Resurgence on the Right Puts Gingrich Back in Style (NYTimes.com)

Newt Gingrich, image via Wikipedia

By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE
Published: March 12, 2010

WASHINGTON — Newt Gingrich still relishes stirring the pot of the culture wars.

There he was last month in Akron, Ohio, telling an audience of 300 people that President Obama was out of touch. Why? Because the president did not understand the gut-level appeal of the pickup truck at the center of Scott Brown’s winning campaign to wrest a Massachusetts Senate seat away from the Democrats.

“What if I have to haul a moose?” Mr. Gingrich said, to laughter. “You cannot put a gun rack in the back of a Smart car.”

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Spitzer madam Kristin Davis busts into New York governor’s race

Eliot Spitzer, image via Wikipedia

By Mike Colapietro
The Daily Caller
03/09/10

Not since porn star Cicciolina was elected to the Italian parliament has there been a sexier political candidate. The first thing you notice is her bust. Round, full, in the Dolly Parton/Jayne Mansfield sense, they are just too “perfect.” Then you notice her eyes: blue, piercing, determined.

Kristin Davis graduated from high school in central California at age 15. She earned a B.A. in business from St. Mary’s College while working in finance. The first hedge fund she worked for was bought by Fidelity, and she worked at hedge funds successfully for another 10 years. Then she became obsessed with the financial possibilities of sex.

Davis built the most successful escort service in world history. She had more than 100 girls and operated in five countries, with a call center in Uruguay. She could dispatch a $1,000-plus-an-hour call girl to a hotel or residence in Paris, Berlin, Gstaad, Rome, New York, L.A., Miami, Dubai, Montreal or elsewhere within minutes. She personally recruited her girls at bars, clubs, resorts and restaurants.

Davis handled a clientele who wanted and got discretion. Spitzer was a frequent patron and sent payments from a corporation New York records show he co-owned. She barred him for getting too rough with the girls and he tried to book girls under an alias.

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Dumb Like a Fox (Columbia Journalism Review)

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By Terry McDermott
March/April issue

Last December 10 was a big news day. U.S. Senate negotiators announced they had agreed to a compromise on health care reform, final preparations were being made for a global conference on climate change, President Obama accepted the Nobel Peace Prize, and new details emerged on five young American men who had been arrested in Pakistan on suspicion of plotting terror attacks. Not to mention that America was involved in two wars and was still in the throes of the worst recession in eighty years.

That night, the main news programs on the three cable news networks—CNN Tonight on CNN, Fox Report on Fox, and The Big Picture on MSNBC—all led with approximately five minutes of coverage of Obama, cutting between video of his acceptance speech and reports from on-the-ground reporters in Oslo. CNN and MSNBC also included on-air analysis of the speech by a variety of commentators. Fox had no such commentary on its news show, just a more-or-less straightforward report on the speech.
This might seem surprising, given the charges of bias leveled against Fox by members of the Obama administration. Charges, for example, like this from Anita Dunn, then the administration’s director of communications, speaking last October on Howard Kurtz’s CNN program, Reliable Sources:

The reality of it is that Fox News often operates almost as either the research arm or the communications arm of the Republican Party. And it is not ideological. . . . What I think is fair to say about Fox, and the way we view it, is that it is more of a wing of the Republican Party. . . . They’re widely viewed as a part of the Republican Party: take their talking points and put them on the air, take their opposition research and put it on the air. And that’s fine. But let’s not pretend they’re a news organization like CNN is.

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Florida Lawmaker Attempts To Deny Tax Credit To Movies Filmed With Gay Characters (ThinkProgress.org)

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By Igor Volsky

 Lawmakers in Florida are hoping to pass a $75 million incentive package to attract movie studios to film in Florida, but a little noticed provision could deny tax credits to movies that feature gay or other “nontraditional family values.” Florida’s Entertainment Industry Economic Development Act would revise the current incentive program — which already offers a tax credit worth 2% of a movie’s production costs if it is “family friendly” — to specifically exclude movies that depict “nontraditional family values” from receiving the additional credit. Here is the relevant provision:

A certified production determined by the Commissioner of Film and Entertainment, with the advice of the Florida Film and Entertainment Advisory Council, to be family-friendly…Family-friendly productions are those that have cross-generational appeal; would be considered suitable for viewing by children age 5 or older…and do not exhibit or imply any act of smoking, sex, nudity, nontraditional family values, gratuitous violence, or vulgar or profane language. Under the current incentive program, review of the final release version is not required and nontraditional family values, gratuitous violence, and implied acts do not exclude a film from receiving this additional credit.

State representative Stephen Precourt, whose district includes Disney World, says the purpose of the credit is to encourage movies to depict cinematic life from the 1960s. “Think of it as like Mayberry,” Precourt told the Palm Beach Post News. “That’s when I grew up — the ’60s. That’s what life was like. I want Florida to be known for making those kinds of movies: Disney movies for kids and all that stuff. Like it used to be, you know?”

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What scandals? Gov. Paterson says he'll keep governing until the end of year (NYDailyNews.com)

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

By Michael J. Feeney and David Saltonstall
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS

March 7th 2010, 3:14 PM

A defiant Gov. Paterson praised the Lord - and himself - Sunday, vowing at a Brooklyn church that he will serve out his term as governor.

"My determination is to run this state," Paterson told congregants at Cornerstone Baptist Church in Bedford-Stuyvesant in his most forceful comments since the scandals erupted.

"I will keep governing till the end of the year," he promised. "I will not be daunted or distracted by any voices."

For the embattled Paterson, who has faced increasing calls that he resign over his role in a bevy of mushrooming scandals, it was a fire-and-brimstone performance on a day that saw his few remaining friends trying to circle the wagons.

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Michigan Representative Bart Stupakhe by cartoonist Pete Von Sholly

Photo illustration by Pete Von Sholly

For more fun with Pete Von Sholly, visit his website!