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There's been quite a bit of drama surrounding the Marco Rubio - Ted Cruz exchange on immigration during the CNN debate and the Rubio-Schumer Gang of Eight immigration bill. Bret Baier's interview with Cruz following the CNN debate skirmish allowed Cruz to explain his rationale for proposing an amendment (one of several) that, had it been approved—and Cruz knew it would not be, would have legalized millions of illegals. When Cruz explains his "poison pill" amendment, it becomes clear that he was being not only smart but also quite savvy (and ultimately, and all that matters to me, successful in quashing the Rubio-Schumer amnesty bill). The amendment that Rubio is touting is an amendment that included the stipulation that no illegal immigrant would ever get citizenship.  Under any circumstances.  Cruz obviously knew that Rubio and the other Gang of Eight members would never agree to such a proposition when a path to citizenship was a key driver in their bill.

Back in July, Obama angered Kenyan leaders by ignoring their advice against pushing a "gay agenda."  President Kenyatta told Obama that gay rights was a "non-issue." The Miami Herald reported:
President Barack Obama nudged African nations Saturday to treat gays and lesbians equally under the law, a position that remains unpopular through much of the continent. Obama’s Kenyan counterpart responded by calling the matter a “non-issue” for his country. Obama tackled the sensitive matter on his first full day in Kenya, the country of his father’s birth. He drew on his own background as an African-American, noting the slavery and segregation of the U.S. past and saying he is “painfully aware of the history when people are treated differently under the law.”

One of my happiest birthday memories was seeing the original "Star Wars" in 1977, when I turned 15. I fell in love with science fiction that day. So when my son, who is a big fan of both the Star Wars and Star Trek franchises, turned 14 this month, my birthday gift to him was tickets for the earliest showing I could obtain for Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The movie was the perfect present, as the stories behind the film and its making involve the struggles of one generation attempting to pass the torch of its values and ideals to the next. And while I didn't experience the same "high" after seeing The Force Awakens as I did with A New Hope, in many ways it was nearly as satisfying. First, a small clip for those few of you who haven't been exposed to the recent spate of "Star Wars" advertising:

Hillary Clinton flat-out lied during the Democratic Debate on Saturday night. Throughout the debate, even when not the subject of a question, the candidates tried to out-do each other in condemning Donald Trump. It was a preview of a general election strategy. At one dramatic point, Hillary claimed that Trump's comments about a temporary halt to Muslim immigration were being used in ISIS videos as a recruiting tool. It was not a claim made in isolation. It came as Clinton tried to explain her ISIS and refugee strategies in the face of an American public which strongly (though not majority) supports Trump's position. This was Hillary's opportunity to convince the public that people need not give in to fear. Rather than making the case, Hillary just made stuff up:

Iran and its allies have taken a beating in Syria according to recent reports. Perhaps the most spectacular was the airstrike overnight that killed the notorious child killer, Samir Kuntar and eight other terrorists in a Damascus suburb. Prof. Jacobson rightly called Kuntar "among the most notorious and vicious terrorists," for shooting Danny Haran to death in front of his four year old daughter, Einat, and then killed her by smashing her head against a rock with his rifle butt. Needless to say Kuntar was treated as a hero by Hezbollah, who traded the bodies of IDF soldiers, Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser, to free Kuntar in 2008. He also received the Syrian Order of Merit from Syria's dictator Bashar al-Assad shortly after his release. But Kuntar's killing is just a symptom of the recently reported problems plaguing Iran and its allies who are backing Assad.

Chuck Hagel was Obama's third Defense Secretary--the other two: Robert Gates and Leon Panetta--to leave his position under difficult circumstances. As late as November 19, 2014, Hagel told Charlie Rose that he didn't wake up in the morning worried about his job, and in less than a week, on the 24th of November, news broke that Hagel had "stepped down."  Despite the rumors addressed by Rose, people were surprised by the news, and Joe Biden is reported to have been "ticked off" by the move. At the time, The New York Times reported that Hagel had stepped down "under pressure" from the White House.
Aides said Mr. Obama made the decision to remove his defense secretary on Friday after weeks of rising tension over a variety of issues, including what administration officials said were Mr. Hagel’s delays in transferring detainees from the military prison in Guantánamo Bay and a dispute with Susan E. Rice, the national security adviser, over Syria policy.

Why indeed? After all, 9/11 was far, far worse in terms of loss of life. The attacks themselves during 9/11 were far more high-tech and fiendishly clever, as well. There have been many, many terrorist attacks since, and they have all caused outrage and consternation. But something about the Friday the 13th attacks in Paris and the recent one in San Bernardino seems to have affected people more deeply than any other attacks except 9/11. 9/11 was so spectacular, so creative in a near-diabolical way, that it seemed almost otherworldly or like science fiction. The targets were major national symbols. Paris and San Bernardino were relatively pedestrian, as evil inspiration goes. They were fairly low-tech, and involved the sort of places we go to every day: random cafes and restaurants, a stadium, a concert hall, a business meeting and holiday party. Places to relax and enjoy, the sort of places nearly all urban people go to on a regular basis, or at least on occasion. That's why it took very little imagination to put ourselves in the place of the unlucky (and mostly young) people who lost their lives there.

An Air France flight was diverted to an emergency landing after a bomb-like device was found in a bathroom. It was a fake, made of cardboard with a crude timer on it, as would have been obvious to anyone handling it. But the pilots took no chances. CBS News reports:
Kenyan authorities are questioning several suspects who were on an Air France flight from Mauritius to Paris that was forced to land early Sunday in the Kenyan coastal city of Mombasa after a device suspected to be a bomb was found in a lavatory. The CEO of Air France said hours after the plane had been grounded that the device discovered in the bathroom was a fake bomb. The Boeing 777 was heading to Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris from Mauritius when its pilots requested an emergency landing at early Sunday in the Kenyan city of Mombasa. Frederic Gagey, the head of the airline, said the device was made of cardboard, paper and a household timer, and had been found in a little cupboard that is behind a mirror.
Here are images being widely reported as the fake bomb [See also Featured Image]:

Despite acting a bit more aggressive in the last Republican debate, Jeb Bush has been unable to move his poll numbers up and break away from the pack. Dana Blanton reports at FOX News:
Fox News Poll: Trump jumps, Cruz climbs, Carson sinks in GOP race Donald Trump, a candidate even Republicans once considered a side show, increases his lead yet again in the nomination race, according to the latest Fox News national poll. The poll also finds Ted Cruz ticking up, Marco Rubio slipping, and Ben Carson dropping. Trump hits a high of 39 percent among Republican primary voters, up from 28 percent a month ago. The increase comes mainly from men, white evangelical Christians, and voters without a college degree -- and at the expense of Carson...

It's that time of the week again. Let's look back at the last seven days in blogging. Of course, there was plenty of political news. The media became the story a couple of times.

It was my pleasure to interview Legal Insurrection's cartoonist extraordinaire, Antonio F. Branco, for Canto Talk this week. Antonio shares his journey from proprietor of a graphics art business to Tea Party participant to one of America's leading cartoon panel pundit: "I was a late-comer...I went to a few rallies," said Antonio, describing his entry into political activism. "I just fumed and vented, then I started to draw cartoons." We featured work from Antonio's new book, comically incorrect. Antonio gives us a behind-the-scene view of some of his favorite panels, including one featuring two lobsters and a mention of Glenn Beck.

Samir Kuntar was among the most notorious and vicious terrorists. A Druze, he was part of a group that landed in Israel in 1979, took a family hostage, and smashed a 4-year old child's head against a rock with his rifle butt:
On April 22, 1979, Quntar, commanding a small unit of four armed men, piloted a small dinghy from Lebanon to the northern Israeli town of Nahariya. Undetected by the Israeli Navy, the terrorists struck at midnight and wasted little time: spotting a police car, they opened fire and killed one officer, Eliyahu Shahar. Then, they proceeded into the town, forcing their way into the nearby home of the Haran family. Danny Haran, 31, and his daughter Einat, 4, were taken hostage. Smadar, Danny’s wife, managed to grab her infant daughter Yael, 2, and hide in the apartment’s narrow attic. Terrified, and anxious to keep the child from crying, Smadar accidentally choked her baby to death. Quntar and his men, meanwhile, took Danny and Einat to the beach, where they were met by Israeli soldiers and police officers. A short firefight ensued, but Quntar had other targets in mind. He shot Danny in the back at close range, murdering him in front of his small daughter. Then, he took Einat and smashed her skull against a rock with the butt of his rifle.

Three Democratic presidential candidates are about to try their luck at the third Democratic debate of the 2016 election season at St. Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire, making this the midway debate stop for Democratic candidates. Only six Democratic presidential primary debates are currently scheduled for the 2016 season. Sponsored by ABC News, the New Hampshire Union Leader has joined the network as a co-sponsor for tonight's debate. Compared to Republican presidential debates, the Democratic field is tiny. Only three candidates will debate one another tonight: Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, and Martin O'Malley. But the spotlight is largely on two: former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. CBS News reported:
ABC News has said questions will focus on national security issues and foreign policy, following the deadly terror attacks in Paris and San Bernardino. Heading into the debate, Hillary Clinton is leading the pack by wide margins, with Sanders trailing the former secretary of state by 31 points in a new ABC News/Washington Post poll.
With data breaches, law suits, and allegations of DNC favoritism towards Mrs. Clinton, this should be quite the show. Livestream available here:

Marco Rubio missed Friday's vote on the Omnibus bill. It was a bill he stated he opposed and might even try to delay. But he didn't show up for the vote. 98 other Senators did. Including Ted Cruz, who returned from the campaign trail to be able to just say No. Omnibus Bill 12-18-2015 Senate vote In the run up to the vote, Rubio excoriated the process used to draft the bill as well as provisions funding Syrian refugees. He suggested an effort to slow things down:

Having just won reelection to his Senate seat for a sixth term in 2014, Mitch McConnell is back to making comments such as the one he made last year about his plans for "crushing" the TEA Party. This time, McConnell is announcing that he will ensure that no GOP candidate who "can't win" will be allowed to run for the U. S. Senate. The Hill reports:

“The way you have a good election year is to nominate people who can win,” he told reporters during his final Capitol Hill press conference of 2015.

He urged Republican primary voters to avoid the mistakes of the past, mentioning several Tea Party candidates who went down in flames in recent Senate elections.

“What we did in 2014 was we didn’t have more Christine O’Donnell’s, Sharron Angles, Richard Mourdocks or Todd Akins. The people that were nominated [last year] were electable,” he said of the last midterm cycle.

“That will happen again in 2016. We will not nominate anybody for the United States Senate on the Republican side who’s not appealing to a general-election audience,” he added.