Image via Wikipedia January 26, 2012 - Newt Gingrich plays rough, and his supporters do too. Some of his supporters comprise a super pac called Winning Our Future, and they are determined to to crush - not merely defeat but crush - Mitt Romney. Here is a teaser for their upcoming "documentary" from the pro-Gingrich war-machine.
It's called "Blood Money: Romney's Medicare Scandal." Watch it now, below... This video is the second in WOF's series of anti-Romney attack videos. The first one has the blunt title of "King of Bain 'When Mitt Romney Came To Town'," posted to WOF's YouTube channel on January 23. You can watch "King of Bain" (28:01) below, too.
January 25, 2012 - There are a lot of badly made campaign videos out there, but now and then one comes along that can only be called brilliant. Congressional candidate Mark Oxner (Republican) has released one of those. It was released last night.
It's titled "Turn This Ship Around: Mark Oxner For Congress" (watch below). Oxner, 40, is running in Florida's new 27th Congressional District against uber-liberal Alan Grayson (Democrat).
The video not only slams former Grayson, but also Barack Obama, depicting Obama as the demented captain of ship about to sail over a deadly waterfall. Grayson is accurately portrayed as Obama's faithful parrot.
For those who might thing Oxner's video is unfairly harsh, it would be fitting now to remind you that Grayson compared Daniel Webster, his Republican challenger in 2010, to the Taliban. A Grayson campaign video called Webster a "religious fanatic" and accused him of being "anti-woman." Grayson was heavily criticized by Florida media for going too far in his criticism, and many voters felt the same: Webster beat Grayson in the 2010 race for Florida's old 8th District.
Grayson is known for his outrageous and often deliberately false statements. In 2009 he said that Republicans "want you to die quickly" (see video at left).
John Kiriakou, left, and his attorney John Hundley, leave
federal court in Alexandria, VA. Photo: Jacquelyn Martin/AP
Source: The Guardian (UK)
January 23, 2012 - Former CIA officer John Kiriakou was arrested and accused of leaking classified information to reporters.
The Justice Department today charged Kiriakou, 47, with leaking classified information to reporters repeatedly, "including the identity of a covert officer and details about the capture of terrorism suspect Abu Zubaydah," the U.S. Justice Department said.
The Justice Department's actions agains Kiriakou, notes Don Grandoni at The Atlantic Wire, is "the second time this month the agency is sending the message that it doesn't like its ex-agents to be talking to reporters." However, added Grandoni, "the leaks do involve the identities of two CIA officiers."
A federal grand jury charged Kiriakou with one count of violating the Intelligence Agencies Protection Act, two counts of violating the Espionage Act and one count of lying to the CIA about his actions.
NBC reported today that Kiriakou surrendered to the FBI this morning. "In an initial court appearance in Alexandria Monday afternoon," wrote NBC's Michael Isikoff, "Kiriakou waived a preliminary hearing and was released on a $250,000 bond after surrendering his passport and agreeing to stay in the Washington area and not to contact any witnesses in the case. His lawyer, Plato Cacheris, did not immediately respond to a request for comment."
The "Lawfare" blog notes today that Kiriakou, 47, of Arlington, VA, "was a CIA intelligence officer between 1990 and 2004, serving at headquarters and in various classified overseas assignments. He is scheduled to appear at 2 p.m. today before U.S. Magistrate Judge John F. Anderson in federal court in Alexandria." Lawfare also posted the full criminal complaint against Kiriakou (filed today in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia).
Kiriakou has been a busy journalist himself. In addition to being a frequent contributor to The Huffington Post. According to his bio post at HuffPo, "John Kiriakou is an intelligence and counterterrorism consultant for ABC News and a former senior investigator for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, focusing on the Middle East, South Asia, and international terrorism."
NBC Washington notes that the U.S. Attorney's office "also said that while Kiriakou was writing his book, he lied to agency investigators in an attempt to secure permission to write about a confidential surveillance technique. Kiriakou wanted to include information about the 'magic box,' a device that could locate any switched-on cell phone, and allegedly told investigators lies about his knowledge of the device and whether or not it was confidential."
Image via Wikipedia UPDATE, JAN. 24, 2012 - We are happy to report that Mark Kirk is recovering quickly from the stroke he suffered last weekend. He is breathing on his own after undergoing three hours of surgery - and he's already asking for his Blackberry phone.
January 23, 2012 - Chicago - U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk of Illinois was hospitalized over this past weekend after he suffered a stroke. Doctors performed surgery on the senator today to remove a four-inch-by-eight-inch portion of his skull to relieve pressure on the brain.
Kirk, 52, "is expected to recover cognitive functions but could have some physical impairment," reports the Chicago Tribune today, "following a weekend stroke, the neurosurgeon who operated on the senator said today following three-hour surgery at Northwestern Memorial Hospital."
The Tribune quotes Dr. Richard Fessler as saying that the stroke may leave Sen. Kirk with limited movement of his left arm and/or leg, and could cause some facial paralysis.
"Fortunately," said Dr. Fessler, "the stroke was not on the left side of his brain, in which case it would affect his ability to speak, understand and think."
Sen. Kirk, a Republican, is the junior Senator from Illinois and a former member of the House of Representatives. He currently holds the U.S. Senate seat in Chicago that was once held by Barack Obama. He beat Democrat Alexi Giannoulias in 2010. Giannoulias is a former Illinois State Treasurer.
Chicago News Bench has been harshly critical of Mark Kirk's politics in the past, but we wish him a full and speedy. We also wish courage and strength for his family.
U.S. President Barack Obama made a choice last week: He chose Venezuela over Canada. That's what he did when he rejected the proposed Keystone XL pipeline that would have taken oilsands oil from Alberta to the Gulf Coast of Texas.
That pipeline would have delivered 700,000 barrels of oil every day from Canada (and from a new oilfield called Bakken that straddles the North Dakota-Saskatchewan border). Which is almost precisely the amount of oil Venezuela now ships to the United States, to those same refineries in Texas. With one fell swoop, Obama could have replaced conflict oil, from a belligerent, authoritarian OPEC regime, with ethical oil from Canada. But he didn't. More at the Calgary Sun...
You can also read more at Levant's blog, which is cleverly called "Ezra Levant."
This post brought to you by Walgreens. All opinions are 100% mine.
January 22, 2012 - Consumers looking for ways to save money on their medications can do so with the Prescription Savings Club at Walgreens. According to Walgreens, a full year membership in the program costs only $10.00 and covers "everyone in your immediate family, including a spouse, dependents 22 and younger and pets. Individuals may join for $5." Some of the many benefits included are discounts on flu shots, pet prescriptions (yes, pets!), nebulizers and diabetic supplies.
In a time when everybody wants to get the most for their money, the Prescription Savings Club at Walgreens is good to know about. The low cost of joining is great, of course, but what does the program include? Quite a lot, it turns out. Bot the family membership and the individual membership include discounts on over 8,000 brand name and generic medications commonly prescribed "to treat a wide range of medical conditions" such as high blood pressure, diabetes and cholesterol.
The family membership covers all of the people in your immediate family (spouse, dependents under the age of 23, and even pets). If your grandmother is living with you, however, you needn't worry: Walgreens says that " additional adult family members living in the same household, like a parent or grandparent" can enroll separately for only $5.00.
The Prescription Savings Club at Walgreens includes a wide variety of medications, including many preventative and "lifestyle" medications. Most chronic conditions are included, and "all drug classes are represented." For more about this, you can see the brief brochure that Walgreens has online.
As if the great discounts on medications weren't enough, the Prescription Savings Club at Walgreens even lets you get bonuses when you buy Walgreens brand products and photofinishing services.
Walgreens is showing its commitment to providing Americans with low-cost, high quality medications with their Prescription Savings Club at Walgreens. I don't know about you, but I like to support any merchant that goes the extra mile to give that kind of service. Show your support for Walgreens and stay updated about this and more by "liking" Walgreens on Facebook and following Walgreens on Twitter. (I did!)
January 22, 2012 - by Tom Mannis - Is Newt Gingrich's South Carolina Republican primary victory yesterday a good thing for the Republican Party? Not really, says Britt Hume, senior political analyst at Fox News. In fact, said Hume last night, it's "terrifying" for Republican members of Congress (both the House and the Senate) who are running for reelection in 2012.
You should not be surprised by Hume's statement. Gingrich, after all, made a lot of enemies within his own party when he was Speaker of the House of Representatives in the 1990s.
"The truth is, nobody actually likes Mr. Gingrich," writes Charles Hurt in The Washington Times today. "They just really don’t like Mr. Romney or Mr. Santorum, and they are a little worried about Rep. Ron Paul." Hurt calls Gingrich "the king of drama," who sometimes plays "the soul-searching Hamlet and at other times the destructive King Lear."
Indeed, many conservative voters are fearing a replay of 2008, in which mealy-mouthed RINO John McCain was pitted against the smoother, hipper Barack Obama. Three years ago, most of us on the Right held our noses and voted for McCain. Others (stupidly) refused to vote for him because he was too moderate or liberal on various issues.
The Contract "set the Republican agenda, which included curbing spending and cutting government waste, opening committee meetings to the public, and reining in the budget," and is credited with helping Republicans to achieve their first majority in the House in 40 years. (Mitt Romney, running against incumbent Ted Kennedy for U.S. Senate in 1994, opposed the Contract.)
Most true conservatives today regard Gingrich as a RINO (Republican In Name Only). MofoPolitics.com reminds us of "that time Newt Gingrich heaped praise on environmentalist wacko John Kerry and agreed [with] '60 percent' of his psychotic liberal environmental policies." Mofo reminds us, as well, of "that time Newt Gingrich sat on a couch w/ that nazi witch Nancy Pelosi" and of "that time Newt Gingrich worked together w/ Al Sharpton on some Education bullsh*t that amounted to absolutely nothing." (Links added by me.) Mofo has other Gingrich memories to share with you, too.
In December of last year, former U.S. Senator Alan Simpson (R-WY) said that Newt Gingrich "lied to the president of the United States" during budget negotiations with George H.W. Bush. Simpson has some bitter memories of the battle for the Contract With America. His story got minor media attention, then quickly faded. It may well surface again before the Republican National Convention.
"Simpson is part of the wing of the Republican Party establishment that remembers Gingrich as a disruptive and destructive force," reported Boston.com on December 9, 2011. Simpson said Gingrich was "one who caused self-inflicted damage to the party and helped set up President Bill Clinton’s 1996 reelection and other Democratic victories."
"Now," wrote Boston.com's Michael Kranish, "many members of the Republican Party establishment are watching Gingrich’s rise with trepidation, fearing a repeat may be at hand. In response, some Republicans have aligned with Mitt Romney, and even those who have not made an endorsement, including Simpson, are hoping to remind voters of Gingrich’s record."
In late January of 2012, we find ourselves looking at four remaining candidates, with Gingrich and Romney, both RINOs, as the front runners.
Let's face facts: Neither Rick Santorum nor Ron Paul stand a chance of winning the GOP nomination for president in 2012. While Santorum is a stiff social conservative, he's uninspiring, bland, and was the only Republican who to defend the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), which threatened Internet freedom until public outcry defeated it last week. Paul, a Libertarian isolationist appeaser who is trespassing in the GOP primaries by posing as a Republican, is frightening to many would-be Republican voters. He doesn't stand a chance of getting the nomination, either, but he has left open the option to run as a third party candidate. (Is it any coincidence that Ron Paul has same initials as Ross Perot? In 1992, conservative Perot siphoned off enough votes from George H. W. Bush that Bill Clinton won the election.)
We conservative voters are left, then, with the prospect of reliving the nightmare of 2008, but with a few extra boogie men in the cast. Santorum, considered "too conservative" by many. Ron Paul, considered too loony by most. Romney, considered by many to be too liberal and now weakened by the South Carolina Gingrich Primary Landslide. Gingrich, the current front runner but also considered too liberal by many.
Of all of them, Gingrich gives the most powerful performance in a debate. That seems to be the one thing that Republicans and conservatives can agree on about him. It's just too bad that what Gingrich says so powerfully has so often sounded like it came from the mouth of a progressive liberal.
Earlier: According to the SCEC, only 436 of 2,129 precincts have "completely reported." That's only 20.48% of precincts reporting as of 9:00 PM ET. SCEC reports that only 133,721 votes were cast, which is a voter turnout of 4.77% of the 2,804,231 registered voters in South Carolina.
9:00 PM ET - The Republican primary results are still coming in, and there is NO official winner yet, despite what the media are saying. As of 8:55 PM ET, Newt Gingrich has 32,982 votes counted (39.32 %) in today's South Carolina Republican primary election. Mitt Romney now has 27,726 votes (27.27%).
Image via Wikipedia
