The Hollywood Liberal

Alleged Tea Party HD Scammer Countersues Former Business Partners
A conservative businessman, accused of scamming investors in a Tea Party television venture, is countersuing his former business partners, claiming that they conspired against him and that he “has suffered shame and humiliation” as a result of their suit.

To Frack Or Not To Frack: New York Enters The Next Round Of The Drilling Debate
One side points to videos of people setting their tap water on fire. The other looks to an economic boom in Pennsylvania. But New Yorkers in general are mostly split on whether to lift a moratorium on hydrofracking in the…

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Bad Memories of Christmas Past

Giffords to Attend Tucson Shooting Commemoration
Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) and other survivors of the January 8 shooting in Tucson, Arizona will gather “to commemorate the one-year mark of that tragic day and remember those who died,” according to the AP.

“The events planned include a community-wide ringing of bells at churches and by people throughout the city at 10:11 a.m., the exact time the shooting broke out, an interfaith service at St. Augustine Cathedral where people of all religions are invited to pray and reflect, and a series of talks reflecting the lives of Giffords and the six people killed in the shooting.”

Romney Edges Ahead in Iowa
A new NBC News-Marist poll in Iowa shows Mitt Romney edging Ron Paul, 23% to 21%.

They are followed by Rick Santorum at 15%, Rick Perry at 14%, Newt Gingrich at 13% and Michele Bachmann at 6%.

Said pollster Lee Miringoff: “This is the Romney dream scenario. When you look at the Tea Party and conservatives, they are all splintered.”

Two Political Rumors Worth Following
Here are two rumors worth noting, one Israeli, one Palestinian, each with potentially big political significance. 1. The first has to to do with Netanyahu’s decision to call a snap Likud primary for late January. The superficial explanation is that…

Palestine’s Economic Hallucination
It’s the end of the year and time to turn the page after a bit of reflecting. What better way to reflect than to contrast image and reality, and even more so when the topic is Palestine’s economy? For starters,…

Gingrich Raked In Oil Money After Flip-Flopping On Cap And Trade
2012 GOP presidential contender Newt Gingrich executed a high-profile flip-flop on cap and trade, saying in 2007 that “mandatory carbon caps combined with a trading system” were something he “would strongly support,” before disavowing that position this year. “I never favored cap and trade,” he claimed during a Fox News interview earlier this month. It […]

2012 GOP presidential contender Newt Gingrich executed a high-profile flip-flop on cap and trade, saying in 2007 that “mandatory carbon caps combined with a trading system” were something he “would strongly support,” before disavowing that position this year. “I never favored cap and trade,” he claimed during a Fox News interview earlier this month.

It turns out that this move was more than politically convenient for Gingrich. As the Washington Post noted today, Gingrich’s climate flip-flop was also quite lucrative, with millions of oil dollars pouring into his now defunct energy non-profit after he announced it:

Within weeks, the money began pouring in from major U.S. energy firms, which eventually contributed more than $2 million to American Solutions’ pro-drilling and anti-cap-and-trade campaign for the next two years, according to a review of disclosure reports and other records by The Washington Post.

The top contributors included Peabody Energy of St. Louis, which gave $825,000, and Devon Energy of Oklahoma City, which contributed $500,000.

Gingrich also has a complicated relationship with oil subsidies, deriding Congress for not cutting them, but also mocking progressives for wanting to cut them.

Gingrich, of course, has been quote cozy with corporate interests in the last few years, making and taking millions from various corporations for work in a variety of areas. And those corporations have seen their investment pay off, as Gingrich has peddled his influence to secure earmarks and push for deregulation. His cap and trade flip-flop is simply part of a larger pattern of Gingrich saying what he needs to say to keep corporate dollars flowing.

Rick Santorum’s path to victory

Rick Santorum is surging in Iowa, gaining notoriety and drawing the attacks of his opponents.

But can he win?

We here at The Fix remain skeptical. But if there is a path to victory, here’s what it looks like:

The CNN/Opinion Research poll released this week showed Santorum moving into third place in Iowa at 16 percent. But it also included some very interesting numbers when it comes to Christian voters. To wit: frontrunners Mitt Romney and Ron Paul combined for 60 percent of the vote among those who do not describe themselves as “born-again” Christians, but just 34 percent of those who do describe themselves as born-again.

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Michele Bachmann’s campaign flameout

DES MOINES — The rise and fall of Rep. Michele Bachmann (Minn.) may well stand as an allegory of the most turbulent GOP presidential primary in memory, one whose latest turn has been bitter and bizarre.

With just days to go before the Iowa caucuses, where a poor finish would almost certainly mean the end of Bachmann’s presidential hopes, the candidate who only months ago led the field here is being all but counted out.

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Romney prepares aggressive Iowa finish

AMES, Iowa — Mitt Romney unveiled plans Thursday for an aggressive finishing sprint in Iowa designed to lock down a victory in Tuesday’s caucuses that would leave his rivals scrambling to catch up.

Romney is far from a clear favorite in Iowa: Rep. Ron Paul (Tex.) continues to show strength in the polls and is banking on a well-regarded organization, and former senator Rick Santorum (Pa.) is on the rise. But no campaign can match Romney’s for the breadth and depth of its infrastructure, and for the first time the weapons he can deploy are all on display.

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Covering the Iowa Caucuses with Instagram | #2012Unfiltered

Our campaign team has landed in Iowa with iPhones in hand to capture the scenes leading up to the caucuses for #2012Unfiltered.

From Iowa hotels and chocolate factories to dramatic last-minute defections, we’re chronicling as many behind-the-scenes caucus moments as we can for our Iowa gallery.

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The New Wave of US Voter Suppression
Amy Goodman, The Guardian
All eyes are on Iowa this week, as the hodgepodge field of Republican contenders gallivants across that farm state seeking a win, or at least “momentum,” in the campaign for the party's presidential nomination. But behind the scenes, a battle is being waged by Republicans – not against each other, but against American voters. Across the country, state legislatures and governors are pushing laws that seek to restrict access to the voting booth, laws that will disproportionately harm people of color, low-income people, and young and elderly voters. 

Voters Want Growth, Not Redistribution
Michael Barone, DC Examiner
“A 2008 election widely regarded as heralding a shift toward the more government-friendly public sentiment of the New Deal and Great Society eras seems to have yielded just the reverse.”So writes William Galston, Brookings Institution scholar and deputy domestic adviser in the Clinton White House, in the New Republic. Galston, one of the smartest political and policy analysts around, has strong evidence for this conclusion.He cites a recent Gallup poll showing that while 82 percent of Americans think it's extremely or very important to “grow and expand the economy”…

What Moves Republican Crowds in Iowa
Michael Shear, New York Times
DES MOINES — The Republican candidates for president are doing a lot of talking in the last week before voting begins.But spending a day observing how the crowds react to the candidates can be just as instructive.On Tuesday, Rick Perry held four events, starting in Council Bluffs and ending up in Osceola, about an hour south of Des Moines. Mr. Perry talked about being an outsider, taking the fight to President Obama and making the Congress a part-time legislature.

Foreign Policy Could Be Sleeper Issue of 2012
Philip Klein, DC Examiner
Foreign policy issues dominated the 2008 presidential primary season, but by the time the general election rolled around, the focus had shifted to the economy. Could the reverse be true in 2012?During the last presidential cycle, the Iraq War played a major role in the nominations of Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain. On the Democratic side, the fact that the inexperienced Obama had opposed the invasion from the beginning gave him the edge over the heavily favored Hillary Clinton, who as a senator had voted to give President Bush the authority to go to war.

Brown: U.S. Cheap Labor to Germans
Kevin C. Brown: In 2010, over 5.5 million cars were produced in Germany, twice the 2.7 million built in the United States. Average compensation (a figure including wages and employer-paid benefits) for autoworkers in Germany was 48.97 Euros per hour ($67.14 US), while compensation for auto work in the United States averaged $33.77 per hour, or about half as much as in Germany, all according to 2007 data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. For Germany-based auto producers, the U.S. is a low-wage country. Despite German companies’ relatively high labor costs in their home markets, these firms are quite profitable.