Romney Surges in Iowa; Defense Rests in Bradley Manning Case; Syrian Troops Raze Village: P.M. Links

• After riding herd on Paul, Romney surges in Iowa. 

• Bradley Manning's defense rests after calling only two witnesses. 
• Syrian troops slaughter 100 villagers. 
• Bank of America settles "unfair lending" claims for $350 million. 
• Obama urges Boehner to take two-month deal on payroll tax holiday. 

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Comments

[PantsFan]

MATT DAMON

[Fyodor Kuzmich]

"President Obama even mentioned Damon's change of heart during this year's White House Correspondent's Ball.

He said: "I've even let down my key core constituency: movie stars. Just the other day, Matt Damon ? I love Matt Damon, love the guy ? Matt Damon said he was disappointed in my performance. Well, Matt, I just saw "The Adjustment Bureau," so -right back atcha, buddy." "

Zing.

[Episiarch]

Someone just recently told me that The Adjustment Bureau was absolutely terrible. Which was not surprising, but it's always good to have confirmation.

[RoboCain]

It wasn't that bad. And Emily Blunt is the sexy.

[Sky Captain AuH20]

Seriously, for a guy who wrote so well, why did so many Philip K. Dick stories become shitty movies?

[wareagle]

because the books were co-opted by Hollywood screenwriters and directors.

[RoboCain]

I wouldn't call Blade Runner and Total Recall shitty movies.

The Adjustment Bureau is well-written, and some of the dialogue is exceptional. It has a good cast. The special effects are seamless. Overall it's a good movie. It's just way more romantic than one would ever expect -- Dick running on sugarplums instead of amphetamines.

[Teddy KGB]

I still haff his money from the last time I stick it in him!

[Appalachian Australian]

Well, we all know we need to only pay attention to the #2 candidate in Iowa, so the question is: will Paul win in New Hampshire, South Carolina?

Whoever is #1 in Iowa is a fringe candidate and the caucus system is broken.

[CE]

The caucus system is working exactly as intended -- giving a victory to the candidate who works the hardest at connecting with actual voters and convincing them he's the best man for the job, free of the influence of the mainstream media.

When they get to know him, regular Americans like Ron Paul. He didn't get elected to Congress 12 times because he lived in some oddball libertarian district. Rural conservative Texans and rural conservative Iowans have a lot in common.

[Gojira]

Fargoe, ND, now has a heavily-armed assault squad for it's rampant crime problem (re: they don't actually have any crime but felt they needed an army anyway).

The money quote here is in reference to the MA state police. They aren't learning how to stop Die Hard-esque super-criminals...they're training on how to put down an insurrection.

A grainy YouTube video from one of Clark's recent competitions shows just how far the police transformation has come, displaying officers in battle fatigues, helmets, and multi-pocketed vests storming a hostile scene. One with a pistol strapped to his hip swings a battering ram into a door. A colleague lobs a flash-bang grenade into a field. Another officer, holding a pistol and wearing a rifle strapped to his back, peeks cautiously inside a bus.

The images unfold to the pulsing, ominous soundtrack of a popular videogame, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Though resembling soldiers in a far-flung war zone, the stars of this video are Massachusetts State Police troopers.

[RoboCain]

Yet, all they really need is more pregnant officers.

[sage]

So they can piss on the third amendment even more?

[RoboCain]

"
"No kidnapper shall, in time of double-crossing be quartered in any wood chipper, without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war, but in manner to be prescribed by General Motors Acceptance Corporation"

[Fist of Etiquette]

Drudge linked to that this morning, so maybe the general press (who follow him every day) might start to take interest.

[RoboCain]

"In one case, dozens of officers in combat-style gear raided a youth rave in Utah as a police helicopter buzzed overhead. An online video shows the battle-ready team wearing masks and brandishing rifles as they holler for the music to be shut off and pin partygoers to the ground."

They must really hate techno.

[BakedPenguin]

Nobody listens to techno!

[PantsFan]

Eminem? You are on notice.

[Banjos]

It would have been fine if he posted this.

[RoboCain]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....re=related

[BakedPenguin]

You've just got a bad attitude, Banjos.

[Banjos]

Indeed.

[PS]

Isn't Klingon just a German dialect?

[BakedPenguin]

Yes, I suck. In my defense, I thought it was already well known.

[Banjos]

Ah BP, I never thought you sucked. And for no reason whatsoever, here are some Dickies.

[BakedPenguin]

Thanks, Banjos. Just for that, Suffer! (not linked for Reasonable users) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYDulMYVj1U .

[BakedPenguin]

Crap. I thought not using the "<a href= " HTML code would just leave a link in Reasonable. Fuck it, I Don't Need Society.

[Banjos]

I don't care.

[Banjos]

You got me in a DRI mood now.

[Gojira]

Well it's Utah, so that automatically means Romney was calling the shots, so I guess he's lost the raver vote.

[Appalachian Australian]

The upgrading of local police nonetheless continues. Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio now claims to operate his own air armada of private pilots?dubbed Operation Desert Sky?to monitor illegal border crossings, and he recently added a full-size surplus Army tank.

Geez, that guy is scary. Especially how he ignores anything the judiciary tells him to stop doing.

[Sheriff Joe]

Judiciary? I don't need no stinkin' Judiciary?

[Newt Gingrich]

Judiciary? Go arrest those enemies of freedom! Now!

[capitol l]

The new weaponry and battle gear, they insist, helps save lives in the face of such threats. "I don't see us as militarizing police; I see us as keeping abreast with society," former Los Angeles Police chief William Bratton says. "And we are a gun-crazy society."

I implore all of our able members to please make a contribution, in arms or ammunition preferably, to the crips and bloods freedom fighters of the former Los Angeles free-zone.

[RoboCain]

Le Gun Lobby C'Est Moi

http://www.thetruthaboutguns.c.....-cest-moi/

[Fist of Etiquette]

So, Riggs takes over Evening Morning Links. I count that as a win for me.

[Joe M]

Does that mean Cavanaugh is taking over Morning Links? Or is he starting a new feature: Middle of the Night Links.

[Episiarch]

Really, Tim should do that for the H&R readers in Hawaii and Alaska. All 5 of them.

[Sky Captain AuH20]

I won't do shit for those damn 1%ers!

[PS]

What am I, chopped liver?

[Hugh Akston]

Can anyone explain to me why Libya was a humanitarian crisis in need of a kinetic military response while the slaughter in Syria just goes on and on without so much as a belch of reproval from Obama?

[PantsFan]

Washington warned of new international measures against Syria, and said if Damascus did not fully implement an Arab League plan to contain the violence, "the international community will take additional steps to pressure the Assad regime to stop its crackdown."
http://news.nationalpost.com/2.....ervention/

[Hugh Akston]

That'll show 'em. Those sanctions against Iran and Iraq really turned those countries around.

[mad libertarian guy]

Syria isn't quite the pushover Libya was?

[R C Dean]

I blame Israel.

Libya had nothing to do with Israel at all, and Egypt had a peace deal with Israel. Syria, OTOH, is a sworn enemy of Israel and fighting a low-level proxy war against it.

Taking down the Assad regime would help Israel. So Teh World Communitay ain't gonna do it. Contrast with taking down Gaddafi (no effect on Israel) and taking down Mubarak (bad for Israel).

If the Jews would just march into the sea already, then we could help the Syrians get rid of Assad. Until then, no dice.

[Fyodor Kuzmich]

So, amusingly, the Neo-cons have torn into Paul, and everyone else has torn into Gingrich, and barely anyone cares about Bachmann and Santorum, so the GOP ends up with Romney. Just as planned.

[Max]

The racist old fuck with the fake eyebrows loses, just as anyone with half a brain predicted.

[18th century women]

It was trendy then

[Jerry]

And Obama will win another term. Well as long as Republicans take Congress that's just fine with me...

[Fist of Etiquette]

A half-dozen buttoned-down, mostly young men and women favoring charcoal-colored suits have come and gone from gallery seats behind the prosecutor's table, declining to identify themselves to journalists but apparently representing the Justice Department, the CIA or other government agencies.

Across the room are Manning's supporters, including a long-haired young man from the Occupy Wall Street movement and a pony-tailed, elderly military veteran wearing a "Free Bradley Manning" T-shirt.

A military officer will be deciding what goes to court martial, so the longhairs aren't doing Manning any favors.

[Dick Hertz]

Because it got lost in the shuffle this morning, NEWSLETTERS OMG

[Jerry]

Concern much? I mean, all those people getting upset about these newsletter right now, where were they when Herman Cain was arguing for electrocuting illegal immigrants with his border fence?

[Old Mexican]

Re: Dick Hertz,

Did you read the commentary by the author of the post? He indulges in editorializing and in placing words that don't exist in the text. This requires a response from Reason IF they're honest about the hatchet job that this represents, to wit:

"If you live in a major city, you've probably already heard about the newest threat to your life and limb, and your family: carjacking. It is the hip-hop thing to do among the urban youth who play unsuspecting whites like pianos. The youth simply walk up to a car they like, pull a gun, tell the family to get out, steal their jewelry and wallets, and take the car to wreck. Such actions have ballooned in the recent months. In the old days, average people could avoid such youth by staying out of bad neighborhoods. Empowered by media, police, and political complicity, however, the youth now roam everywhere looking for cars to steal and people to rob. What can you do? More and more Americans are carrying a gun in the car. An ex-cop I know advises that if you have to use a gun on a youth, you should leave the scene immediately, disposing of the wiped off gun as soon as possible. Such a gun cannot, of course, be registered to you, but one bought privately (through the classifieds, for example)."

Now try reading that quote again, but replace the word "youth" with "nigger." Let's not pretend it's meant to be anything else.

Wait a second! The "N-word" is not there, so why is he asking to "pretend" it is there? That is totally dishonest. How can he know what the author was talking about 20 years later?

Look at this one:

Nearly every other group but whites are allowed a certain degree of cultural autonomy. Blacks have black schools, clubs, and neighborhoods. The same is true of Hispanics. It is human nature that like attracts likes. But whites are not allowed to express this same human impulse. Except in a de facto sense, there can be no white schools, white clubs, or white neighbor hoods [sic]. The political system demands white integration, while allowing black segregation. The youth culture is already driven by ghetto music and ghetto values.... And the sexual ethics of our youth are also degenerating to the level of the ghetto."

This has been the eternal complaint from White Americans since Affirmative Action. Why would this be particularly racist in itself I have no idea. It looks like something written by Pat Buchanan or Ann Coulter.

Look at this:

"It turns out that the brilliant Fischer, who has all the makings of an American hero, is very politically incorrect on Jewish questions, for which he will never be forgiven, even though he is a Jew. Thus we are not supposed to herald him as the world's greatest chess player."

Note two things here. One, even at the time, nobody disputed that Fischer was one of the greatest in chess history; nor does anyone dispute that today. Two, even at the time, Fischer disavowed his own Jewish ancestry, openly admired Hitler, blamed the Jews for ruining his reputation and chess ranking in the world and considered the State of Israel to be a spider manipulating the press and intelligentsia of the English-speaking world. To consider Fischer anything other than a raving loon and, further, to consider him persecuted only opens very reasonable lines of inquiry as to why anybody would sympathize with him at all, unless his lunacy was coeval with one's own.

The last part is nothing more than the blogger's opinion, not a fact. The fact is that the essayist was talking about Fischer the man with a right to speak.

And things like that. Most of those pages they posted are mostly mundane reports on current affairs. I've read more inflammatory stuff in Vanity Fair and Playboy.

[?]

They must really hate techno.

It carries the Unce Unce Unce Unce Unce Unce of Cain.

[Sarcazmic]

Sandra Bernhard is still hot.

[Banjos]

That's it! I am disabling Reasonable.

[Episiarch]

Fucking amateur.

[Joe M]

Jesus, that has got to be shopped.

[Episiarch]

Remember, Joe, that when you look into the Bernhard, the Bernhard looks into you.

Also, not shopped as far as I know.

[Gojira]

But the real question is, would you do her for her money?

[Episiarch]

Stop projecting your fantasies on me, Jim.

[Gojira]

Stop projecting your fantasies on me, Jim.

...no.

[Joe M]

Well...

[Karl Hungus]

It's like Ron Perlman and the Predator met, popped some thalidomide, and had a baby.

[Joe M]

CNN crawls even farther up Ron Paul's ass about the newsletters.

He finally took off his mic and left.

[Fist of Etiquette]

I wouldn't have a problem with CNN challenging candidates like that if they applied a little consistency.

[Max]

The disgusting old fuck said that Israel was responisble for the 1993 bombing of the WTC? Shit, he's also an antisemitic conspiracy nut. You libertoid assholes can really pick 'em.

[Old Mexican]

Re: Max,

The disgusting old fuck said that Israel was responisble for the 1993 bombing of the WTC?

The incredibly naive and stupid Max believes what some old pasty-faced hag alleges some newsletter said.

It's unsubstantiated, pet yorkie.

[Appalachian Australian]

The disgusting old fuck said that Israel was responisble for the 1993 bombing of the WTC? Shit, he's also an antisemitic conspiracy nut. You libertoid assholes can really pick 'em.

I quote the Newsletter[tm]:

"Whether it was a setup by the Israeli Mossad, as a Jewish friend of mine suspects, or was truly a retaliation by the Islamic fundamentalists, matters little. The cities have become centers of violence, whether through the daily and routine terrorism of crime, political bomb terrorism, or the terrorism of mob behavior as in Los Angeles."

Do you care to recant? Because what you typed above is not what the Newsletter[tm] said.

[Old Mexican]

Re: Joe M,

He finally took off his mic and left.

And he did well. Why would CNN send that smug idiot to pester the Congressman when he has been questioned about the newsletters by not one, not two, but THREE different newscasters in CNN. Boggles the mind.

Not only that - the innuendo behind the questioning. According to the reporter, one of the newsletters indicated that Israel was guilty of the bombing of the WTC (1993). Did it, indeed? Most likely, it's a lie. The things that the newsletters do NOT say are going to be more news than those things that were written.

[Joe M]

Yeah, that accusation was news to me. I thought it was all about the racism.

[Appalachian Australian]

As I pasted above, the Newsletter[tm] in question did not claim the Mossad bombed the WTC, but instead quoted some anonymous "Jewish friend".

I used to subscribe to the Howard Phillips Issues and Strategy Bulletin back in the 90s. Man, a lot of crazy crap went around back then. It was a different time. (HPISB spent most of its time whining about NAFTA.)

[Old Mexican]

Re: Appalachian Australian,

This is getting ridiculous. I know agree that whoever was involved should simply come out, say "Yes, I did write some of the commentaries. Dr. Paul did not see them nor know about them until later. He gave me his full confidence to manage, write, edit and publish these commentaries. If any of the comments I made back then inflicted pain on someone, I apologize deeply. I also apologize to my friend Dr. Paul for abusing his confidence. Again, I reiterate: He is NOT the author of these commentaries; he did not know about them; and saying this as a friend who has known him for decades, the commentaries are alien to his character. I am sorry, Ron. Ladies and gentlemen, I hope this clears my good friend's name and, hopefully, allow him to continue on a campaign that is so important for all Americans. Thank you."

I believe that, with all that is as stake, someone will come forward and give a press conference. Or, at least, that Ron calls a press conference to say something like this:

http://www.dailypaul.com/19539.....t-hard-ron

[Matto]

From the article:

"It's been going on 20 years that I've been pestered about this and CNN does it every time," Paul said, clearly adjitated by the line of questioning. "When are you going to wear yourself out?"

adjitated? seriously?

[CNN WITH ELECTROLYTES]

Ron Paul: "Keep trolling u tryhard"
Gloria: "UMAD?"

[rather]

Do Mormons send out Christmas cards? I heard someone mention they received a card from Romney

[Old Mexican]

Re: rather,

Do Mormons send out Christmas cards?

Librarian pillow talk?

[Fist of Etiquette]

Obama for months has called for a year-long extension of the tax cut; he would prefer that it be deepened, too, although that idea never went anywhere in Congress. Obama reiterated to Boehner that he wants to work out a full-year deal with Congress but there is no time for that to be done right now.

If there was some new, giant government bureaucracy at stake, some bevy of oppressive regulations, they would be going all night through Christmas Eve. As it is, the Senate has wives and mistresses to regift lobbyist presents to.

[Old Mexican]

After riding herd on Paul, Romney surges in Iowa.

Uh, actually, if you read the results from their previous polls, it is both Mitt and Paul that surged, concurrently:

__________12/19_12/13__11/15__10/19__8/31__8/4
Mitt Romney__25%__23%__19%___21%___17%___21%
Newt Gingrich_17%__20%__32%___9%____2%____5%
Ron Paul____20%__18%___10%___10%___14%___16%

[Joe M]

Yeah go look at the RCP average. Paul is clearly in front of Romney.

[Anonymous Coward]

Overall, the stalemate has centered on how to pay for another year's tax cut without adding to the deficit.

Obama was to have left Washington by now for a Christmas vacation in Hawaii, where his wife and two daughters have been since the weekend.

He took his dog, Bo, and went holiday shopping.

Obama 2012: Like giving a teenager credit cards, guns, liquor, and car keys.

[rather]

That's just idiotic; who the f cares that the man went Christmas shopping with his dog?

[Old Mexican]

Re: rather,

who the f cares that the man went Christmas shopping with his dog?

What really matters is if he's a librarian or not!

[Anonymous Coward]

The same people who think that Obama bribing the American people with more debt is some kind of generosity.

[Appalachian Australian]

I'm going to accuse all of these anti-Obama posts of being false flag operations to make us look like Newsletter[tm] sympathisers.

[Sky Captain AuH20]

So, now that the cold has set in... why were the authorities dumb enough to give the Occutards even one moment of martyrdom? I mean, I know they're too balless to have tried again, but I will have to resist an urge to punch in 20 years when sitting in a bar, listening to some guy my age go on about, "We were a real movement, but the goddamn fascists won again!"

[Joe M]

Rick Perry is attacking Ron Paul

Pretty hilarious to see Perry have to do that.

[protefeed]

"The numbers changing within the very large margin of error of previous polls" =/= "surging in the polls"

[CE]

"Riding herd" on Paul? They both went up 2 percentage points in the poll.

[Max is right! Paul is RACIST!!]

Da proof!

[Geeno Mason]

I never even thought about it liek that dude.

http://www.real-web-privacy.tk

[Voros McCracken]

Chelsea defender John Terry will be charged with "a racially aggravated public order offence", for something he said to an opposing player during a match. He faces a fine of ?2,500.