The Hollywood Liberal

Gingrich: Send U.S. Marshals to arrest uncooperative judges

Former House speaker Newt Gingrich showed no sign Sunday of letting up on his assault on “activist” federal judges. During an appearance on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Gingrich suggested the president could send federal law enforcement authorities to arrest judges who make controversial rulings in order to compel them to justify their decisions before congressional hearings.

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Mitt Romney shows a softer side

A softer side of Mitt Romney was on display Sunday on Fox News as he talked about his wife’s 1998 diagnosis with multiple sclerosis.

“We stood up and hugged each other and I said to her, ‘As long as it’s not something fatal, I’m just fine,’” Romney told anchor Chris Wallace as his eyes welled up with tears. “Look, I’m happy in life as long as I’ve got my soulmate with me, and Ann is.”

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Newt Gingrich’s assault on ‘activist judges’ draws criticism, even from right

Never one to be accused of timidity, Republican presidential contender Newt Gingrich is turning up the volume of his ongoing assault on “activist judges” so high that even conservatives say he is going too far.

In a half-hour phone call with reporters Saturday, Gingrich said that, as president, he would abolish whole courts to be rid of judges whose decisions he feels are out of step with the country.

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US official: Iran will find it hard to exploit captured drone because of US measures

WASHINGTON — A U.S. official says Iran will find it hard to exploit any data and technology aboard the captured CIA stealth drone because of measures taken to limit the intelligence value of drones operating over hostile territory.

The official also said Saturday that despite Iran’s latest claims to have hijacked the RQ-170 Sentinel and brought it down near the eastern Iranian city of Kashmar, the U.S. is convinced that the drone malfunctioned.

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Will China Break?
Paul Krugman, New York Times
Consider the following picture: Recent growth has relied on a huge construction boom fueled by surging real estate prices, and exhibiting all the classic signs of a bubble. There was rapid growth in credit "” with much of that growth taking place not through traditional banking but rather through unregulated "shadow banking" neither subject to government supervision nor backed by government guarantees. Now the bubble is bursting "” and there are real reasons to fear financial and economic crisis.

America Goes Back to the Factory
Walter Russell Mead, American Interest
Is American manufacturing making a come-back? According to Joel Kotkin, that’s what the numbers indicate. Thanks largely to the rising cost of wages in China and the discovery of cheap natural gas everywhere from Texas to New York “the U.S. industrial base has been on a powerful upswing, with employment climbing steadily since 2009…In 2011 American manufacturing continued to expand, while Germany, Japan and Brazil all weakened in this vital sector.”This growth isn’t limited to areas which have been traditionally known for manufacturing. The…

Inside the Collapse of MF Global
Matt Koppenheffer, The Motley Fool
“You can't just look at what is good in the moment, what feels good, what works for today may not be the answer that actually helps … two years down the road or five years down the road. You have to make decisions with a longer-term perspective.”– Jon CorzinePrior to stepping into the role as MF Global (OTC: MFGLQ) CEO, Jon Corzine had a penchant for saying all of the right things when it came to how a financial company should be run.

Gingrich’s Iowa Fate
Jennifer Jacobs, Des Moines Register
The novelty of a Newt Gingrich presidency has leveled off as the front-runner’s rivals expose his warts.Will the negativity drag him into the quicksand, or has he become the inevitable winner of the Iowa caucuses, now just 16 days away?“Will (the attacks) hurt him? Of course. They always do,” Mike Huckabee, winner of the contest four years ago, told The Des Moines Register in an interview last week. “But whether it’s enough to knock him out of front-runner status, we’ll find out Jan. 3.”