Should Newt Gingrich turn in a strong showing in the South Carolina primary Saturday and his rivals for the conservative vote drop out of the GOP presidential race, the former House speaker feels confident he can draw a sharp contrast with front-runner Mitt Romney and win their party’s nomination for President this year.

“I have a game plan to win after South Carolina,” said Gingrich, who spoke to HUMAN EVENTS Wednesday morning between campaign stops in the Palmetto State. While freely admitting he is “totally focused on winning South Carolina,” Gingrich echoed the view of Florida campaign chairman Bill McCollum that he can defeat Romney in that state’s primary January 31st.

“And then, we will be competing in the Republican caucuses [to choose national convention delegates] in Colorado and Minnesota February 7 and then the caucuses in Washington State [March 3] and then we’re into ‘Super Tuesday,’ he told us, referring to the voting March 6 in which caucuses and primaries in a dozen states will choose their delegates.

“The one significant mistake we made in the campaign so far was failing to get on the ballot in Virginia [March 6],” Gingrich conceded, but he quickly added that “we learned from that mistake and we just have to work harder in the other Super Tuesday states to make up for this. (He did not mention that he also failed to qualify for the primary ballot in Missouri February 7, but Gingrich backers pointed out to us that the Show Me State primary is a non-binding “beauty contest” and that actual delegates are chosen at a state convention later in the year in which they insist their man will be competitive).

Gingrich’s “game plan” depends on conservative opponents such as Rick Perry and Rick Santorum leaving the race soon and letting him face Romney, whom he dismissed as a “confused Massachusetts moderate.” Referring to a recent appearance by Karl Rove on Fox Television, Gingrich recalled how the former Bush White House counselor concluded that Romney could not win if there was a “consensus conservative vote coming to South Carolina.” Gingrich himself believes “if there was a unified conservative vote in South Carolina, I would defeat Romney by at least 60-40.”

Read More at Human Events By John Gizzi, Human Events

This is what happens when you make the Internet mad.

On Wednesday, a group of technology companies began an unusual form of protest: The firms shut down or replaced the content on their own popular Web sites with protest messages to show their unhappiness with two Internet-regulation bills grinding through Congress. They argue that the bills would impose huge regulatory costs and stifle innovation on the Web.

Around the country, Americans woke up without some of the oddball essentials of online life. No Wikipedia. No Reddit, a compendium of links to stories and funny pictures that draws millions a day. And no I Can Has Cheezburger?, the world’s best-known collection of funny cat pictures.

In Washington, however, Wednesday has another significance.

It culminates a surprising lobbying effort in which technology companies such as Twitter, Wikipedia and Google have used their massive reach into Americans’ daily lives as a political weapon, to whip up support from online users.

Read More at The Washington Post By David A. Farenthold, The Washington Post

Joseph Booker, a former Mississippi abortionist, is facing judgment in the aftermath of a botched abortion that left a woman in a coma. But an attorney tells OneNewsNow he hasn’t shown up for either scheduled court hearing.

Dashica Thomas had an abortion in 2003 and filed suit nearly two years later. Attorney John Reeves details his client’s allegations against Booker and the then-Jackson Women’s Health Organization.

“[He] performed part of [the abortion] and left part of the fetus inside of her, that she developed severe toxic shock and almost died,” Reeves explains. “She was in ICU for some many days at a hospital after they had to finish the procedure.”

As for why Booker started the abortion and abruptly stopped midway, the Hinds County attorney says testimony presented in the last hearing provides the answer.

“His own assistant, who had worked there for him for some time, got out of it and had turned her heart away from that and felt as though she should come forward with the truth,” Reeves accounts. “She testified that he couldn’t see what he was doing, that she basically was having to follow him around in the clinic to tell him what’s going on and tell him what the instruments were showing, and we found that to be alarming as well.”

Follow Joe Miller at Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Read More at OneNewsNow By Charlie Butts, OneNewsNow