What's Driving those Russian Protests?

Tens of thousands of Russian citizens are protesting against Vladimir Putin, demanding both fair elections and his removal from office. On the surface, these sound like righteous protests. But are they? Some of the protesters are likening themselves to the OWS and former Russian president Mikhail Gorbachev is siding with the protesters on the issue of Putin stepping down.

Nonetheless, if this many people are protesting rigged elections, it can't be all bad.

According to The Independent, 100,000 protesters weathered the cold to join in the protests:

The rally on Moscow's Sakharov Avenue on Saturday was the fourth and by far the biggest of the mass demonstrations provoked by the parliamentary vote held on 4 December. The ruling United Russia party, led by the Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin, held on to a slim majority in parliament in those elections, but the results have been tainted by claims of wholesale fraud.

The demonstrators stood for hours in sub-zero weather on Saturday listening to a line-up of speakers as diverse as the crowd itself, including TV celebrities, writers, musicians, politicians, scientists and a jailed dissident whose video message was broadcast on a giant screen beside the stage.

"The people are waking up," said Sergei Udaltsov, the leader of the Left Front opposition group who was arrested on the day of the elections as he heading to a rally. "The people have stopped putting up with this humiliating regime."

First of all, I'd feel much more comfortable saying Russian government is far more corrupt than American government if it was ten years ago but it's still worse. Second, Mr. Udaltsov's claim that the people are "waking up," already puts them in front of OWS, whose members like to channel zombies. Third, Russian protesters are standing up against their government; OWS wants more of it.

In short, if these protesters in Russia are carrying the spirit of the Bolsheviks, they'd be better off just packing up and going home because they'll get far worse than what they have; that revolution gave them Lenin. Then again, OWS might just be closer to the early 20th Century Bolsheviks than are these early 21st Century Russian protesters. It's simply too hard to tell how the situation in Russia will shake out but if the participants were smart, they'd distance themselves from Gorbachev right now.

The movements don't seem to have all that much in common when you look at the granular detail but OWS may have helped to inspire protests in Russia, which would be a good thing if they're protesting Vladimir Putin's continued reign.

Perhaps the Russian establishment is partly to blame as its propaganda arm - Russia Today - has been promoting OWS, for reasons that likely involve the damage it's doing to the US.

It'd be poetic justice if that backfired on them.

h/t Drudge

Video: Krauthammer calls Eric Holder 'Cowardly' and 'Incompetent,' then says 'Merry Christmas'

Here is Charles Krauthammer at his best, slamming Attorney General for being 'incompetent' and 'cowardly' relative to how the latter has handled a myriad of fiascos. Holder's use of the race card seems to be particularly troubling to Krauthammer, as it should be.

In light of all the political hot water Holder is in, his decision to whip out the race card last week may just be indicative of how unaware he is about the temperature of that water.

Krauthammer nails Holder in under a minute:



h/t Weasel Zippers

Can you say Brokered Convention?

Yes, a brokered convention is a long shot but three years ago, a primary season like the one we're seeing now would have been considered a long shot as well. Consider the fact that the only two Republicans who qualified to be on the ballot in Virginia are Mitt Romney and Ron Paul. It was learned earlier this week that Santorum, Bachmann, and Huntsman all failed to get the 10,000 signatures necessary by the deadline. Then, yesterday it was learned that Gingrich and Perry failed as well.

As Hot Air points out, it's not even legal for candidates to launch write-in campaigns in the Virginia primaries. That means simply that Romney and Paul will be the only option for Republican voters in that state.

This news comes AFTER National Review's Brian Buldoc laid out the scenario necessary for a brokered convention. That scenario involves Romney, Gingrich, and Paul all getting so many delegates that none has enough to grab the nomination. If that happens, we'd be looking at a convention where someone like Palin, DeMint, or anyone for that matter, could jump in.

Via NRO:

Political junkies, take heart: A brokered convention is possible, if improbable. Using Rhodes Cook’s delegate count, I’ve made a spreadsheet that tabulates the results of different primary outcomes. If you use some imagination — but not too much — you can allocate the delegates in such a way that no candidate wins on the first ballot.

To secure the nomination, a candidate must get “a majority of the votes entitled to be cast in the convention,” according to GOP rules. Cook predicts there will be a total of 2,282 delegates*, so a candidate needs 1,142 votes to win. Here’s a not-impossible outcome: Mitt Romney wins 1,131 delegates, Newt Gingrich gets 954, and Ron Paul wins 181.

What's been the biggest beef of the Tea Party in this campaign? The answer is that none of the candidates in the field meet the standard.

One way for the Tea Party to find its way back into relevance might involve adopting a new strategy, one that starts with the premise that uses Ron Paul mania to its advantage. If the goal of the Tea Party becomes ensuring that NO Republican on the ballot gets the nomination, it is much closer to getting its preferred candidate nominated.

Take Virginia, for example. If Romney is way ahead by the time that primary rolls around on March 6th, Gingrich supporters might decide to pull the lever for Paul, who has already generated much more support than he did in 2008. He will stay in the race until the bitter end. If Gingrich an Paul can siphon enough votes away from Romney while not garnering enough for the nomination, we could be looking at an extremely historic nomination process.

Yes, it's a very long shot indeed, as Buldoc says but all that's necessary is for three candidates to split enough votes amongst themselves.

The odds of such a thing happening actually go up if an entity like the Tea Party actually works toward it.

Click HERE for the detailed scenario Buldoc lays out.

Oh yeah, and keep hope alive.