Iowa Debate Fact Check

From Glenn Kessler:

Newt Gingrich: “I balanced the budget for four straight years, paid off $405 billion in debt — pretty conservative. The first entitlement reform of your lifetime — in fact, the only major entitlement reform to now is welfare.”

Fact:

…the budget was balanced in part because of a gusher of tax revenues from Clinton’s 1993 deficit reduction package, which raised taxes on the wealthy and which Gingrich vehemently opposed. The budget was also balanced because the Democratic White House and Republican Congress were in absolute legislative stalemate, so neither side could implement grand plans …

Anonymous Donors Paying Bills For Strangers At Kmart And Walmart

Yes, Virginia, there is a secret Santa.

At Kmart stores across the country, Santa is getting some help: Anonymous donors are paying off strangers’ layaway accounts, buying the Christmas gifts other families couldn’t afford, especially toys and children’s clothes set aside by impoverished parents.

Before she left the store Tuesday evening, [an] Indianapolis woman in her mid-40s had paid the layaway orders for as many as 50 people. On the way out, she handed out $50 bills and paid for two carts of toys for a woman in line at the cash register.

A few Walmart stores have witnessed …

John Edwards Asks Rielle Hunter To Live With Him

Love is beautiful, isn’t it?

The National Enquirer is reporting that John Edwards has asked Rielle Hunter and their campaign-destroying love child Quinn to come live with him in his gargantuan Chapel Hill compound. According to a source, Hunter is still “considering” the move. This comes six months after Edwards apparently “begged” Hunter to marry him just days before he was indicted on six federal campaign finance charges. The source says Hunter turned him down at the time because she thought it “was just another way for him to protect himself,” but is now reconsidering. Explains the source: “Rielle …

Rep. Allen West: Goebbels Would Be “Very Proud” Of Democratic Party

Nothing like pulling out the old Nazi card, as Rep. Allen West did to reporters Thursday.

“If Joseph Goebbels was around, he’d be very proud of the Democrat Party because they have an incredible propaganda machine,” West told reporters in the Capitol. “I think that you have, and let’s be honest, you know, some of the people in the media are complicit in this, in enabling them to get that type of message out.”

West immediately went into defensive “blame the media” mode:

“Once again, you guys will take whatever I say and you will spin it to try …

The Lesson We Need To Learn From The Iraq War

By Yashwanth Manjunath

The last US troops have finally left Iraq and the nightmare is finally over. The war didn’t end in a blaze of glory; there was no aircraft carrier and no “Mission Accomplished” banner, just a small ceremony. So why are we leaving now, and what lesson do we need to take away from one of the most shameful chapters in American history? Before I answer those questions I first want address the devastating costs associated with this war.

4,484 American military personnel have been killed in Iraq since 2003. Another 32,200 have been wounded. …

Christopher Hitchens Dead At 62

Christopher HItchens died Thursday of complications from cancer of the esophagus.

Hitchens had all too vivid a glimpse into his own mortality — cutting short a lecture tour by explaining that he had been diagnosed with throat cancer. He borrowed a line from a character in a novel written by his friend Martin Amis: “I lit another cigarette. Unless I specifically inform you to the contrary, I am always lighting another cigarette.”…

For years, Hitchens had toured the country debating religious figures about his utter disbelief in the existence of a God. He didn’t waver in the face of his …

The Last Republican Debate Of The Year

How did they do?

…

Tea Party Leader Arrested On Gun Charges At New York Airport

Mark Meckler, head of the Tea Party Patriots, was arrested at LaGuardia Airport for trying to board an airplane with a gun in his baggage.

Meckler was carrying an unloaded Glock pistol and numerous rounds of ammunition in a locked gun box, according to multiple reports.

Meckler’s attorney, Brian Stapleton, said Meckler had a concealed-carry permit for the gun issued by California, and that Meckler was in temporary transit through New York.

But the California permit wasn’t valid in New York…

Under New York law, Meckler could face up to 15 years in prison if found guilty of the charge.…

Jobless Claims At 3.5-Year Low

Last week, the number of Americans filing for unemployment fell to a three-and-a-half-year low.

“It looks like we have just hit a clear patch on the road to recovery, where things are going to speed up a little bit,” said Mark Vitner, a senior economist at Wells Fargo Securities in Charlotte, North Carolina…

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped 19,000 to 366,000, the lowest since May 2008, the Labor Department said. That follows on the heels of a report earlier this month that showed the jobless rate hit a 2-1/2-year low of 8.6 percent in November.…

International Criminal Court: Qaddafi Death Could Be War Crime

Luis Moreno Ocampo, chief prosecutor on the International Criminal Court, says there are “serious suspicions” that the death of Moammar Qaddafi was a criminal act.

“The death of Moammar Gadhafi is one of the issues to be clarified – what happened – because there are serious suspicions that it was a war crime,” Moreno Ocampo said.

He said what the ICC does on Gadhafi’s death and other war crimes will depend on what Libya’s interim government does because under the Rome statute that established the war crimes tribunal, the ICC only steps in if national authorities are unwilling or …

On Thursday’s Radio Show…

• Immediate analysis of tonight’s Fox News Republican Debate in Iowa.

• Alan asks former Gov. Gary Johnson (R-NM) if he plans to leave the GOP to run as a Libertarian for president.

• Human Rights Watch counterterrorism advisor Laura Pitter discusses President Obama’s decision not to veto a bill allowing Americans to be detained without trial.…