfect plan and if this is happening, we are trusting that He is going to take care of us and use Walter for His good.

Roberts again pressed Fretz, asking her if anyone from CMP reached out to ask for permission to use Walter’s image in the “anti-abortion video”. Fretz confirmed that no one had asked for permission. Roberts repeated again that no one from CMP had reached out to tell Fretz that CMP would be using Walter’s image to attempt to defund Planned Parenthood. Fretz confirmed this.

Then Roberts asked Fretz if she expects an apology from CMP and Fretz shocked him with her reply:

No. I have talked to them directly and we’ve cleared the air and my husband and I are fine that it’s being used.

That’s when Roberts ended the interview.

But the best moment from the interview with Fretz was her quote about being pro-life. She told Roberts, and all MSNBC viewers:

I just believe that every child should have a chance, a chance to be alive, to make a difference. We have so many little lives being lost and thrown away each day and I wish so much that my son was here. We miss him and the short time we had was precious with him. But I know his purpose; his purpose was to help to educate the world as to what a child really looks like. You know, you say fetus, baby, whatever you want to call it, he was very much alive. And I just believe that every, every little baby should have a chance.

As they say, context is everything.

And note, Ms. Fretz deceased son, Walter, is said to have been a premature baby, and thus was not in the stainless steel bowl as a part of a fetal harvesting operation. If that's so, then the Center for Medical Progress needs to correct the record.

Note further, though, that none of this changes the facts of the investigation at Planned Parenthood's Mar Monte mega-clinic, in San Jose, California. Technician Holly O'Donnell of StemExpress, the biotech company that partnered with Planned Parenthood in northern California, indicated in the videotape statement that she witnessed born-alive infants with hearts beating at Planned Parenthood Mar Monte. Further:

O’Donnell also tells how her StemExpress supervisor instructed her to cut through the face of the fetus in order to get the brain. “She gave me the scissors and told me that I had to cut down the middle of the face. I can’t even describe what that feels like,” she says.

So, perhaps Carly Fiorina did not fully appreciate the totality of "Human Capital - Episode 3," particularly that the kicking infant was apparently not an aborted baby at a Planned Parenthood clinic. If so, it's unfortunate, since a reasonable mistake on Fiorina's part has become the foul fodder of a diabolical campaign of far-left deception to smear the investigators behind the Planned Parenthood investigation. It's especially unfortunate, because this debate is not the debate we should be having, which is whether the American public supports Planned Parenthood's genocidal program of extermination of society's most vulnerable. See, "PLANNED PARENTHOOD CLINIC CUT THROUGH DEAD BABY’S FACE TO GET HIS INTACT BRAIN."

Still more at Memeorandum.

Photo Credit: Steve Ertelt, "BREAKING: House Votes Again to De-Fund Planned Parenthood After it Sells Aborted Baby Parts."

Russia's First Airstrikes in Syria Hit U.S.-Backed Rebels Fighting Bashar al-Assad (VIDEO)

So, Putin's air campaign hits the purported "U.S.-backed rebels"?

As Instapundit would say, "unexpectedly!"

Oh, and can you say "proxy war"?

At Foreign Policy, "Russia’s First Strikes in Syria Hit U.S. Ally, Not Islamic State":

Moscow says its enemy is ISIS, but the initial phase of its air war in Syria hit American-backed rebels battling Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad.

Barack Obama’s administration said Wednesday that it doesn’t know whom Russia is bombing inside Syria. Rebel leaders on the ground there say they know precisely whom Moscow is targeting — and it isn’t the Islamic State.

Instead, Russia’s first airstrikes in Syria — which dominated the final day of the United Nations General Assembly session — appear to have struck a rebel group that likely was vetted by the CIA, uses U.S.-made weapons, and has publicly backed the international coalition fighting the Islamic State. The group is also part of the ad hoc alliance of militias battling the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, which means that the early phase of Moscow’s military intervention will strengthen Assad at least as much as it will weaken the Islamic State.

Jamil al-Saleh, a defected Syrian army officer who is now the leader of the rebel group Tajammu al-Aaza, told AlSouria.net that the Russian airstrikes targeted his group’s base in al-Lataminah, a town in the western Syrian governorate of Hama. That area represents one of the farthest southern points of the rebel advance from the north and is therefore a crucial front line in the war. An alliance of Syrian rebel factions, including both the al Qaeda-affiliated al-Nusra Front and groups considered by Washington to be more moderate, successfully drove Assad regime forces out of the northern governorate of Idlib and are now pushing south into Hama.

Tajammu al-Aaza released a video of the airstrike and its aftermath before Saleh’s statement. Syrian security sources also confirmed that a Russian airstrike took place in al-Lataminah. The Russian Defense Ministry, meanwhile, released a video of what it said was one of the strikes.

U.S. officials were quick to criticize the strikes, which they said had hit targets that didn’t appear to be linked to the Islamic State. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said at the Pentagon that the strikes were in areas “where there probably were not ISIL forces,” using an alternate acronym for the group. White House spokesman Josh Earnest, for his part, told reporters that it was “too early for me to say exactly what targets they were aiming at and what targets were actually hit.”

The strikes come amid a flurry of diplomatic maneuvering at the United Nations, where Moscow and Washington have traded potshots about who is to blame for the rise of the Islamic State and who should take the lead in fighting the group...

Still more.

And see the Wall Street Journal, "U.S. Rebukes Russia Over Syria Strikes."

Lies, Carly Fiorina, and Abortion

From Ross Douthat, at the New York Times.

Plus, from Mollie Hemingway, "A Quick and Easy Guide to the Planned Parenthood Videos."

At this point, folks are going to believe what the want to believe. But let's face facts, if you're defending Planned Parenthood, you're defending the cruel extermination of human life. You're defending the devil's work and you've got to mount diabolical deceptions to do it.

Still more at CBS News This Morning, "Planned Parenthood showdown in Congressional hearing."

The Simon-Ehrlich Wager 25 Years On

From Ed Driscoll, at Instapundit, "As the famous environmentalist bet showed, Malthusians are always wrong..."

Ralph Lauren Stepping Down as CEO

I love Lauren's fashion.

At WSJ, "Ralph Lauren Hands Reins to an Outsider."

The Jack Kemp Model for Republicans

From Morton Kondracke and Fred Barnes, at WSJ, "GOP candidates in 2016 would do well to echo his message of growth, prosperity and hope":

Jack Kemp never became president, but the country desperately needs a leader like him now. When Kemp died in 2009, two themes dominated tributes to his career as a star quarterback, congressman, cabinet secretary and candidate for vice president and president. Conservatives called him one of the most influential politicians of the 20th century who never made it to the White House. He was “among the most important Congressmen in U.S. history,” as a Wall Street Journal editorial put it. Liberals declared that the Republican Party needed, but didn’t have, a Kemp: a leader who cared about the poor, who wanted to make the GOP attractive to minorities and working-class voters, who never went negative and regularly worked across party lines.

Both evaluations were accurate. And both are relevant as the GOP struggles to find its 2016 presidential candidate. Republican voters—Democrats and independents, too—are looking for someone who, instead of raging at the status quo, will shake up Washington, make the economy grow again and restore hope in America’s future. A candidate working from the Kemp model could do all of that.

Kemp was a pivotal political leader because, as the foremost exponent of supply-side economics, he persuaded his party and later Ronald Reagan to adopt his tax-cut plan, known as “Kemp-Roth.” The top tax rate on individual income dropped in 1981 to 50% from 70%. Then Kemp helped pioneer tax reform, and the top rate fell in 1986 to 28%. Middle-income taxpayers enjoyed similar cuts.

After an era of “stagflation” and malaise in the 1970s, Reaganomics produced more than two decades of prosperity, restored American morale, undermined the Soviet empire and converted much of the world, for a time at least, to democratic capitalism. Kemp deserves a significant amount of credit....

What Republicans need today, following the Kemp model, is big ideas, not demagoguery. They ought to be debating the best way to restore growth, prosperity and hope—what voters care about most—not insulting one another over appearances and poll standings.

Some candidates are trying. Jeb Bush, Chris Christie and Marco Rubio have put forward interesting economic plans. Even Donald Trump says he will have a tax plan shortly. Mr. Bush’s tax reform initiative, with its top rate of 28%, is especially Kemp-like. Unlike Kemp, today’s Republicans can’t ignore deficits, debt and the need for entitlement reform, all drags on growth. But if they followed Kemp, they’d cut farm subsidies, ethanol requirements, sugar quotas, carried interest and other corporate welfare at the same time as they trim Social Security and Medicare benefits.

RTWT.

And be sure to buy the book, Jack Kemp: The Bleeding-Heart Conservative Who Changed America.

Here's what I wrote when Kemp passed away:

Jack Kemp, in my mind, was the premier Republican on race relations in American politics. No one spoke to the power of markets and opportunity to empower black Americans as he did. His agenda as HUD Secretary in the first Bush administration would still be light years ahead if its time if applied today. We need more conservatives like him. What a wonderful man, and a great loss to the nation.

'The Invasion of Europe'

I've been waiting for this video. Turns out Condell does just one video per month on average, at least according to the frequency of postings to his YouTube page. But no one speaks more forcefully on the pox of European Union corruption, and as the EU's institutional edifice has been collapsing like a house of cards, I've been checking over at his page for updates.

Here you go. The inimitable Pat Condell:

Black Book of the American Left Volume 5: Culture Wars

The new volume in David Horowitz's "Black Book" series it out December 10th. Pre-order today.

At Amazon, The Black Book of the American Left Volume 5: Culture Wars.

The basic facts of David Horowitz’s political odyssey, one of the most significant of the last forty years, are well known. A “red diaper baby” who grew up in what he has called “the ghetto of communism,” he became a leading Marxist “theorist” in the early 1960s and one of the godfathers of the New Left. But following America’s defeat in Vietnam, Horowitz began to reevaluate the damage these commitments had done to the country, in the process becoming one of the most important thinkers in the contemporary conservative movement.

The Black Book of the American Left is the result of those years, all that concerted intellectual effort. It collects all of Horowitz’s conservative writings over the past three decades—at once a sharp incision of the left’s agenda, an exploration of the routes conservatives might take in response to its permanent assault on America, and a unique trip log showing the evolving intellectual journey of one of our bravest and most original thinkers.

In the current volume, “Culture Wars,” Horowitz shows how today’s left uses culture as a battleground the way the old communist left used the economy. He focuses on the attacks on American values that began in the 1960s and have continued since—in Hollywood, in the “mainstream” press, and the publishing world--an effort at a wholesale reshaping of the national culture to reflect the agendas of the liberal political elites.

The triumph of “political correctness,” Horowitz believes, is merely an updated version of the communist “party line.” Today’s radical leftists who smuggle their opinions into everything from the Oscar ceremonies to the editorial pages are updated versions of the “useful idiots” (as Lenin called them) who parroted the propaganda of the Politburo in the past.

He analyzes in detail the other ways in which the left has prosecuted its culture war—by pushing multiculturalism (a direct frontal assault on the principle of e pluribus unum); by rewriting American history, at the high school and college level, to transform it into a narrative of violence and victimhood; by conquering and controlling the mainstream media; and by making “identity politics” and “gender” into weapons of cultural aggression.

We are in a Cultural War. You can hear the sounds of battle all around you. You can arm yourself and begin to fight back by reading Culture Wars.

Shakira Performs 'Imagine' for the Pope at the United Nations

Debra Burlingame, whose brother Charles "Chic" Burlingame was the pilot of American Airlines Flight 77 (which crashed into the Pentagon on September 11), slams "Imagine" as "the anthem for anti-religious nihilists," on Facebook.

Indeed.

But then, Shakira sang it to welcome the Pope to the U.N., which when you think about it, makes sense, considering how the U.N. sows chaos around the world.

Here, "Shakira (UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador) performing Imagine (by John Lennon)." (Turn down your volume; it's loud.)

Ta-Nehisi Coates Wins MacArthur Genius Grant — Because Racism!

Notice the supreme irony here.

Ta-Nehisi Coates wins a huge "genius" award with a $625 thousand payout over five years — with no strings attached.

Boy, there's so much racism in this country it's impossible for a talented black man to be recognized, much less be rewarded with substantial financial remuneration.

America is such a terrible, terrible racist country that "genius" blacks can get rich constantly pointing that out!

At the Atlantic, "'Geniuses' Revealed."

'Summer'

From Calvin Harris: