Real Clear Politics  has up some new PPP polling out that pits some from our side against two from their side: Carson v Sanders; Rubio v Clinton; Trump v Sanders; Trump v Clinton; Bush v Clinton.  Trump v Trump. ( I might have made up that last one. )

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Well, somebody is checking social media for terrorists.  The Department of Justice has charged a 19 year old Pennsylvania man with giving material support to ISIS, says CBS Philly.  You can check the link to find out specifically what’s in the complaint but it included him calling for violence against the US.  Thing is, he’s alledged to have done a lot of his work through “at least 57 different Twitter accounts”.

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Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry had some kind words for [mc_name name=’Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX)’ chamber=’senate’ mcid=’C001098′ ] while also giving up his thoughts on [mc_name name=’Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL)’ chamber=’senate’ mcid=’R000595′ ] and Donald Trump during an interview on Iowa’s WHO radio station, with Simon Conway.  Don’t want to take away from the Newsmax story but Perry did call Cruz “a leader with a real plan”.  Somewhere in the audio he also jumps on the media. So Perry fans can look forward to that today. I won’t call it an endorsement of Cruz, but certainly high praise.

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If your office seems a bit lonely today it’s probably more than the usual Friday sneak outs.  About this time of year you expect people to pull into their parking space and leave the car running while rushing inside only to walk back out again and get in more shopping or partake of office parties at other buildings. But now we’re officially in Star Wars mode, so you can expect people to take off for this as well.  Some fans have already gone the extra mile to see this.  LA Times interviewed a few fans last night and snagged a couple who flew in from Honduras just to catch the movie at their favorite spot.

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A Boston Herald/Franklin University poll has good news for Gov. Christie in New Hampshire .  Overall he’s at 4th in the state behind Trump, and the tied-duo of Cruz and Rubio. Politico breaks down the numbers and some other interesting info.

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Yesterday, Senator Marco Rubio voiced his displeasure of the $2 billion spending bill and, according to The Hill, said he would try to slow it down.  But leadership said he was too late .  Still though, he could have made his opposition to the bill known by voting against it.  Apparently, he didn’t do that either.   Word on the voting today is   [mc_name name=’Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY)’ chamber=’senate’ mcid=’P000603′ ] and Sen. Ted Cruz both voted against it and [mc_name name=’Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC)’ chamber=’senate’ mcid=’G000359′ ] voted for it.  But Rubio “…miss(ed) the vote, which is the Senate’s final vote of the year.”

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Update:  This one link tells you much . Basically, Gateway Pundit says the move to oust Ryan out of office is moving quickly and much of it is attributable to the budget passed Thursday. This isn’t just about getting rid of him as speaker, this is a move to sweep him out of congress.  The move to get rid of may have started as a sizzle but that budget really caused some flames.

Update 2:   I know you rushed home right in the middle of watching Star Wars to catch the Democratic Debate tonight.  Also it is the weekend before Christmas so all in all you weren’t too busy, eh? Don’t know if there will be an open thread devoted entirely to it but you should have a place to air your thoughts about the Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders show.  Will Sanders bring up the whole  “DNC has my voter info and won’t give it back” crop up?  How deep will the moderators dig?   We’ll find out.

*Emphases are mine

 Hey, its the Open Thread of the day!!  If you find something interesting while perusing the muck on the ‘net just drop it in the comments section so other readers can also be angry/disgusted/tickled.  Works well if you don’t know where to put a comment but don’t want to do a full diary. PS. Still need people to put up a water cooler periodically. Just drop this phrase in comments section, “I’ll be your Huckleberry”, and you might be contacted by a mod.