Transcript below the fold:

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Where’s Chuck Norris when you need him?

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Charlotte-Mecklenburg police arrested four men for arson after they allegedly burned two American flags near an Occupy camp in uptown on Friday.

Police said Jason Bargert, 28, Michael Behrle, 23, Stephen Morris, 20, and Alex Tyler, 19, were charged with arson and setting fire to woods.

The four men burned the flags while in the area of tents for Occupy Charlotte, which is located on the lawn area of City Hall on East Trade Street, according to the police report.

Occupy Charlotte released a statement to NewsChannel 36 saying that the flag burning incident does reflect the people or message of their group.

The statement goes on to stay that Occupy Charlotte is no longer affiliated with the camp at East Trade Street, where the flag burning incident took place.

Via American Glob

I want my $3!

From: Rufus Gifford, BarackObama.com
Subject: I know, I know, I know
Date: December 30, 2011 4:25:40 PM EST

Drew —

If you thought to yourself, “Again, Rufus?!” when you saw this email pop up in your inbox, I’m really sorry.

But I have just one thing to say before tomorrow’s midnight deadline: These deadlines may seem arbitrary, but they’re very real.

They affect so much — from budgets to headlines to how big we can take our ground game in the states. When we say that every donation matters, it’s actually true. We cannot win without the support of millions of people like you.

Trust me: Nobody here wants to be a bother. But we’re counting on everyone who cares about this campaign and this president to chip in when it matters most.

Think you can donate $3 or more right now?

https://donate.barackobama.com/Saturday

Seriously, thank you.

Rufus

Rufus Gifford
National Finance Director
Obama for America

Theatre of the Absurd.

(Chron.com) — Among the racially charged newsletters published under Ron Paul’s name, one example is particularly odious to Houston Democrats.

One of the newsletter articles described Rep. Barbara Jordan, a Houston Democrat revered in the civil rights community, as “the archetypal half-educated victimologist, yet her race and sex protect her from criticism.”

The story was covered extensively by the Houston Chronicle and the San Antonio Express-News in 1996, when Paul sought to reclaim a seat in Congress, and 2007, when Paul was running for the Republican presidential nomination. But the newsletters did not receive significant media attention until last week, when the Texas congressman took the lead in theIowa presidential caucuses.

Today, the woman who represents the Houston congressional district long represented by Jordan demanded an apology.

“Ron Paul cannot continue to pursue the position of the presidency of the United States of America without formally apologizing and discussing his true positions regarding these newsletter writings,” Jackson Lee said in a statement.

Jackson Lee likened Paul’s situation to then-candidate Barack Obama’s predicament when controversial statements by his pastor, Jeremiah Wright, threatened to derail the Chicago Democrat’s 2009 presidential campaign.

Obama “gave a landmark speech on race to explain his views on race and the history of race in America,” Jackson Lee said. “Mr. Paul should do the same.”

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No wonder he wept.

DES MOINES, Iowa — Newt Gingrich says he has killed a chapter on climate change in a post-election book of essays about the environment. But the intended author of the chapter, who supports the scientific consensus that humans contribute to climate change, says that’s news to her.

Katharine Hayhoe, an atmospheric scientist at Texas Tech, confirmed in an e-mail interview that she had been asked to write a chapter on climate change for the former House speaker’s book. She said she was approached by former Palm Beach Zoo CEO Terry Maple, Gingrich’s coeditor, at an annual meeting of Republicans for Environmental Protection. Asked to confirm her chapter was dropped, she replied, “I had not heard that.”

The climate-change issue arose on Thursday night at a Gingrich campaign stop in Carroll, when a woman expressed concern about the chapter. She said she had heard about it on Rush Limbaugh’s radio program. As she began to tell Gingrich who the author of the piece would be, Gingrich interrupted. “That’s not going to be in the book,” he told her. “We didn’t know that they were doing that, and we told them to kill it.”

Hayhoe, whose husband is an evangelical pastor, recently wrote a book about climate change from an evangelical perspective. In an interview with Christian writer Jonathan Merritt, she left no doubt as to where she stands on the existence or the cause of the phenomenon.

“Among climate scientists — people who spend their lives researching our world — there is no debate regarding the reality of climate change and the fact that humans are the primary cause,” Hayhoe said in the interview. “It is primarily laypeople, such as talk-show hosts, or those with vested interests in maintaining the status quo, who are perpetuating the idea that there is no scientific consensus.”

Limbaugh picked up on those quotes on Dec. 19, including Hayhoe’s poke at talk-show hosts. He called her “one of Newt’s experts” and said she believes in man-made global warming. That no doubt created heartburn for Team Newt.

In related news, he insists he’s not anti-Semitic; he just wishes Israel didn’t exist.

HT: RedState

Condoms not included.

(CNSNews.com) — The Web site for GOP primary contender Mitt Romney is seeking donations with a drawing: Donate $1 or more to his presidential campaign and you will get a chance to spend election night in New Hampshire with the former Massachusetts governor.

“Here’s the deal,” the text reads on the home page. “For every dollar you donate, you will receive an entry to win. So if you donate $10, you’ll get 10 entries.”

You have to read the small print at the bottom of the page, however, to get the details on the “deal,” including the obligatory legal requirement that individuals can be entered for a chance to win without making a donation. You are required to enter a donation amount, even if it is “0” to be in the lottery.

The small print also reveals that the value of the first prize is approximately $975 — one round-trip coach class plane ticket in the continental United States to Manchester, N.H., a one-night hotel stay in Manchester, and ground transportation.

The winner must also be a U.S. citizen or a permanent resident of the United States, Puerto Rico, or the District of Columbia, and be at least 18 years old.

Once a donation is made, visitors to the Web site are taken to another page where the necessary information can be inputted to complete the process, including credit card information and your occupation and employer (the latter is required by federal law, the text states).

“Be a part of history. Be there with Mitt” is the headline on this page. “On Jan. 10th, history will be made in the first-in-the-nation primary state as voters cast their ballot,” the text states. “And one of you will be there to witness it all in person with Mitt.”

“Many of you have stood by Mitt from the beginning by donating your time, money and support,” the text states. “Election Night will be a great moment to celebrate all of your hard work.”

No.

Via Daily Caller:

Forget about the giggling whispers in the back of the bus or the awkward mother-daughter sex conversations. Planned Parenthood is prepared to answer all your children’s pressing sex questions — at least in Denver, where the abortion provider’s local affiliate has adopted a new program to answer sex questions via text messages.

Giving a whole new meaning to “sexting,” Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains is set to allow Denver youth to send their pressing sex questions to the organization right from their cell phones.

The program, “In Case You’re Curious,” or ICYC, is straightforward and easy for Carpal-Tunnel-prone teen texters. They simply text “ICYC” to a special number, along with their questions, and within 24 hours a “highly-trained Planned Parenthood Community Education staff member” will respond.

Keep reading…

And why not? We’re already living on borrowed time.

HONOLULU (AP) — President Barack Obama is delaying his request for another $1.2 trillion increase in the nation’s debt limit at the request of congressional leaders.

It’s basically because of a technicality.

The White House had been ready to ask for the increase Friday because the government is within $100 billion of exhausting its current borrowing authority. Congress would then have 15 days to reject the request, though Obama would veto any objections in order to ensure that the government does not default on its obligations.

But with Congress not due to return to Washington until mid-January, lawmakers asked Obama to delay his request so they would be in session during the 15-day period allowed for objections.

“The administration is in discussions with leaders in both houses to determine the best timing for submission of certification and any subsequent votes in the two houses,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Friday.

And I use the term “doctor” lightly.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Two out-of-state doctors who traveled to Maryland to perform late-term abortions have been arrested and charged with multiple counts of murder under the state’s viable fetus law, authorities said.

Dr. Steven Brigham, of Voorhees, N.J., was taken into custody Wednesday night and is being held in the Camden County jail, according to police in Elkton, Md. Authorities also arrested Dr. Nicola Riley in Salt Lake City and she is in jail in Utah. Each is awaiting an extradition hearing.

The two doctors were indicted by a grand jury after a 16-month investigation, police said.

The investigation began in August 2010 after a botched procedure at Brigham’s Elkton clinic. An 18-year-old woman who was 21 weeks pregnant had her uterus ruptured and her bowel injured, and rather than call 911, Brigham and Riley drove her to a nearby hospital, where both were uncooperative and Brigham refused to give his name, authorities said.

A search of the clinic after the botched abortion revealed a freezer with 35 late-term fetuses inside, including one believed to have been aborted at 36 weeks, authorities said.

Brigham, 55, is charged with five counts of first-degree murder, five counts of second-degree murder and one count of conspiracy. Riley, 46, faces one count each of first- and second-degree murder and one conspiracy count.

Sickening.

Via LifeNews:

Planned Parenthood has released its new annual report and the figures show the abortion business continues to make money despite its status as a nonprofit organization — and it receives almost half of its income from taxpayer dollars.

On December 27, the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) released its latest Annual Report for 2009-2010. The report indicates PPFA had a total budget of $1.04 billion and an excess of revenue over expenses of 18.5 million dollars — a net profit.

The abortion business reports $513 million in current assets and $570 million in property, equipment and an endowment while showing $184 million in liabilities for buildings and other debts.

The new report also reveals 46 percent of the total PPFA budget comes from taxpayer dollars in the form of government funding. At the same time, just 21 percent of the income the abortion business brings in comes from private donors (it lists 528,000 active donors) while 31 percent of its revenue is derived from abortions “non-government health services revenue.”

Keep reading…

Sadly, it failed to knock any sense into her.

HT: GWP

The economic train wreck rolls on.

(CNN) — In 2008, the youth vote helped sweep Barack Obama into office. Americans 18-29 spread the word on social media, energized fundraising and went to the polls.

In 2012, the youth vote is moving on and throwing those omnipresent “Hope” bumper stickers and t-shirts in garbage bins.

Not because of apathy. Not because another candidate generates more enthusiasm. Not because of his character. Not because they think voting is pointless. The 18-29 vote is up for grabs in 2012 because youth can’t afford cars to put bumper stickers on and those t-shirts are worn out from too many days sitting on the couch unemployed.

The sobering reality: just 55.3 percent of Americans between 16 and 29 have jobs. And earlier this year, Americans’ student loan debt surpassed credit card debt for the first time ever.

Rather than develop a lasting initiative to help young unemployed Americans, the President launched “Greater Together” — a campaign tool that offers community forums rather than jobs. Rather than provide a bailout to those crushed by the burden of educational loans, his student debt relief program was pathetic — only reducing interest rates by a measly 0.5 percent.

Keep reading…

Reality begs to differ.

Via NY Times:

“The boom, not the slump, is the right time for austerity at the Treasury.” So declared John Maynard Keynes in 1937, even as F.D.R. was about to prove him right by trying to balance the budget too soon, sending the United States economy — which had been steadily recovering up to that point — into a severe recession. Slashing government spending in a depressed economy depresses the economy further; austerity should wait until a strong recovery is well under way.

Unfortunately, in late 2010 and early 2011, politicians and policy makers in much of the Western world believed that they knew better, that we should focus on deficits, not jobs, even though our economies had barely begun to recover from the slump that followed the financial crisis. And by acting on that anti-Keynesian belief, they ended up proving Keynes right all over again.

In declaring Keynesian economics vindicated I am, of course, at odds with conventional wisdom. In Washington, in particular, the failure of the Obama stimulus package to produce an employment boom is generally seen as having proved that government spending can’t create jobs. But those of us who did the math realized, right from the beginning, that the Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (more than a third of which, by the way, took the relatively ineffective form of tax cuts) was much too small given the depth of the slump. And we also predicted the resulting political backlash.

So the real test of Keynesian economics hasn’t come from the half-hearted efforts of the U.S. federal government to boost the economy, which were largely offset by cuts at the state and local levels. It has, instead, come from European nations like Greece and Ireland that had to impose savage fiscal austerity as a condition for receiving emergency loans — and have suffered Depression-level economic slumps, with real G.D.P. in both countries down by double digits.

Keep reading…

Or as MSNBC would call this, racism is sweeping the nation!

Via Rasmussen:

Voters right now give the edge to Republicans when asked which political party is likely to win the White House and control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate in next November’s elections. Republicans are more confident about their party’s chances than Democrats are, but a lot of voters are undecided.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 47% of Likely U.S. Voters think the Republican candidate is most likely to beat President Obama, while 39% expect the incumbent to win reelection. Fourteen percent (14%) are not sure.

What a shame.

Via Business Insider

Keith Olbermann, who began his much-publicized tenure at Al Gore’s Current TV this summer is apparently already on the outs with management there.

So much so, he is reportedly being left out of upcoming election coverage specials.

Brian Stelter at the New York Times writes that Olbermann will be notably absent from Current’s upcoming two hours specials on the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary.

Instead they will be hosted by Cenk Uygur and former Michigan governor Jennifer Granholm with appearances by Al Gore, who the NYT notes, usually stays behind the scenes at Current.

Keep reading…

Israel doesn’t f*ck around.

(LWJ) — The Israeli Air Force killed the emir of the al Qaeda-linked Jaish al Islam, or Army of Islam, in an airstrike in northern Gaza. The airstrike is the latest by Israel that has targeted al Qaeda-affiliated terrorists in the Gaza Strip.

Israeli fighter-bombers killed Muaman Abu Daf, the leader of the Army of Islam, in a strike in the Zeitoun district in Gaza City today. Hamas, the terror group which runs Gaza, confirmed that Abu Daf was killed in the attack. Five other Palestinians were wounded. Members of the Army of Islam wrapped Abu Daf’s body in the flag flown by al Qaeda in Iraq, Shabaab, and other al Qaeda affiliates in the Middle East.

The Israeli Defense Forces confirmed the strike and said the Air Force “targeted a terrorist squad that was identified moments before firing rockets at Israel from the northern Gaza Strip.”

“A hit was confirmed, thwarting the rocket fire attempt,” the IDF said in a statement released on its website. “The aforementioned squad is responsible for the firing of rockets at Israel in the past number of days.”

Today’s strike that killed Abu Daf is the third by the Israeli Air Force against what the IDF refers to as “Global Jihad-affiliated terrorists,” or Gaza-based groups linked to al Qaeda. On Dec. 27, the Israeli Air Force killed Abdallah Telbani, who was involved in a plot to attack Israel from the Egyptian Sinai as well as with rocket and IED attacks along the Israeli-Gaza border.