During a speech to a Hispanic leadership group Florida Senator Marco Rubio (R) was interrupted by a group of protesters upset over his opposition to the Dream Act. They first held up signs objecting to his opposition to the law held up signs linking him to the Tea Party and implying that he was anti Hispanic. In a move I think many politicians could learn from Rubio praised the bravery of the protesters for expressing their views in a forum where many would disagree with them and expressed gratitude...

Bob Englehart, The Hartford Courant This copyrighted cartoon is licensed to run on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

A make who makes pizza sings opera. And now he has gone viral: video platform video management video solutions video player I predict this guy will make a lot of dough. (But politicians go one step further: they give us a song AND a dance.)

In the final scene of the classic 1931 movie “Little Ceasar,” the gangster, played by the great Edward G. Robinson, his body riddled with bullets shot by police, says: “”Mother of mercy, is this the end of Rico?” In the wake of last night’s lively CNN Republican Presidential debate, many observers are now seriously asking: “Mother of mercy, is this is the political end of front-runner former House Speaker Newt Gingrich?” And expect that question to...

Rick McKee, The Augusta Chronicle This copyrighted cartoon is licensed to run on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

Inspired by my Twitter find yesterday, I decided to poke around Google+ and Twitter for insights into tonight’s GOP debate. Instead, I found myself tracking claims about Newt Gingrich. Here we go, factoids to show and tell: 1993: “‘The vast lion’s share of balancing the budget was done with the budget in 1993 that [Gingrich] led the opposition to,’ Clinton said Tuesday on NBC.” (CNN) 1994-1998: Earmark spending in Congress doubled between 1994 and 1998, when...

Enjoy:

WASHINGTON – Florida is not South Carolina, and if Newt Gingrich isn’t punching the media he doesn’t seem to have anything to say. That Mitt Romney got a new debate coach who pumped up his aggressiveness and gave him game caught Gingrich off guard. It was Rick Santorum that leveled the only hits on Romney via the health care mandate, with the consensus on Twitter that his veep spot is now kaput. (That’s a joke, folks.) Ron Paul didn’t have to contend with unpopular...

The increasingly strident tone of Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich as they faced off in tonight’s G.O.P. debate in Florida must be considered in the context of the battering each has been receiving from the other’s SuperPAC. Of course, both candidates deny their ability to control these attack ads and criticizes the other’s ads for falsehoods and misstatements of the facts. Perhaps desperation reared its head along with an obvious dislike that each candidate feels for the other, allowing them...

Like much of the rest of the world, German commentators have been captivated by the death-match between Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich. And opinions seem almost unanimous. Echoing the views of just about everyone we’ve seen, columnist Klaus-Dieter Frankenberger of Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung writes that whether Gingrich wins the nomination or not, he cannot be good for the party or Republican chances of unseating President Obama in November. For the Frankfurter Allgemeine...

How bad is the damage Republicans are doing to one another in the Republican primaries? This editorial from Germany’s Der Tagesspiegel outlines why, at least from outside the United States, it looks like reelecting Obama may turn out to be a cake walk. The Der Tagesspiegel editorial starts out this way: Mitt Romney, the favorite, is tottering. But who can replace him as President Obama’s opponent? Newt Gingrich’s sensational victory in the South Carolina primary only reflects...

This is live blogging of the CNN Florida Republican Presidential debate. Note that due to logistical reasons I have started late. So I will include links and live blogging from around the Internet and news organizations. MY entries entries will be on top PST. When this debate is completed an EXTENSIVE roundup: Will be placed on top of the live blogging. Commentary live blogging: The debate ends. Winners: Santorum and Romney. Loser: Gingrich. Paul: barely there. From the Guardian’s live blogging: 10.15pm:...

Due to some logistical problems (I am now in Louisiana and will be offline until later in the evening) it’s unlikely I can do live blogging tonight, or if I do it’ll be the very last part of the debate. But check in with TMV often to get the takes on the debate from other TMV writers. Towards the end of the evening I’ll be putting together a roundup on the debate — with quotes from blogs, news stories and Twitter.

Back in March 2009, a Spanish court took the first steps toward opening a criminal investigation into allegations that six former high-level Bush administration officials violated international law by providing the legal framework to justify the torture of prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. The case was sent to the prosecutor’s office for review by none other than Judge Baltasar Garzón, Europe’s best-known counter-terrorism magistrate, renowned for his determination and his abilities to bring...

Here is a case to show the possible complications of technology. In the case a woman and her husband were arrested and charged with bank fraud. When they were arrested the police served a warrant and seized several laptops. One of them had encrypted files on it. Based on both the names of the files on the laptop and comments by the defendant Ramona Fricosu, they determined it was her laptop and she knew the password. The authorites served another warrant requesting that she provide a decrypted version...

David Fitzsimmons, The Arizona Star This copyrighted cartoon is licensed to run on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

Top conservatives and members of the GOP establishment are now in a full throttle (figuratively and literally) assault against former House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s attempt to win the 2012 Republican nomination by painting himself as a great party man and conservative. And one of the biggest Republican establishment guns from days past has entered the fray: former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, who headed the Republican ticket in 1996. Dole has issued just about the most blunt, stripped-of-niceties...

A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey is detecting a shift on the eve of what is expected to be a fireworks-packed Presidential debate in Florida: Rasmussen finds former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney now back on top in Florida: Mitt Romney has jumped back ahead in the fevered Florida Republican Primary race with his support back to where it was before Newt Gingrich’s big win Saturday in South Carolina. The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Florida Republican Primary Voters,...

WASHINGTON – How many people were waiting for this to happen? Newt Gingrich has been tripped up and caught making claims that are now proven to be false. “Tonight, after persistent questioning by our staff, the Gingrich campaign concedes now Speaker Gingrich was wrong — both in his debate answer, and in our interview yesterday,” King said on tonight’s edition of John King USA. “Gingrich spokesman R.C. Hammond says the only people the Gingrich campaign offered to...

SMUG CAPTION ABOUT WHITE REPUBLICANS GOES HERE With five days to go before the Florida presidential primary, public-opinion polls in the Sunshine State are sending a mixed message. But one thing is for sure, a primary that once appeared to be a cakewalk for Mitt Romney may well turn out to be pivotal for the hapless candidate. An averaging of the polls on Wednesday revealed a 4 percentage point lead for Gingrich. With a plus or minus 3 percent error margin, that is not much of a lead. A new poll...

In President Obama’s State of the Union address this week, he criticized countries that don’t play by the rules of international trade. He noted that his administration had initiated nearly twice as many trade cases against China as the previous administration. He criticized countries (read China) who let movies, music and software be pirated. And he exclaimed that it is unfair if foreign manufacturers get a leg up because of foreign government subsidies. To resolve these problems and to...

On the night of his triumph in the South Carolina primary, Newt Gingrich declared that “The centerpiece of this campaign, I believe, is American exceptionalism versus the radicalism of Saul Alinsky.” That reference and subsequent references to Alinsky surely puzzled viewers of a certain age and probably many viewers of all ages. This is because Alinsky, a legendary community organizer, died in 1972. Translated, Gingrich’s dog-whistle demagoguery is: I am sure that a threateningly...

It turns that now it has been proven and Newt Gingrich has admitted he was wrong about the witnesses he had to rebut his ex-wife’s allegations and ABC’s response to his purported offer to bring them foward. A slight inaccuracy — but, hey, it allowed him to puff up his big melodramatic moment against the press and hit that good, old hot button that helped him with the South Carolina primary. This confirms King’s reputation as a serious journalist and Gingrich’s history...

On Thursday, 26 European Union member states plus the EU will sign the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). Although the treaty ostensibly deals with counterfeit physical goods, it includes provisions related to digital goods. The Treaty was negotiated in secret; it began during the Bush Administration and was finalized under the Obama Administration. In October 2011, these eight countries signed: Australia, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore and the U.S. However,...

…is the GOP Congress as the President does a deft job of trying to reboot his final year with small unilateral steps to get around the pachyderm squatting on the path to economic recovery, leading up to a plea for bipartisan cooperation on larger issues that hits a blank wall in the faces of McConnell, Boehner, Cantor and their Tea Party obstructionists. Without explicit blame, Barack Obama (the man knows how to work a room) acts out a psychodrama of the leader who killed bin Laden and saved...

From @LOLGOP: America. Where evangelicals & casino moguls unite to help a thrice-married disgraced-politician-turned-lobbyist lecture us on morality. In other GOP news, CNN calls Florida a dead heat while the NYT suggest Newt Gingrich has peaked.

Available in print at Amazon.com WASHINGTON – The reason I wrote my book was to tell a piece of history. It was to set the record of events out for people to read and connect. The Hillary Effect gets another big boost from recent reporting that bolsters the case I make, which is backed up by the facts I offer. A memo revealed by Ryan Lizza in “The Obama Memos”, printed in The New Yorker, proves a main thesis in my book and does so beyond any doubt whatsoever. “Change we...

How is this story for amazing…. President John Tyler was born while George Washington was President, he served from 1841-1845 and died during the Lincoln years. Yet two of his *grandchildren* are alive today…. Both he and his son had children quite late in life and the grandkids are pretty long lived themselves…

Awkward Family Photos: Mitt Laundry by Tina Dupuy Mitt Romney’s hurdle in winning the love/respect/admiration/fear of his party can be summed up in one photo. It was taken by his son, Tagg (doesn’t Sarah Palin have a kid with that name?) and put on Twitter this week. It’s of Romney and his wife Ann, presumably in a hotel basement, side-by-side pouring detergent into washing machines. Mitt is of course, wearing a starched button up shirt and jeans, which is what people who never...

AUSTIN, Tex. — It’s a new, unsettling era for Republicans on many fronts. For instance, take Texas Gov. Rick Perry. Please. Many Texans still love Perry and felt badly about his wipe out on the national political stage. The Dallas Morning News had this big headline: “Perry’s dream dashed…With S.C. out of reach, he bows out, backs Gingrich.” A story underneath that: “After failed bid, what’s his future?” Columnist Jacquielynn Floyd’s headline:...

Mike Keefe, Cagle Cartoons This copyrighted cartoon is licensed to run on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

While most people weren’t looking, America’s controversial detention facility at Guantanamo Bay turned ten years old a few weeks ago; for some reason, the President didn’t mention this during the State of the Union. I used the occasion of Guantanamo’s birthday party in Washington, D.C. to meet, and to arrange an interview with, retired Air Force Col. Morris Davis, once the Chief Prosecutor of the Guantanamo military commissions, and now one of the most outspoken critics of...

Here is a clip that will live in political history, to be shown again and again and again. Watch East Haven, CT Mayor Joseph Maturo, asked what he’d do for his city’s Latino community after four police officers were charged for using excessive force against undocumented immigrants and covering up abuses, say “I might have tacos for dinner.” Even worse: his interview is with a reporter from WPIX, a major New York City market television station. Also note how he apparently...

Yes that day has arrived and I never thought it would (although years ago I did do a serious, stand-back and analyze review of one of her earlier books). Our political Quote of the Day comes from Ann Coulter’s new column where Coulter, who is aggressively supporting former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney for the 2012 Republican nomination, makes the case for GOPers for picking Romney and not former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. Her support stems from one fact: she wants the Republican Party...

In the wake of poll results released this morning showing Gingrich pulling ahead of Romney among likely Republican voters in Florida, the mail-in ballots Romney staff have been working for months to help people mail in are looking less like a firewall than a rope to cling to. Now in response to unrelenting demands that he release his tax returns, Mitt Romney finally has done so and it isn’t pretty. Despite making more money than his major opponents, including the President, he’s been...

Milt Priggee, www.miltpriggee.com by WALTER BRASCH Gov. Tom Corbett (R-Pa.) praised Joe Paterno and ordered flags on all state buildings to fly at half-staff for four days. That would be the same Tom Corbett who had said he was “personally disappointed” in Joe Paterno for not doing more to alert authorities in the Jerry Sandusky case, while acknowledging that Paterno did nothing illegal and followed university rules for conduct. That would be the same Tom Corbett who, as attorney general, assigned...

Could Florida have a wild card? Several news stories are now suggesting that the Latino vote could save former Massachusetts Gov, Mitt Romney in Florida’s upcoming Presidential primary. And, indeed, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has an ad up that accuses Romney of being anti-immigrant in an effort to make inroads into that vote. But the latest is that Gingrich has pulled the ad after many of the state’s Latino politicians (including Republicans) denounced him for it. The Christian...

EDITOR’S NOTE: We ran a post before on a CBS News story we picked off of a highly reliable and must-read site that aggregates news stories and blog posts but it turned out to be a year old. We regret the error. When we get a new news story with polling that is properly dated we’ll run it. We weren’t the only website to run this old story and not realize it was old — but we don’t intend to make the same error again. Graphic via shutterstock.com

WASHINGTON — It was to be expected that in the course of his State of the Union address, President Obama would mention the killing of Osama bin Laden, whose death represented the culmination of the battle against terrorism that began on Sept. 11, 2001. Far less expected was Obama’s use of the bin Laden episode to present a community-minded worldview that contrasts so sharply with the highly individualistic and anti-government message that has been heard over and over from the Republicans...

Amid people who are counting finding out that former House Speaker Newt Gingrich drops Ronald Reagan’s name constantly, a Romney PAC has taken this factoid and run with it in this new ad:

Bill Day, Cagle Cartoons Newt Gingrich continues his campaign to brand (and not without reason, actually) former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney a — get ready, hide the kids from this word, hope it won’t get this site deleted from the Internet — moderate (there I said it). And it may well work in Florida but the Republican Party could be facing some real collateral damage come November: Once the Republican presidential campaign came to Florida, it was only a matter of time until...

Hamburg, Germany: Preventive Detention Controversy Splits Politicians and City Residents A ruling in spring 2011 by the German Constitutional Court enables dangerous criminals in preventive detention to return to living “a normal life”. And that includes having a place to stay, becoming part of a new neighbourhood. German politicians now have a burden on their hands and residents have serious safety concerns. A look at the recent situation in Hamburg, where two criminals have already been released....

Frank Wuterich arrives at court with lawyer Neal Puckett Iraqis are reacting with outrage — and appropriately so — that the ringleader of the 2005 Haditha massacre that left 24 of their countrymen dead received no jail time and merely a reduction in rank to private as part of a plea deal in which he pleaded guilty to a single count of dereliction of duty. “This is not new, and it’s not new for the American courts that already did little about Abu Ghraib and other crimes in...

In the wake of a relatively brisk, civilized debate, ringmaster Gingrich is complaining about losing his rabble-rousing rights. Reacting to NBC’s control of the kind of whooping and cheering that went on in South Carolina, Newt’s morning-after regret is that “I wish in retrospect I’d protested when Brian Williams took them out of it because I think it’s wrong. And I think he took them out of it because the media is terrified that the audience is going to side with the candidates against...

Cardow, The Ottawa Citizen This copyrighted cartoon is licensed to run on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

For the first time in his presidency, Barack Obama was able to deliver a State of the Union address last night with the economic and political winds at his back as the lingering aftershocks of the recession ebb and Republican infighting diminishes the party’s chances of taking back the White House. Obama’s approval ratings are identical to those of the Great Conservative God, Ronald Reagan, at the same point in his first term and are rising, while the Tea Party militancy that...

DEBBIE BOSANEK (LEFT) BEFORE THE SPEECH Debbie Bosanek, secretary to mega-investor Warren Buffett, had stayed out of the limelight despite being the poster lady for President Obama’s tax proposals, but she took a star turn last night as she sat with first lady Michelle Obama during the State of the Union Speech. Bosanek, who has worked for Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway for 37 years and has been his secretary for 20, said before the speech that “I was so excited I couldn’t sleep...

And What It Means To You Photo @PCBritzGoogle, the “don’t be evil” company, is slipping and sliding along a fibre optic cable that terminates in Dante’s inferno. According to The Guardian: US regulators are reportedly looking into whether Google manipulates its search results to favour its own products and have expanded the investigation to include Google+. That’s a far cry from the company mission/vision/mantra in 2004, which is when (Chief Executive) Larry Page told...

Easily the best moment of the night as the chamber gives Congresswoman Giffords a well deserved standing ovation. Fellow Arizona Congressmen Grijavala (a liberal Democrat) and Flake (a conservative Republican) led her into the chamber and helped her stand when she wanted to applaud the President. Perhaps the most touching story though was of Congressman Louie Gohmert, a conservative Republican from Texas. Although they were not always together on the issues, they are friends. In fact they would...

WASHINGTON — When the polls closed in South Carolina on Saturday, I happened to be in a Charleston hotel lobby where elegantly dressed couples were filing past on their way to a black-tie event. A woman stopped and asked whether I had heard anything about the results. “Newt’s winning big,” I said. The woman’s face fell. “But if Newt wins,” she lamented, “then Obama wins.” With the caveat that there are no guarantees, she has a...

If you’re interested in my liberal take on Obama’s speech, see here. Suffice it to say that while I generally agree with most of his various policy proposals, I think it’s by far the worst State of the Union address he’s given. There’s no vision, no philosophy, nothing. Expect possibly for populist economic nationalism. And that’s just delusional, a clear refusal to see how the world really works and what America needs to do to get back on its feet. Of course I’m...

David Fitzsimmons, The Arizona Star LIVE STREAMING VIDEO OF STATE OF THE UNION SPEECH BELOW: Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy Here is some live blogging of President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address. This will not be as extensive as the live blogging we do here on primary debates. The first part will give you a CNN summary. Live blogging is underneath. A roundup of reaction after the speech will go on top of the live blogging. The pre-speech...

David Fitzsimmons, The Arizona Star This copyrighted cartoon is licensed to run on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

TMV Assistant Editor Pat Edaburn wrote HERE about his growing conclusions that State of the Union addresses are increasingly meaningless. He is not alone in that perception: Public Notice/Bankrupting America now has a video that calls out Presidents of both parties for making empty promises during their State of the Union addresses on fiscal discipline. There are partisans of both parties who won’t like this video because it doesn’t whitewash their parties’ complicity in the country’s...

This is a repost of my commentary from last year on the State of The Union speech. this year of course we will have a slightly different take because of the campaign aspects to the address. Both President Obama and Governor Daniels are likely to add more rhetoric and a bit more of a partisan tilt to their speeches. But overall I think the commentary stands As we move closer to the time for the State of The Union speech I am starting to wonder about whether it is really worth debating to discussing....