What’s the ultimate torture? Some teens figured it out: it’s this.

Ah, the Christmas spirit is all over the place now — in the music, people rushing to stores, and drivers on the highway who now smile pleasantly when they give you the finger. So here…for a special holiday treat…is a RARE find: a “lost” Christmas song showstopper, from a 1965 ABC TV one-shot network airing of an original musical about Red Riding Hood. In this zippy holiday song, you’ll see a young Liza Minnelli playing Red Riding Hood dancing with the great Cyril...

Former Kansas Senator and 1996 GOP presidential nominee Bob Dole has endorsed former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney for the 2012 Republican nomination. The question now becomes: will Dole’s endorsement prove to be political Viagra for Romney? Former Kansas Senator and 1996 GOP presidential nominee Bob Dole endorsed Mitt Romney Sunday in an advertisement in the state’s largest newspaper. In a half-page ad in the Des Moines Register, Dole wrote an “Open Letter to Iowa Voters” urging voters...

Boardwalk Empire season II finale has to rank as one of if not THE rpt THE best end-of-the-season episode I have ever seen. Since it’ll be out in DVD soon (season one is yet to emerge) I won’t spoil it. But if you have seen it or really want to know GO HERE. This show started off slow and started to build but has now begun to look like “another Soporanos” in terms of its quality of scripting (some scripts done by a Sopranos alum, in fact), acting sets and the ongoing continuing...

Here’s a bit of Christmas music to get you on your way. In 1958 a young country-western singer named Brenda Lee did a song called “Rocking Around The Christmas Tree.” Two years later it became a huge hit — and a Christmas standard. Here are two wonderful You Tube renditions of the song. First, watch this young You Tuber deliver a superb performance of the Christmas standard — and give it a Latina twist: Next, turn up your computer’s volume a bit and watch the...

Newspaper endorsements don’t have the impact they used to — and some never had the impact that journalists and editorial writers claimed — but the Des Moines Register remains a highly respected newspaper both in terms of its reporting, thoughtfulness, and editorial writing. It’s endorsement does carry some weight — and it has just endorsed Mitt Romney for the GOP caucus. What is most interesting: it does not give its endorsement to Romney while taking a lot of space...

It now seems as if there’s a good chance Newt Gingrich will be the latest in the group of anti-Romneys to flame out. It’s always instructive to follow Barack Obama’s daily tracking poll but the numbers Gallup now has for Gingrich compared to Mitt Romney and others suggest a campaign on the descent. He is now only four points ahead of Romney among GOPers. He’ll need that massive infusion of millions of dollars recently donated by a Las Vegas casino owner ASAP. And in Iowa? A...

The deal averting a government shutdown: Who achieved what? A guide HERE.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s national and Iowa polls are sliding but the question is whether he is still high enough up there so that the impact will not be significant: Newt Gingrich’s support in the race for the Republican nomination fallen quickly since national Gallup polls of Republican and GOP-leaning independent voters in early December. And as Republican contenders hit the final stretch before the Iowa caucuses, polls in the state show Gingrich with a much less commanding...

One of the things that is utterly stunning to those of us who were once Republicans is the nearly complete death of the concept that “compassionate conservativism” was a lofty ideal. Now you have public officials such as Wisconsin’s Gov. Scott Walker who seem to have no problem tossing the word compassionate out the window. One example here. I suspect this won’t help him win over voters in what is shaping as a near certainty that he will have to battle a recall effort.

Hazing fatality Robert Champion Now here’s yet another example of the triple anguish of hazing — a social rite of passage for some groups that has ended in death or permanent damage by those seeking to get into the group or forced to endure what in reality is a kind of exercise in group sadism: the death of a Florida drum major has been ruled a homicide: The drum major, Robert Champion, died of “hemorrhagic shock due to soft tissue hemorrhage, due to blunt force trauma,” the Orange...

Our political Quote of the Day comes from Democratic strategist Paul Begala, who steps back and looks at last night’s debate and concludes — as many have concluded — that Newt Gingrich is likely to emerge out of it undamaged, undiminished in the GOP race: As Gingrich roared back, Romney faded. Romney doesn’t need to win Iowa, so perhaps he’s writing it off. But then why is he spending time and money there? It has to be enormously frustrating for Mitt. He has been running almost...

As noted earlier, due to technical difficulties from my blogging site in Missouri, I can’t view the Fox News debate on TV or online and the connection is far too slow to do live blogging. However, Andrew Sullivan who is doing live blogging reports on what SOUNDS as if it is the kind of moment that is going to get Ron Paul a lot of votes and hurt Newt Gingrich: 9.39 pm. A very dumb attack on Paul on earmarks. He defends himself with a great argument about taking deductions in the tax code. Cavuto...

Here’s yet another in the string of recent polls that suggests that the more former House Newt Gingrich is seen under the microscope, the more conservatives who are looking for a pure conservative (and the more independent voters who are looking for a problem solver) don’t like what they seem. Romney is now leading. Andrew Sullivan: As I’ve said before, Rasmussen is the pollster I look to most for Republican base mood, because of their skewed sample. And their latest poll shows...

You can’t say Republicans — and Americans — have not been warned if former House Speaker Newt Gingrich gets the GOP Presidential nomination and is elected. Two former Bush Attorneys General have called his idea on how to deal with the Supreme Court “dangerous”: Two former attorneys general under President George W. Bush have found a few things to like in Newt Gingrich’s position paper on reining in the authority of the federal courts, but other parts, they say,...

NOTE TO READERS: I am at a motel in Missouri with exceedingly slow internet and the hotel does not get Fox News. Due to these to factors I cannot live blog the debate tonight. I may monitor the debate on line. This means I may take some excerpts from live blogging or news reports about the debate. But I myself will not be able to watch it online or on television. Post from here is snail-paced. Once the debate begins, I may do a post that will contain some key entries and news stories and links to...

The longtime conservative icon magazine National Review has now gone back to its William F. Buckley roots: in a scathing editorial it has come out against former House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s candidacy for the 2012 Republican nomination. This should temper some of Gingrich’s polling support. Here is a chunk of it. First, the magazine notes the opportunity at the GOP’s grasp in terms of the White House, Supreme Court, and Congress (factors that Democrats who continue to go on and...

A new Gallup Poll gives evidence to what many pundits have concluded: former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is running strong with traditional reliable Republican voters — but young Republicans (as is the case with the general electorat) favor former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney: Newt Gingrich’s current lead in Republican preferences for the GOP presidential nomination is largely due to particularly high support from the types of Republicans who might be expected to turn out heavily in...

ABC News’ The Note asks a good question: Is President Barack Obama trying to sabotage the GOP — former Massachusetts Mitt Romney in particular? They do make a good case for it: President Obama might want to look like the adult in the room, but his surrogates in the Democratic Party are playing the role of prankster as they try to derail the Republican nomination of Mitt Romney. The Democratic National Committee stalked and mocked the one-time front-runner in New York today, hiring a...

It sounds like the Democrats are ready to meet the Republicans halfway on extending the payroll tax cut – but the question now is whether the GOP will demand the Dems meet them 100 percent of their way as talk looms of a government shutdown: In what would be a major concession, President Obama and Senate Democrats will drop their insistence that a surtax on millionaires pay for extending the payroll tax cut, a Democratic source tells CNN. This would be part of a new Democratic offer. The move...

As Texax Gov. Rick Perry’s campaign has sunk, there has been a lot of collateral damage on several fronts..

Is it time to totally ban cellphones from cars? This issue has been raised on a federal level, the dangers of any kind of cell use are being documented and it sounds as if this is beginning of a new movement that could eventually prevail: The federal agency charged with overseeing transportation safety recommended Tuesday that US states should forbid the use of all cellphones and other portable electronic devices by drivers. The five-member, National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) agreed unanimously...

Is Syria’s election a sham? A cross section of thoughts HERE.

A new Pew Research Center poll points out the volatility of the 2012 Republican Presidential nomination race Newt Gingrich holds a substantial 35% to 21% lead over Mitt Romney among Republican and Republican-leaning independent voters who say they are very likely to vote in the GOP primaries or caucuses, according to the latest national survey conducted Dec. 7-11 by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press. But clear majorities say there is at least a chance they would vote for either...

First Read notes that there’s bad news for Democrats and President Barack Obama in swing states: *** It don’t mean a thing if you ain’t got that swing-state strength: Turning the general election, a new USA Today/Gallup poll of swing states “finds the number of voters who identify themselves as Democratic or Democratic-leaning in these key states has eroded, down by 4 percentage points, while the ranks of Republicans have climbed by 5 points. Republican voters also are more attentive...