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07 Dec 2011 19:00

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Politics: Guess we’ve gotta remark on this new Rick Perry ad

  • Rick Perry, jockeying for the anti-gay vote: This ad, called “Strong,” has the Texas governor promising to end the Obama administration’s “war on religion” and touting his commitment to Christianity. “Something’s wrong in this country when gays can serve openly in the military,” Perry says, “but our kids can’t openly celebrate Christmas, or pray in school.” It’s unclear what policies President Obama has put in place to deny kids the right to openly celebrate Christmas. As of this writing, the video has 675 likes and 26,650 dislikes. source
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink

07 Dec 2011 17:51

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Politics: Gingrich and Pelosi, reachin’ across the aisle

  • 418 bills co-sponsored by Nancy Pelosi and Newt Gingrich source
  • » Bipartisan support: For twelve years, Pelosi and Gingrich served together in the House of Representatives, and supported a total of 418 bills together. That’s an average of 34.83 pieces of legislation per year that enjoyed Pelosi/Gingrich support (at least, that’s what our team of math experts tells us; we didn’t have time to check their work). One such bill was the Global Warming Prevention act of 1989, the memory of which probably won’t do Gingrich any favors in the Republican primary (relatedly, neither will this). It should be noted, however, that much of this was non-contentious legislation, such as one honoring the 50th anniversary of the National Heart, Lung and Blood instituted.
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink

05 Dec 2011 15:09

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Politics: Trump-moderated debate gets first RSVP

  • YES Santorum will attend the Donald Trump debate source
  • » That makes it a Santorum-Gingrich affair. No one else has RSVP’d yet; Ron Paul and Jon Huntsman have both declined the invite, and Karl Rove, who has a bit of influence in Republican circles, has discouraged all the other candidates from attending. Gingrich said he’ll be going “just for the entertainment value,” which is, well, strange.
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink

05 Dec 2011 14:29

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Politics: Pelosi claims to have “a thousand pages” of dirt on Gingrich

  • I know a lot about [Newt Gingrich]. I served on the investigative committee that investigated him, four of us locked in a room in an undisclosed location for a year. A thousand pages of his stuff.
  • Nancy Pelosi • Giddy at the prospect of Gingrich being the Republican nominee for president. She said she’ll give more details “when the time’s right” which, we can only assume, means “if Gingrich wins the nomination.” source
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink

05 Dec 2011 14:15

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Politics: Gingrich leads in Iowa…but so what?

  • 8 points Newt Gingrich’s  (average) lead in Iowa, one month before the caucuses
  • 73% historical win record (in Iowa) of presidential candidates who lead one month out. However…
  • 40% historical win record of candidates, like Gingrich, who only lead by single-digits source
  • » The point here isn’t that Gingrich won’t win. It’s that that attempting to predict election results based on polls is tricky, and remains tricky even when you factor in historical precedent. To drive the point home even further: Ronald Reagan led in Iowa polls by about 9 points a month prior to the caucuses. He ended up losing (to his future VP, George H.W. Bush), but then ultimately came back to win the nomination, making his Iowa loss more or less irrelevant. Every election has its own quirks and nuances; Gingrich is looking good in Iowa right now, no doubt, but so was Herman Cain before him, and Rick Perry before him, and Michele Bachmann before him.
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink

28 Nov 2011 13:25

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Politics: Newt Gingrich’s favorite new word is “aggressive”

  • 6 times Gingrich uses the word “aggressive” in this YN interview source
  • » But what should we be aggressive about? Here’s the tally. Twice, Gingrich was describing how we should approach the war on drugs (“We ought to be much more aggressive about drug policy”); once, he was describing how the US went about supporting non-communist trade unions in Poland in the 1980s (“…we when we aggressively supported Solidarity”); and on three occasions, Newt was talking about US-Cuban relations (“I think we need a very aggressive model”). Oddly, he didn’t once utter the words “fundamental” or “profound,” although he did use another Gingrich fallback, “logical,” on two occasions, and busted out “totally” once.
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink

21 Nov 2011 14:14

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Politics: The pun we were all waiting for

  • This is, in fact, the official name of Gingrich’s New Hampshire effort. Hopefully, “Mitt Hampshire” will follow, maybe with a banner image that’s a little less self-parodical. source
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

21 Nov 2011 13:33

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U.S.: UC Davis Chancellor: “I take responsibility,” but I won’t resign

  • As Chancellor, I take responsibility for everything that happens on this campus. At the same time, our campus has policies, and–the only reasons we have those policies in place is to make sure the 32,000 students who are using our campus are safe.
  • UC Chancellor Linda Katehi • After refusing to resign due to the events at UC Davis last week, wherein UCPD Lt. John Pike pepper sprayed a line of seated, peaceful protesters. During the same KQED interview,  she also that she needs to “understand what went wrong…why things went so wrong,” which seems to be obfuscating the issue. Isn’t it clear what what wrong? Anyway, the UCPD police chief, along with Pike and another officer, have all been placed on “administrative leave;” 60,000 people have signed a petition calling for Katehi’s resignation. (Note: this interview wrapped up earlier the hour; we’ll let you know when a transcript is available.) source
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink

19 Nov 2011 18:33

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Politics: Top-secret Obama security detail found lying in a gutter

  • Somebody’s getting a stern talking to: In a kind of amazing story that, for some reason, absolutely nobody is reporting, a classified copy of President Obama’s security detail was discovered lying in a gutter outside Australia’s parliament on Wednesday. The 120-page document contained seating arrangements of the presidential motorcade, and details of how exactly the Secret Service goes about protecting the president. Thankfully, it was discovered by reporter Dylan Welch who, as one would expect, wrote an article about it (after the president left the country, which he was visiting as part of his tour of the Asia Pacific) . But what if it had fallen into the wrong hands? Coming days after a man was charged with attempting to assassinate the president, this doesn’t look make anybody look good. The White House hasn’t commented on the incident. source
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink

16 Nov 2011 13:33

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Politics: Cain: Presidents don’t need to know about the world and stuff

  • I’m not supposed to know anything about foreign policy.
  • Herman Cain • Giving a novel take on the requirements–or lack thereof–for presidential candidates. Okay, seriously? Did he actually say this? Did he mumble? Or does Herman Cain actually not understand what the job of the President of the United States is? This is indefensible.  source
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
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