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06 Dec 2011 15:03

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Politics: Gingrich campaign seeks to pay off debt by end of year

  • $1.2 million of debt to be paid by the Gingrich campaign source
  • » Less money, more problems: The relevance of this lies in the amount of debt relative to Gingrich’s opponents; he’s spent about $3 for every $2 he’s raised in contributions, and now that he’s surged into front-runner status, this ratio is hurting his ability to add staffers and purchase advertising. A possible culprit for the red ink on the Gingrich balance sheet? The early stages of his campaign, in which he was spending heavily on fancy hotels and $30,000 jet flights. Compare this to Mitt Romney’s campaign, which already has a thriving ground-game in place and is reporting zero debt, and one wonders whether Gingrich can raise the organization in time to keep contending.
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 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

05 Dec 2011 10:34

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Politics: The stupidest comment you’ll ever hear about “The Muppets”

  • It’s amazing how far the left will go just to manipulate your kids, to convince them, give the anti-corporate message. I mean this is a Muppet movie for goodness sakes! The only thing green on the screen should be Kermit!
  • The Media Research Center‘s Dan Gainor • Missing the point of “The Muppets” by assuming that it had anything to do with the environment whatsoever. (Rather, the plot had to deal with an oil baron who planned the destroy The Muppets’ film studio, with no real eco-friendly focus.) Excuse me, friend, we just took away your pundit card. You’re not allowed to say anything on television anymore. For your own safety. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

04 Dec 2011 21:49

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Politics: POLL: Newt Gingrich looks strong (but beatable) in Iowa

  • If he doesn’t screw up over the next month … With Iowa just around the corner, the former House speaker has momentum to spare, leaping far ahead of Romney. And look at Ron Paul’s super-impressive showing in this poll. (In another poll, he’s ahead of Romney.) With Cain now out of the race, it looks like Gingrich could get a huge bump out of this whole thing, on top of the one he already has. Think Gingrich will coast, or will Romney become the comeback kid? Or will other candidates crop up? source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

03 Dec 2011 09:04

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Politics: Rand Paul kills detainee bill by simply asking for recorded vote

  • Suspicion of committing a crime should lead to your attempted prosecution. If the evidence does not support conviction, it would be against everything we believe in and fight for in America to still allow the government to imprison you at their whim. Tonight, a blow was struck to fight back against those who would take our liberty.
  • Sen. Rand Paul • In a statement about how he managed to kill an amendment that was likely to pass by voice vote — an amendment that would have clarified the ability for the U.S. government to hold detainees indefinitely while the War on Terror continued — by merely asking for a recorded vote on the matter. This was an awkward situation many in the Senate were trying to avoid, and as a result, the amendment lost resoundingly — with a 41-59 tally. If Paul hadn’t have spoken up, the bill would’ve received a voice vote and passed under the radar. Not bad,  Rand Paul. That’s a moment to put in the ‘ol resume. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

01 Dec 2011 14:11

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Politics: Gingrich says lack of border fence due to lack of “seriousness”

  • We haven’t been able to build a fence on the border because we have not been a serious country.
  • Newt Gingrich • Speaking on immigration policy to a group of Nationwide Insurance employees in Des Moines, Iowa, after signing a pledge to erect a Mexican border fence by the end of 2013. It should be said that this stance is in no way incompatible with Gingrich’s softer tone on long-term immigrants from the last GOP debate, in which he argued that undocumented people who’ve lived here 25 years, paid taxes, and raised a family shouldn’t be booted out of the U.S. It’s entirely possible to earnestly hold both of these positions at once. However, this is Newt Gingrich, he of the most dynamic and politically calculated flops and reversals this side of Mitt Romney (here’s a recent and unflinching one to whet your appetite). As such, it’s hard not to view this as a cynical, purely political calculation; take a general election-friendly stance in a nationally televised debate, then feed the base some red meat when less people are watching. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

01 Dec 2011 10:32

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Politics: Herman Cain’s lawyer wants Ginger White’s phone records

  • Maintain common sense. Mr. Cain was extremely busy in his campaign. He didn’t have time to send a lot of texts.
  • Herman Cain’s lawyer, Lin Wood • Disputing the phone records that show Ginger White has been in nearly-constant communication with Cain via text message in recent weeks. (70 in a month … just 17 of those from Cain. Is 17 texts over a month “a lot of texts”? We think not.) Wood wants the records from White’s lawyer, so he can “ascertain whether the decision to grant interviews was politically motivated and to determine whether she has received or [been] promised money for participating.” Why do we always have to assume the worst in people, Mr. Wood? Could it be that maybe she’s telling the truth? Let’s focus on that part first. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

30 Nov 2011 20:56

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Politics: LA sanitation department has a tall task with Occupy camp

  • 30 tons of stuff to be cleared out of disbanded Occupy LA site source
  • » Dumping the lot of it: Of the above-mentioned 30 tons of stuff (referenced in the article as a mixture of garbage, debris and personal effects, so likely a blend of stuff people both would and would not like to have had back), 25 tons have already been hauled off and taken to a landfill. We haven’t been able to find much information about whether the Occupy LA Library has seen its catalog meet this fate, as well — following the NYPD raid on Occupy Wall Street, protesters claimed thousands of their library’s books were missing or destroyed when they retrieved them from storage.
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
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