The first northeastern socially moderate candidate bites the dust. Manchester Union-Leader:
He didn’t directly take himself out of presidential contention, but former New York Gov. George Pataki told key Granite State Republicans last night he won’t object if they want to closely examine and endorse other candidates.
At a private dinner in a secluded alcove at Fratello’s […]

Chris Cillizza documents what he thinks the case for Chuck Hagel to run for president.
Missing from Cillizza’s analysis is the fact that Hagel is one of the most conservative members of the Republican senate caucus, with a 96 rating from the American Conservative Union. Hagel’s ideology is the reason Republicans would support him, not a […]

The Hartford Courant’s David Lightman has a rundown of Senator Chris Dodd’s low polling numbers and the fact that while most Democratic voters haven’t yet paid attention to Dodd’s run for the presidency, some comedians have. Dodd is polling consistently below the margin of error, but suffers from tremendously low name recognition.
So is being mired […]

Cliff Schecter has another thought on Mitt Romney’s newfound honesty on abortion: it’s just part of the story.
He was once pro-choice. Good of him to lie about it at first. And atribute his former position to “a family member” who died of a botched abortion. Ok, fine.
So why were you telling gay rights groups you […]

Raw Story:
A set of talking points sent out yesterday by the staff of House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) encouraged House Republican press staff to use a quote from Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) — a onetime Democrat — as a means of attacking Democratic resolutions calling for US redeployment.
…
“House and Senate Democrat leaders have stated […]

So Google, tell us again how that liberalization of China is going to work?
Chinese Communist Party chief Hu Jintao has vowed to “purify” the Internet, state media reported on Wednesday, describing a top-level meeting that discussed ways to master the country’s sprawling, unruly online population.
Hu made the comments as the ruling party’s Politburo — its […]

Via Soren Dayton, we learn that Mitt Romney has finally admitted that he used to be pro-choice.
I noticed this in the coverage of Romney’s visit to South Carolina and then again in his Nightline appearance. He is more clearly coming out and saying that he had been pro-choice. This is clearly an attempt defuse the […]

Jim Gilmore, alleged presidential candidate, was sighted this weekend in New Hampshire wooing members of the NH GOP at their annual meeting.
Giuliani didn’t have the GOP activists to himself. Two candidates who recently announced forming Presidential exploratory committees — Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo and former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore — offered a free lunch to […]

The Fall 2006 / Winter 2007 issue of Banned in Tibet, the Students for a Free Tibet newsletter, is now available online! Click here to download your copy.
This is the third issue of Banned in Tibet that I’ve edited.

Jamyang Norbu has an incredibly powerful essay on Phayul titled, “Looking Back From Nangpa-La.” I recommend every supporter of Tibetan independence and human rights read this essay and share it with friends. Here’s a small excerpt:
It is important to place the context of the shooting in its correct perspective. Of course only two people were […]