Rush limbaugh in hospital, left shows its class

You know how we on the right are always accused of "hate-speech" and being intolerant to other views while the left says they are open-minded and tolerant? Yeah... these are comments directly from DailyKos.com Rush Limbaugh's thread. Note I haven't edited a damn thing, don't believe me? Look at the fucking link yourself...

weird that Republicans have been seething at Obama's vacation spot, even though he was born there, when Limbaugh was also there. Karma is something. What a way to point out their hypocrisy because we all know the media would not have touched on that point if he hadn't taken ill.

do they make a coffin big enough ?
too soon ???..........
Couldn't have happened to a nicer person!
good luck with that you fat bastard!

no tears will be shed here.


We see this repeatedly on DK when right-wingers pass away (evil Tony Snow, anyone, who helped lie us into a godforsaken and illegal war?).

So if Adolf Hitler were to die today would we see a bunch of RIP diaries and "our heart should go out to his friends and family"?

There are in fact evil, despicable people out there. When and only when we've mourned the passing (or consoled with the misfortunes) of, e.g. all the innocent Iraqi victims of this war -- after I see those 500,000 diaries or so, then we can start thinking about horrid evil dishonest hypocrite greedy pond scum like Rush.

I have occasion to work in hospitals and I assure you there are far more worthy people to worry about than Limbaugh, whose ill-gotten gains no doubt get him the finest and most expensive health care.

I'm just happy that millions will suffer less because his racist, hateful voice won't be inspiring white supremacists to hate on minorities while he recovers.

and thats just scratching the surface

Storm update #3 (28 hours of consecutive snowfall, and still counting...)

This is insane, were still forecasted to have about another full day of snow and we are right at, or slightly above the one foot mark. I'm trying to get the pics upoaded but its not working, stupid laptop, so they will be up sometime later today. Merry Christmas everyone!

Storm update #2 (19 hours of straight snow and counting...)

Well, my parents are back from 4pm mass over at OLG and I went out to check on the storm and even though the NWS (National Weather Service) in Chanhassen says Edina has 6'of snow we have about 9 in our neighborhood. I even have some cool pics (one with a ruler in the snow) to show you in my next update, which will probably happen sometime tonight before I go to bed. We still have another day (or possibly 2) of snow to go and were already approaching 10 inches here. Merry Christmas indeed.

Storm update #1 (3+ hours of consecutive snow, and counting...)

Well this is going to be a "weather blog" for the next few days, as it stands right now the snow started falling around 9pm CST and shows no signs of letting up, for the next day. People are saying this storm could bring 18-20 inches of snow, as of now there are exactly 2 inches in my driveway in Edina. This is freaking heavy, wet snow. It doesn't look like I'm leaving the house for the next 48 hours... oh joy.

The Offspring - You're Gonna Go Far, Kid

I don't know why but ever since I first heard this song on the radio I have always pictured it being about Obama, first as a candidate now as President (the song was released in early 2008). Just listen to the lyrics and see if you don't think it's about Obama, I swear it is to an extent.

More bad news for Democrats...

One of the reasons 1994 was such a good year for Republicans was because of so many long-time safe seat (but still swing district) Democrats retiring. Now the fourth Democrat in 4 weeks has announced his retirement. Look for this to become an upcoming trend. from RealClearPolitics.com...



Now the fourth Democrat to announce his retirement in four weeks, Rep. Bart Gordon (D-Tenn.) said this morning in a released statement that he will not run for re-election next year.

Gordon, a moderate Democrat from a Republican-leaning district, follows three other Democratic congressmen in similar political situations -- Brian Baird (WA-3), John Tanner (TN-8), and Dennis Moore (KS-3). President Obama won Moore and Baird's districts in 2008, but both were also won by President Bush in 2004.

"Turning 60 has led me to re-evaluate what's next," Gordon said in a statement. "I have an 8-year-old daughter and a wonderful wife who has a very demanding job. I am the only child of my 83-year-old mother, Margaret. They have made sacrifices to allow me to do what I love by serving in Congress, and now it's my turn."

Originally elected in 1984, Gordon has regularly been re-elected with more than 60 percent of the vote -- including every election this decade. He is chairman of the Science and Technology Committee. According to National Journal, his voting record places him near the middle of the House.

Tennessee's Sixth District is V-shaped and located in the middle of the state. John McCain won the district with 62 percent in 2008, and Bush won 60 percent four years earlier.

"When I was elected, I was the youngest member of the Tennessee congressional delegation; now, I'm one of the oldest," said Gordon. "In fact, I have members of my staff who weren't even born when I took office. That tells me it's time for a new chapter."

The run of retirements of Democrats in swing districts is a clear sign to Republicans that 2010 is going to be a good year -- one in which the party, down and out in the last two congressional elections, will at least cut into the Democrats' strong hold on Congress.

"It’s official: Democrats now have a retirement problem," said NRCC spokesman Ken Spain. "After being forced to toe the line for Nancy Pelosi’s reckless agenda too many times, Blue Dog Democrats would rather roll over and retire than face the political headwind that is barreling toward them. This is evidence of the fact that the Obama-Pelosi agenda of government takeovers, permanent bailouts, and fewer jobs is taking a political and mental toll even on incumbent Democrats who were once-perceived to be firmly entrenched."
I can't wait for 2010.

They make it too easy sometimes...

Jon Stewart last week on Obama's latest idea. If you have the humor of about a 7th grader enjoy.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
The Most Immature Montage Ever - Cash for Caulkers
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

The left/enviroweenies officially go Totalitarian

Remember when you could say that one-child policies are insane and could never happen here. Simple math and logic would dictate that in order for a population/country to continue to exist the birthrate would need to be at 2.1 (ok maybe technically 2 or 2.01). If one child is born per couple on a regular basis your country will die, literally, in a generation. None of that seems to matter to the "Environmentalists". From a news outlet in China...

Population and climate change are intertwined but the population issue has remained a blind spot when countries discuss ways to mitigate climate change and slow down global warming, according to Zhao Baige, vice-minister of National Population and Family Planning Commission of China (NPFPC)(hey sounds like something Obama might put in place in the future). "Dealing with climate change is not simply an issue of CO2 emission reduction but a comprehensive challenge involving political, economic, social, cultural and ecological issues, and the population concern fits right into the picture," said Zhao, who is a member of the Chinese government delegation.Um, can you say CREEPY AS HELL!! ok so we need to reduce our population because were killing the planet?! How about you talk to the third world countries about that because last time I checked every devloped nation has a birthrate BELOW REPLACEMENT (read above) levels except for one country. You know which one that is? It's us, the USA. And were BARELY above it at 2.1. If it wasn't for all the immigration we have and mexicans spitting out babies up here you could probably knock that rate down to 1.6-1.8. It continues below
Many studies link population growth with emissions and the effect of climate change.
"Calculations of the contribution of population growth to emissions growth globally produce a consistent finding that most of past population growth has been responsible for between 40 per cent and 60 percent of emissions growth," so stated by the 2009 State of World Population, released earlier by the UN Population Fund.
Yeah, I'm so sure those numbers are legit. Because we all know that the data they use is so pure and not tinkered with at all...
Although China's family planning policy has received criticism over the past three decades(and rightly so, it will cost them dearly when all those chinese men decide to try to overthrow that government because they can't get laid), Zhao said that China's population program has made a great historic contribution to the well-being of society.
As a result of the family planning policy, China has seen 400 million fewer births, which has resulted in 18 million fewer tons of CO2 emissions a year, Zhao said.
God, imagine if China had 1.7 billion people now? They would have already passed us and probably own all of Asia and Europe.
The UN report projected that if the global population would remain 8 billion by the year 2050 instead of a little more than 9 billion according to medium-growth scenario, "it might result in 1 billion to 2 billion fewer tons of carbon emissions".
Meanwhile, she said studies have also shown that family planning programs are more efficient in helping cut emissions, citing research by Thomas Wire of London School of Economics that states: "Each $7 spent on basic family planning would reduce CO2 emissions by more than one ton" whereas it would cost $13 for reduced deforestation, $24 to use wind technology, $51 for solar power, $93 for introducing hybrid cars and $131 electric vehicles.
Using economics to justify eugenics? Didn't that not work so well the first time it was tried?
She admitted that China's population program is not without consequences, as the country is entering the aging society fast and facing the problem of gender imbalance.
Duh, you think there genius?! read my above statement.
"I'm not saying that what we have done is 100 percent right, but I'm sure we are going in the right direction and now 1.3 billion people have benefited," she said. She said some 85 percent of the Chinese women in reproductive age use contraceptives, the highest rate in the world. This has been achieved largely through education and improvement of people's lives, she said.
This holistic approach that integrates policy on population and development, a strategy promoting sustainable development of population, resources and environment should serve as a model for integrating population programs into the framework of climate change adaptation, she said.
wow, just wow. And they aren't the only ones saying it. Our idiot neighbors to the north have some wackos too... From the Financial Post (Canada)
The "inconvenient truth" overhanging the UN's Copenhagen conference is not that the climate is warming or cooling, but that humans are overpopulating the world.
I got an idea honey, how about you start with doing the planet a favor and offing yourself? Seriously you nutters say humans are the problem? Ok fine, then don't be hypocrites and end your lives.
A planetary law, such as China's one-child policy, is the only way to reverse the disastrous global birthrate currently, which is one million births every four days.
God forbid... I am really disturbed that people think this is a problem. By the way as a contrast how many people die every 4 days?
The world's other species, vegetation, resources, oceans, arable land, water supplies and atmosphere are being destroyed and pushed out of existence as a result of humanity's soaring reproduction rate.
... you do realize that most of that is in the developing world you crazy bitch. The US is doing a much better job than it was even 20 years ago.
Ironically, China, despite its dirty coal plants, is the world's leader in terms of fashioning policy to combat environmental degradation, thanks to its one-child-only edict.
I don't know what to say to that
The intelligence behind this is the following:
-If only one child per female was born as of now, the world's population would drop from its current 6.5 billion to 5.5 billion by 2050, according to a study done for scientific academy Vienna Institute of Demography.

That's NOT A GOOD THING YOU CRAZY BITCH. Someone needs to commit you. I'm bi-polar, I can spot teh crazee when I see it (props to Mitch at SiTD for inventing that line).
-By 2075, there would be 3.43 billion humans on the planet. This would have immediate positive effects on the world's forests, other species, the oceans, atmospheric quality and living standards.
... that's just idiotic
-Doing nothing, by contrast, will result in an unsustainable population of nine billion by 2050.
According to who? Does the word technology not mean anything to you?
Humans are the only rational animals but have yet to prove it. Medical and other scientific advances have benefited by delivering lower infant mortality rates as well as longevity. Both are welcome, (good points) but (here comes the but) humankind has not yet recalibrated its behavior to account for the fact that the world can only accommodate so many people, especially if billions get indoor plumbing and cars.
Once again according to who. My head is about to explode.
The fix is simple. It's dramatic. And yet the world's leaders don't even have this on their agenda in Copenhagen. Instead there will be photo ops, posturing, optics, blah-blah-blah about climate science and climate fraud, announcements of giant wind farms, then cap-and-trade subsidies.Apparently this crazy bitch likes Margaret Sanger (look her up)
None will work unless a China one-child policy is imposed. Unfortunately, there are powerful opponents. Leaders of the world's big fundamentalist religions preach in favor of procreation and fiercely oppose birth control. And most political leaders in emerging economies perpetuate a disastrous Catch-22: Many children (i. e. sons) stave off hardship in the absence of a social safety net or economic development, which, in turn, prevents protections or development.
Yeah, she doesn't factor a lot of that into here. She just hates humanity
China has proven that birth restriction is smart policy. Its middle class grows, all its citizens have housing, health care, education and food, and the one out of five human beings who live there are not overpopulating the planet.
Talk to them in 2025, see if they still feel the same way...For those who balk at the notion that governments should control family sizes, just wait until the growing human population turns twice as much pastureland into desert as is now the case, or when the Amazon is gone, the elephants disappear for good and wars erupt over water, scarce resources and spatial needs. The point is that Copenhagen's talking points are beside the point. The only fix is if all countries drastically reduce their populations, clean up their messes and impose mandatory conservation measures.
Here are some birthrates of "Western powers". The only one that comes close is France at 1.98 (fyi, numbers are taken from cia.gov
United States 2.05
Sri Lanka 1.99
France 1.98
Uruguay 1.92
Brunei 1.91
Iceland 1.90
Ireland 1.85
China 1.79
Australia 1.78
Luxembourg 1.78
Norway 1.78
Denmark 1.74
Finland 1.73
Trinidad and Tobago 1.72
Iran 1.71
British Virgin Islands 1.71
Sweden 1.67
Netherlands 1.66
United Kingdom 1.66
Belgium 1.65
Cuba 1.61
Canada 1.58
Portugal 1.49
Switzerland 1.45
Russia 1.41
Germany 1.41
Austria 1.39
Romania 1.39
Serbia 1.38
Greece 1.37
Hungary 1.35
Slovakia 1.35
Italy 1.31
Spain 1.31
Latvia 1.30
Poland 1.28
Ukraine 1.26
Japan 1.21
South Korea 1.21
Now for a contrast here are the top 50 birthrate countries in the world (the US is #125 out of 223 countries in the world.
1 Niger 7.75
2 Mali 7.29
3 Uganda 6.77
4 Afghanistan 6.53
5 Somalia 6.52
6 Burundi 6.33
7 Yemen 6.32
8 Burkina Faso 6.28
9 Congo, Democratic Republic of the 6.20
10 Angola 6.12
11 Ethiopia 6.12
12 Sierra Leone 5.88
13 Congo, Republic of the 5.84
14 Liberia 5.79
15 Western Sahara 5.61
16 Malawi 5.59
17 Oman 5.53
18 Mayotte 5.50
19 Benin 5.49
20 Sao Tome and Principe 5.33
21 Chad 5.31
22 Rwanda 5.25
23 Guinea 5.20
24 Mozambique 5.18
25 Zambia 5.1
26 Madagascar 5.14
27 Equatorial Guinea 5.08
28 Djibouti 5.06
29 Gambia 5.04
30 Gaza Strip 5.03
31 Senegal 4.95
32 Nigeria 4.91
33 Comoros 4.84
34 Togo 4.79
35 Eritrea 4.72
36 Gabon 4.65
37 Guinea-Bissau 4.65
38 Kenya 4.56
39 Sudan 4.48
40 Tanzania 4.46
41 Mauritania 4.45
42 Laos 4.41
43 Cameroon 4.33
44 Samoa 4.16
45 Central African Republic 4.14
46 Ivory Coast 4.12
47 Kiribati 4.04
48 Iraq 3.86
49 Saudi Arabia 3.83
50 Haiti 3.81

Yeah most are third world shitholes but some are rising up. The Afghanistan number shocked me. Dang, if they can get their act together they could be a world power by the end of a century.
For all those who think population control is a good idea, tell me how you would feel if you country descended into anarchy. And for those of you who finally made it to the end of the article here's Foamy going on about this (in similar style to me)

FailBlog/FML Friday... monday edition

It's been way too long...





















now some FML...
Today, I had a softball team dinner, and I was sitting with a bunch of girls who were talking about how far they've gone with guys. One girl goes "I must be the least experienced one here, I've never even kissed a guy!" Surprised, I said "me too!" and high-fived her. She was joking. I wasn't. FML

Today, on my flight to Vegas, I was wishing that a really cute guy would come sit in the seat next to mine. A few minutes later, a really cute guy sat in the seat next to me and even started to talk to me. When I said, "I like rugged men." he said "Oh ya, me too! I really like buff guys also." FML

Today, my theatre teacher made me go on stage even though I had a violent stomach flu. My understudies were unreachable, and she threatened to fail me if I did not perform. Halfway through the first act, I vomited on the first row. She failed me for letting the cast down. FML

Today, I was ringing up a lady and her daughter at the shoe store I work at. The background on my nametag is a rainbow, and when the daughter saw it, she asked her mother why it was so. Her mother looks at my nametag, then me, then turns to her daughter and says "Because he hates God honey". FML

Today, my parents yelled at me for 10 minutes without letting me get a word in edgewise for getting a 48 on my test. They took my phone, unplugged my internet, and took my car keys. They wouldn't listen no matter how many times I told them "It was out of 50". It actually was. FML

Today, I was going on a dinner date with a girl I had just met. After I picked her up I asked her if she would like to get lobster. She looked at me and asked if those were the red ones. Confused I nodded. She replied, "Sorry, I don't eat red meat." I laughed. She was serious. FML

Today, I was at IKEA with my parents. I walked away from them and later I heard the speaker of the store call my name asking me to come to the playground because my mom and dad were worried. I'm 18. FML

Today, I had to give a speech on abstinence to a bunch of teenage boys, and surprisingly they were paying attention. After they left, I went to the bathroom and saw I had missed a few buttons on my blouse. The boys had a close up view of my cleavage for 3 hours. FML

Today, I went on a date with this girl I met online. The conversation drifted and we were talking about how we would 'go'. I said, "I want to skydive over the ocean without a parachute." She said she wants to be made into a wallet. FML

Today, I was walking slowly and awkwardly down the stairs on my crutches. After two steps, a screw fell out of the left crutch and it collapsed. I now have a broken arm from trying to protect my broken leg as I tumbled down two flights of stairs. FML

Today, my boyfriend broke up with me because apparently I need to "grow up". He is the one who plays excesive Call of Duty and still has Pokemon and Bionicles in his room. FML

Today, we had a school assembly at 7:00pm about drinking and driving. There was a cop doing a demonstration of a feild sobriety test on stage. I was randomly selected to perform a breathalyzer test infront of all the students and parents. I blew. 06%. FML

Today, I was on a flight from Chicago to Minneapolis. A rather attractive young lady sitting next to me fell asleep at the beginning of the flight. About 40 minutes into the flight i noticed my fly was open. The lady woke to me with my hands in my crotch struggling to zip up my fly. FML

Today, I was at the beach walking on the boardwalk without a shirt on. Two cute girls are walking my way and I decide to try and impress them by flexing my abs. While I flexed them, I accidentally let a fart out that everyone heard. Everybody, including the girls, laughed hysterically at me. FML

Today, I was at a gay bar and asking a really convincing drag queen about her daily routine. I asked how she tucked her penis in. She responded, "Um, I'm a woman." I said, "Oh I'm sorry, are you pre-op or post-op?" She said, "No, I always have been and always will be a woman, asshole." FML

Today, I bought a new purple shirt and decided to wear it to this charity function I was going to. I thought I looked pretty good in it. Then I got home and realized I left the sticker on. I had an "XL" sticker on my boob all night. FML

Today, I was having a horrible day. I was laying on the couch, crying, when my dog came up on the couch to console me. I was thinking about how great it was to have a dog, because they're there for you when no one else is. As I was sobbing, I heard something. My dog farted into my mouth. Twice. FML

Today, my good friend who just had a baby girl sent her newborn's pictures to me via picture message. To reply, instead of writing "Awwwwww" I wrote "Ewwwwww" by mistake. FML

Today, I had to return a shirt to Target. My mom offered to do it for me on her way to work, so I gave her the shirt and receipt. Later, I realized that on the same receipt I had purchased condoms, lube, and whipped cream. FML

Today, I was out shopping for bras. While in one store, I couldn't seem to find any in my size. When I asked an employee for help, they took one look at my chest and said "Mabye you should try our girls section, we have a lot of training bras." I'm 25. FML

Today, I was the first one to wear the ugly corporate shirts we received. The people in my office-all of them guys were all saying that it looked a lot better than they thought it would. Later that day I went to the toilet and saw the shirt gapes open in front and you could see my boobs. FML

Today, I put my AIM status on my Current iTunes song. It also does it for videos I don't know. I've downloaded a lot of porn in my iTunes, and I wanted to watch. My status on AIM was "Girl in Latex gets fucked in the ass." FML

Today, the director of the play I'm in decided to explain why we got the parts we did. He said he tried matching our characters to who we actually are. I play a whore who's a transvestite. FML

Today, I work at a Subway Sandwich store right next to a big hospital. There was a big line of people all getting their subs toasted. Without turning around, I ask the next person in line "I bet you want yours extra toasted?" She was a burns victim from the hospital. FML

oday, I walked into the confession booth for the 1st time and start to tell my sins. I mentioned how I had sex with multiple men over the last month. I began to continue telling my sins, until I heard laughter. It turned out my brother was playing hid and seek. FML

Today, I was sent to an elementary school for safety day. One of the dads was asking about my job, when I told him about the long hours and high stress involved. He turned to his son and said "Now see why you stay in school?" I'm a paramedic. With a bachelor's degree. FML

Today, I went to a friend's sweet sixteen. Since I didn't know any else at the party I was really happy when the mother told me she sat me next to someone she thought I would have a lot in common with. He ended up being mentally challenged and talked to a sock puppet the whole party. FML

Today, for the first time ever, a woman saw my penis. I am 30 years old. The woman was my doctor. She snorted to cover a laugh and apologized. FML

Today, brand new cocktail dress: $300. Matching peep toe heels: $100. Getting my hair done at the salon: $80. Treating myself to a mani/pedi: $50. When finally meeting the guy I have been chatting online with for 2 months, I find out hes my cousin: priceless. FML

Today, I saw an old Caucasian lady drop her purse. Out of kind intention, I ran to pick it up for her. She hit me with a wooden cane she was holding in her right hand. Multiple times. I gave her the purse back. She hit me again and said "Fuck You Yellow Rat," before she walked off. I'm Asian. FML

Today, I asked my girl friend of a year and a half to give me a blow job. She replied okay and bent down and proceeded to blow on my penis. Then she looked up at me and said was that good. She was serious. FML

Today, one of our regular customers came in and was telling me he bought an assault rifle. I told him not to go off his meds and shoot up the store, as a joke. Later, my manager told me that the guy is on antidepressants and was discharged from the military for being "mentally unfit." FML

Today, for Easter my brother & sister both got $200 gifts from my parents. I got a chocolate egg. I'm allergic to chocolate. FML

Today, my ten year old son realized something. Beer is alcohol. People who drink a lot of alcohol are alcoholics. Therefore I am an alcoholic for drinking beer with dinner. He told everyone at his conservative private school and they tried to have an intervention. They pray for me every day. FML

Today, I woke up to find The Sims 2 running on pause on my laptop. I unpaused to find my character and my boyfriend's were no longer together. Slightly confused, I went on to find the note my boyfriend left. It said, "I hope you can take a hint." I got dumped through a computer game. FML

Today, I saw my friends talking about plans for later during lunch. I walked over and asked for the plan. My best friend of 12 years gently took me aside, and said "You know that person in each group of friends that is only around to be made fun of? That's you." I just got dumped by my friends. FML

Today, I was struggling through an exam and the hot girl next to me seemed to be flying through the questions. So I cheated off her. When we finished I asked her to lunch. She said "No, I just rushed through the exam so I can go fuck my boyfriend." I got shutdown and probably failed an exam. FML

Today, the police posted a description of the car of a child abductor. As everyone slowed down to read the billboard, I realized that the car's description and license plate were very similar to mine. After getting death stares from passengers, I got pulled over. Twice. FML

a picture (in this case video) is worth a 1000 words...

Yeah O gave a speech last night at West Point. The cadets were classy as expected but bored? Oh yeah. This guy had the balls to go to a military academy where he would have never last one week with his elitest, pretentious ass. I'm sorry, the fact that this POS is CinC is disgusting and embaressing to me.

Peggy Noonan now turns on The One

It seems that Obama's support is eroding faster than you can say incompetence. Peggy Noonan, a "conservative" columnist, was one of many "conservatives" that backed O last year in his presidential run. What I am surprised at most is not that his support is eroding fast among the public (RCP has the average at 49.9%, first time the AVERAGE has been below 50%) but among the media establishment and even members in his own party. Cap and Trade is dead, global warming just got exposed for the fraud it has always been thanks to ClimateGate, Health Care reform is at best on life support now, the Terror Trials are becoming a complete fiasco and Gitmo isn't and won't be closed anytime soon, and blue dogs are running scared all over because they can feel the tide building up against them. I have to say that this is the most scathing op-ed piece I have seen (from a former Obama supporter at least) criticizing the administration.

This week, two points in an emerging picture of a White House leaking support—not the support of voters, though polls there show steady decline, but in two core constituencies, Washington's Democratic-journalistic establishment, and what might still be called the foreign-policy establishment. From journalist Elizabeth Drew, a veteran and often sympathetic chronicler of Democratic figures, a fiery denunciation of—and warning for—the White House. In a piece in Politico on the firing of White House counsel Greg Craig, Ms. Drew reports that while the president was in Asia last week, "a critical mass of influential people who once held big hopes for his presidency began to wonder whether they had misjudged the man." They once held "an unromantically high opinion of Obama," and were key to his rise, but now they are concluding that the president isn't "the person of integrity and even classiness they had thought." She scored "the Chicago crowd," which she characterized as "a distressingly insular and small-minded West Wing team." The White House, Ms. Drew says, needs adult supervision—"an older, wiser head, someone with a bit more detachment." As I read Ms. Drew's piece, I was reminded of something I began noticing a few months ago in bipartisan crowds. I would ask Democrats how they thought the president was doing. In the past they would extol, with varying degrees of enthusiasm, his virtues. Increasingly, they would preface their answer with, "Well, I was for Hillary." This in turn reminded me of a surprising thing I observe among loyal Democrats in informal settings and conversations: No one loves Barack Obama. Half the American people say they support him, and Democrats are still with him. But there were Bill Clinton supporters who really loved him. George W. Bush had people who loved him. A lot of people loved Jack Kennedy and Ronald Reagan. But no one seems to love Mr. Obama now; they're not dazzled and head over heels. That's gone away. He himself seems a fairly chilly customer; perhaps in turn he inspires chilly support. But presidents need that rock—bottom 20% who, no matter what's happening—war, unemployment—adore their guy, have complete faith in him, and insist that you love him, too. They're the hard 20 a president always keeps. Nixon kept them! Obama probably has a hard 20 too, but whatever is keeping them close, it doesn't seem to be love. Just as stinging as Elizabeth Drew on domestic matters was Leslie Gelb on Mr. Obama and foreign policy in the Daily Beast. Mr. Gelb, president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations and fully plugged into the Democratic foreign-policy establishment, wrote this week that the president's Asia trip suggested "a disturbing amateurishness in managing America's power." The president's Afghanistan review has been "inexcusably clumsy," Mideast negotiations have been "fumbling." So unsuccessful was the trip that Mr. Gelb suggested Mr. Obama take responsibility for it "as President Kennedy did after the Bay of Pigs."

He added that rather than bowing to emperors—Mr. Obama "seems to do this stuff spontaneously and inexplicably"—he should begin to bow to "the voices of experience" in Washington.

When longtime political observers start calling for wise men, a president is in trouble. It also raises a distressing question: Who are the wise men and women now? Who are the Robert Lovetts, Chip Bohlens and Robert Strausses who can came in to help a president in trouble right his ship? America seems short of wise men, or short on those who are universally agreed to be wise. I suppose Vietnam was the end of that, but establishments exist for a reason, and it is hard for a great nation to function without the presence of a group of "the oldest and wisest" who can not only give sound advice but help engineer how that advice will be reported and received. Mr Obama is in a hard place. Health care hangs over him, and if he is lucky he will lose a close vote in the Senate. The common wisdom that he can't afford to lose is exactly wrong—he can't afford to win with such a poor piece of legislation. He needs to get the issue behind him, vow to fight another day, and move on. Afghanistan hangs over him, threatening the unity of his own Democratic congressional base. There is the growing perception of incompetence, of the inability to run the machine of government. This, with Americans, is worse than Obama's rebranding as a leader who governs from the left. Americans demand baseline competence. If he comes to be seen as Jimmy Carter was, that the job was bigger than the man, that will be the end. Which gets us back to the bow. In a presidency, a picture or photograph becomes iconic only when it seems to express something people already think. When Gerald Ford was spoofed for being physically clumsy, it took off. The picture of Ford losing his footing and tumbling as he came down the steps of Air Force One became a symbol. There was a reason, and it wasn't that he was physically clumsy. He was not only coordinated but graceful. He'd been a football star at the University of Michigan and was offered contracts by the Detroit Lions and Green Bay Packers. But the picture took off because it expressed the growing public view that Ford's policies were bumbling and stumbling. The picture was iconic of a growing political perception. The Obama bowing pictures are becoming iconic, and they would not be if they weren't playing off a growing perception. If the pictures had been accompanied by headlines from Asia saying "Tough Talks Yield Big Progress" or "Obama Shows Muscle in China," the bowing pictures might be understood this way: "He Stoops to Conquer: Canny Obama shows elaborate deference while he subtly, toughly, quietly advances his nation's interests." But that's not how the pictures were received or will be remembered. It is true that Mr. Obama often seems not to have a firm grasp of—or respect for—protocol, of what has been done before and why, and of what divergence from the traditional might imply. And it is true that his political timing was unfortunate. When a great nation is feeling confident and strong, a surprising presidential bow might seem gracious. When it is feeling anxious, a bow will seem obsequious. The Obama bowing pictures are becoming iconic not for those reasons, however, but because they express a growing political perception, and that is that there is something amateurish about this presidency, something too ad hoc and highly personalized about it, something . . . incompetent, at least in its first year. It is hard to be president, and White Houses under pressure take refuge in thoughts that become mantras. When the previous White House came under mounting criticism from 2005 through '08, they comforted themselves by thinking, They criticized Lincoln, too. You could see their minds whirring: Lincoln was criticized, Lincoln was great, ergo we are great. But of course just because they say you're stupid doesn't mean you're Lincoln. One senses the Obama people are doing the Lincoln too, and adding to it the consoling thought that this is only the first year, we've got three years to go, we can change perceptions, don't worry. But they should worry. You can get tagged, typed and pegged your first year. Gerald Ford did, and Ronald Reagan too, more happily. The first year is when indelible impressions are made and iconic photos emerge.

Bowling for Soup - 1985 Happy Thanksgiving!

Not a thanksgiving song but whatever. I'm on vacation in Illnois so screw it. FML/Failblog Friday might return tomorrow but might not.

Politically Incorrect Cartoons #1, Looney Tunes rips Japs and Nazi's

You gotta love this stuff. To think at one time this was acceptable is amazing. I wonder if posting this will prevent me from getting in the MOB, eh oh well.

46 years ago today...

Well first off I obviously wasn't there. I have seen countless documentaries about the assassination and it is still interesting to talk to my mom and dad about that day because it truly is one of those things where you will always remember where you were when you first heard the news about it. The only events that are similar to that that have happened recently are the fall of the Berlin Wall and 9/11. The one thing that is interesting about the JFK assassination though is how many people believed (and still believe) that there was some conspiracy behind it. Unlike the 9/11 truth nutters there is some validity to this. JFK had A LOT of enemies. Castro for one, who he authorized to have killed multiple times (you don't hear that a lot in the history books, funny...) and of course the horribly botched Bay of Pigs invasion. The entire Soviet Union hated him because they were handed a major embaressment to their pride after the Cuban Missile Crisis. The CIA supposedly hated his guts and this is the favorite of some conspiracy theorists that the CIA offed him but I just don't buy that. If some rouge element in the CIA did this, someone, somewhere at sometime would have come forward by now because lord knows no one can keep a secret. Well, maybe one group; and thats where I put my chips on for a conspiracy theory. That would be the Mafia. Joe Kennedy had massive ties to organized crime because he was a bootlegger during prohibition and thats how the Kennedy fortune was amassed (once again, you don't hear much about that) and it has almost been accepted fact that there are still a bunch of Nixon votes (and sprobably some Nixon poll-watchers) at the bottom of Lake Michigan. People forget that the only reason Kennedy won in 1960 was because Illnois was pretty much thrown his way by the Mafia. So what does he do when he gets in office? He appoints his little brother, Bobby, as AG (nepotism at its finest) who decides to do a full-court press against organized crime. Apparently he didn't get the memo. Obviously the mob doesn't like this so they most likely hire Oswald as a fall guy and have Ruby take him out before he can talk to the press and police. Ruby dies in jail and we will never know exactly what happened that day but I think my theory will be proven right one of these days. Me and my dad have a saying that sums up our opinion of the JFK assassination, "The Mafia put Kennedy into office and the Mafia took Kennedy out of office."

32% Inflation in UCLA Tuition Causes Near Riots (my gerneation blows)

My generation sucks, they assault cops and protest tuition hikes? Are you serious? Colleges have to do this because they are getting less monies from the state, its simple economics. Maybe if the professors took a pay cut they could reduce the increase. I'm glad 14 of these turds got arrested. I apologize on behalf of my generation. I'd like to say that this isn't representative of us as a whole but I'm afraid it is.

It would be funnier if it wasn't true

Apparently someone FINALLY got through to at least one MSM outlet. ABCNews (not exactly a right-wing shill organization, see:Charlie Gibson) decided to ACTUALLY DO ITS FUCKING JOB FINALLY and analyzed the 'claims' about 'jobs created' at recovery.org. Here is a sample of what they found (entire article in link)

Here's a stimulus success story: In Arizona's 15th congressional district, 30 jobs have been saved or created with just $761,420 in federal stimulus spending. At least that's what the Web site set up by the Obama administration to track the $787 billion stimulus says. Discrepancies on government web site call into question stimulus spending.There's one problem, though: There is no 15th congressional district in Arizona; the state has only eight districts.
Oops, well anyone can make one mistake, surely there isn't anymore embaressing data on that site...

recovery.gov says $34 million in stimulus money has been spent in Arizona's 86th congressional district in a project for the Navajo Housing authority, which is actually located in the 1st congressional district.
Once again, embaressing but hey at least the district is actually REAL they just had a typo, because we all know that the 8 and 6 key on the computer is right next to the 1 key... it can't get anymore embaressing than that right? Well...

In Oklahoma, recovery.gov lists more than $19 million in spending -- and 15 jobs created -- in yet more congressional districts that don't exist.

In Iowa, it shows $10.6 million spent – and 39 jobs created -- in nonexistent districts.
...
In Connecticut's 42nd district (which also does not exist), the Web site claims 25 jobs created with zero stimulus dollars.
Oh God...
The list of spending and job creation in fictional congressional districts extends to U.S. territories as well.
Great...

$68.3 million spent and 72.2 million spent in the 1st congressional district of the U.S. Virgin Islands.

$8.4 million spent and 40.3 jobs created in the 99th congressional district of the U.S. Virgin Islands.

$1.5 million spent and .3 jobs created in the 69th district and $35 million for 142 jobs in the 99th district of the Northern Mariana Islands.

$47.7 million spent and 291 jobs created in Puerto Rico's 99th congressional district.
Ok I'm debating if I should laugh, cry, or get up and throw my laptop against the wall (don't worry Dad I'm not really thinking that last one). Once again, these idiots can't figure out how to spend this Payoff to Obama's cronies I mean Stimulus Package and we want to put them in charge of healthcare? 1/6 of the fucking economy in the US?!?!? Do you people have a deathwish? Shit at the rate he's going 2010 might be too late.

3 Doors Down - When I'm Gone: My tribute to the fallen at Ft.Hood

Of course the lyrics speak volumes, and sadly these 13 are gone and never coming back. This was not a tragedy, it was an attack on US military persons training to go overseas by a cowardly, fucked up, jihadi who couldn't even die to get his "72 virgins". Justice will be served but nothing can bring those brave men and women back. But ending the sickening and now deadly political correctness in our military, media, and culture would be a good way to honor them and hopefully prevent anything like this from happening again. May Hasan's soul burn in the fire of hell with the devil cornholing him.

Did Doug Hoffman win NY-23

The answer is a surprising maybe. Looking at today's Drudgereport from a Syracuse newspaper...

Washington -- Conservative Doug Hoffman conceded the race in the 23rd Congressional District last week after receiving two pieces of grim news for his campaign: He was down 5,335 votes with 93 percent of the vote counted on election night, and he had barely won his stronghold in Oswego County. As it turns out, neither was true.

cough, cough, voter fraud. Sorry I had something in my throat..

But Hoffman’s concession -- based on snafus in Oswego County and elsewhere that left his vote undercounted -- set off a chain of events that echoed all the way to Washington, D.C., and helped secure passage of a historic health care reform bill.
woo-hoo...

Democratic Rep. Bill Owens was quickly sworn into office on Friday, a day before the rare weekend vote in the House of Representatives. His support sealed his party’s narrow victory on the health care legislation.

Hmm... think they might have possibly known something?

Now a recanvassing in the 11-county district shows that Owens’ lead has narrowed to 3,026 votes over Hoffman, 66,698 to 63,672, according to the latest unofficial results from the state Board of Elections. In Oswego County, where Hoffman was reported to lead by only 500 votes with 93 percent of the vote counted election night, inspectors found Hoffman actually won by 1,748 votes -- 12,748 to 11,000. The new vote totals mean the race will be decided by absentee ballots, of which about 10,200 were distributed, said John Conklin, communications director for the state Board of Elections.
Great, absentee ballots again... I wonder if they will use the Franken tactic.

Under a new law in New York that extended deadlines, military and overseas ballots received by this coming Monday (and postmarked by Nov. 2) will be counted. Standard absentee ballots had to be returned this past Monday. Conklin said the state sent a letter to the House Clerk last week explaining that no winner had been determined in the 23rd District, and therefore the state had not certified the election. But the letter noted that Owens still led by about 3,000 votes, and that the special election was not contested -- two factors that legally allowed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to swear in Owens on Friday.
Hmm... hasn't been certified but Hoffman did concede :( let this be a lesson to future potential pols, NEVER CONCEDE UNTIL IT IS MATHEMATICALLY IMPOSSIBLE FOR YOU TO WIN.

"We sent a letter to the clerk laying out the totals," Conklin said. "The key is that Hoffman conceded, which means the race is not contested. However, all ballots will be counted, and if the result changes, Owens will have to be removed."
WOW. How very interesting. Being a political science major this is fascinating and you can bet I will be watching this and keeping you updated.

Before Owens was sworn in Friday, Rep. John Garamendi, a Democrat who won a special election in California, was sworn in Thursday. The two gave Pelosi the votes she needed to reach a majority of 218 and pass the historic health care reform legislation in the House.
So let me get this straight, if Owens wasn't sworn in the health care bill would have been killed in the House? This all sounds a little too convinent, and coincidental. And there are no coincidences in politics trust me.

The bill passed 220-215 late Saturday with the support of only one Republican. The Republican, Rep. Anh "Joseph" Cao of Louisiana, said he voted for the legislation only after seeing that Democrats had the 218 votes needed for passage.
Wait, apparently not true you subtract Owens (219) and Ahn (218) it would have passed 218-217. Uhh... someone needs to go back to grade school cuz this math doesn't add up.

Now Hoffman, who campaigned against the health care reform bill, is carefully watching as the 23rd District race tightens and he is left to wonder if he conceded too soon.
No shit, Sherlock so are a lot of people...

"I don’t know if we would have conceded on election night," Rob Ryan, Hoffman’s campaign spokesman, said Wednesday while discussing the latest results of the recanvassing. "I’m someone who doesn’t like to look back. But would we have taken longer to make a decision on election night? Probably, if we knew it was only 3,000 votes making the difference."
And to think that the US Senate race came down to hundreds of votes. This is a Congressional race and were still talking 3,000 votes. Man that Franken/Coleman race was something huh?

Ryan, while acknowledging that Hoffman’s chances of pulling off a come-from-behind victory are still remote, said the campaign is looking at its legal options. "We’re basically watching and waiting," Ryan said. "We’ve been looking very closely at the recanvass. We’re going to see how this week shapes up, and then we’re going to determine what to do." Ryan said an important factor in the decision to concede was the unexpected -- and erroneous -- close vote in Oswego County, where polls had Hoffman with a double digit percentage point lead heading into Election Day. "That’s the thing that threw us off," Ryan said.
Voter fraud... I wonder how many ACORN offices there are in NY-23...

Oswego County elections officials blame the mistakes on "chaos" in their call-in center that included a phone system foul-up and inspectors who read numbers incorrectly when phoning in results. Of 245 races in the county -- not including the congressional and court races -- 84 had incorrect totals reported election night.
Ok, either this was calculated or people are that incompetent. I'd say this one is a coin flip

In the congressional race, more votes were cast in Oswego County than any other in the 11-county district. The district’s second biggest voter turnout was in Jefferson County, where Hoffman also has benefited from a turnaround since election night, gaining about 700 votes. Owens led Hoffman by 300 votes on the final election night tally. But after recanvassing, Hoffman now leads by 424 votes, 10,884 to 10,460. Jerry Eaton, the Republican elections commissioner for Jefferson County, said inspectors found a problem in four districts where Hoffman’s vote total was mistakenly entered as zero.
Yeah, mistakenly...

"Hoffman definitely gained votes where he didn’t have them," Eaton said. Jefferson County, home of Fort Drum and the Army's 10th Mountain Division, distributed 2,299 absentee ballots for the special election. As of this week, 1,303 had been returned but not counted, Eaton said. He said the county will begin counting the absentee ballots earyl next week. Conklin, of the state Board of Elections, said officials did not have updated absentee ballot totals from the other counties. When asked about the tightening race, Owens spokesman Jon Boughtin released a statement without directly addressing the election. "Since being elected, Congressman Owens has remained focused on the issues at hand: working with local leaders to address the Champlain Bridge closure, meeting with commanders at Fort Drum and continuing the work to strengthen Upstate New York," the statement said. Ryan said the absentee ballots are likely to favor Hoffman because most were likely mailed before Republican Dede Scozzafava suspended her campaign three days before the election.
"For Doug to win, we needed a three-way race," Ryan said, adding that the campaign’s internal polls showed Hoffman would win with all three candidates. "Given the majority of these ballots are from a three-way race, we think the ballots are going to break Doug’s way," Ryan said. Ryan declined to say what percentage of the absentee vote the campaign believes Hoffman would need to win the race. Nevertheless, Hoffman’s campaign is optimistic. "When people look back at this race, it was a remote possibility that Doug Hoffman would be a contender," Ryan said. "But miracles do happen."
And I believe this district includes, appropriately enough, Lake Placid. Where the US amatuer hockey players beat the USSR pro team.

We Didn't Start the Flame War (NSFW!!!)

I'm bored, so I shall post another thing from youtube (I know I know, I need more original material, ill make up for it). This song is funny as hell and NSFW (not safe for work for you n00bs) it's done to the Billy Joel tune 'We Didn't Start the Fire' (great tune by the way. This is funny as hell but be sure to turn down the volume or put headphones in before you play it. Unless you have a really cool non-PC boss.

Song of the Week#1-Puddle Of Mudd - Spaceship

new feature, coming tommorow, a writeup on the 2012 bs hype. I actually researched it back in 2005 and came up with little to nothing.

This was terrorism

Ok normally I have more light-hearted approach to the weekend but this is a sad exception. What happened yesterday at Fort Hood was sad, infuriating, and probably most likely preventable. I have heard a lot about how this guy held anti-American, anti-military views but since about 6-7pm last night a lot more has come to light, most notably this from the Guardian in the UK (because lord knows the MSM in the US would NEVER, EVER run this)...

A US army psychiatrist about to be deployed to Afghanistan allegedly shouted "Allahu Akbar", or "God is greatest", as he opened fire at a military base in Texas, killing 13 people and wounding 28.

The gunman, Major Nidal Malik Hasan, 39, shouted the Arabic phrase just before he began his shooting spree at Fort Hood military installation yesterday, according to the base commander, Lieutenant General Robert Cone.

Tell me this, if a christian went around shooting people at an army base yelling "I kill you in the name of God" or a jewish person went around shooting people yelling "I kill you in the name of Yahweh" you think that there's any chance that the MSM decides to not cover IT?!?!?!?! No... I think not. If the PC coverage of this wasn't bad enough PBO's reaction was at best callous and at worst disgusting and reprehensible. This is from NBC Chicago of all places. The title of the article? A disconnected President... WOW

President Obama didn't wait long after Tuesday's devastating elections to give critics another reason to question his leadership, but this time the subject matter was more grim than a pair of governorships.

After news broke out of the shooting at the Fort Hood Army post in Texas, the nation watched in horror as the toll of dead and injured climbed. The White House was notified immediately and by late afternoon, word went out that the president would speak about the incident prior to a previously scheduled appearance. At about 5 p.m., cable stations went to the president. The situation called for not only his trademark eloquence, but also grace and perspective.

But instead of a somber chief executive offering reassuring words and expressions of sympathy and compassion, viewers saw a wildly disconnected and inappropriately light president making introductory remarks. At the event, a Tribal Nations Conference hosted by the Department of Interior's Bureau of Indian affairs, the president thanked various staffers and offered a "shout-out" to "Dr. Joe Medicine Crow -- that Congressional Medal of Honor winner." Three minutes in, the president spoke about the shooting, in measured and appropriate terms. Who is advising him?

Anyone at home aware of the major news story of the previous hours had to have been stunned. An incident like this requires a scrapping of the early light banter. The president should apologize for the tone of his remarks, explain what has happened, express sympathy for those slain and appeal for calm and patience until all the facts are in. That's the least that should occur.

It continues...

Indeed, an argument could be made that Obama should have canceled the Indian event, out of respect for people having been murdered at an Army post a few hours before. That would have prevented any sort of jarring emotional switch at the event.

Did the president's team not realize what sort of image they were presenting to the country at this moment? The disconnect between what Americans at home knew had been going on -- and the initial words coming out of their president's mouth was jolting, if not disturbing.

It must have been disappointing for many politically aware Democrats, still reeling from the election two days before. The New Jersey gubernatorial vote had already demonstrated that the president and his political team couldn't produce a winning outcome in a state very friendly to Democrats (and where the president won by 15 points one year ago). And now this? Congressional Democrats must wonder if a White House that has burdened them with a too-heavy policy agenda over the last year has a strong enough political operation to help push that agenda through.

If the president's communications apparatus can't inform -- and protect -- their boss during tense moments when the country needs to see a focused commander-in-chief and a compassionate head of state, it has disastrous consequences for that president's party and supporters.

All the president's men (and women) fell down on the job Thursday. And Democrats across the country have real reason to panic.

I will be posting more on this as it comes in.

For all the talk about a GOP civil war...

There is a lot of discontent on the democratic side despite their stranglehold on Washington, they can get legislation passed in both houses without A SINGLE VOTE BY REPUBLICANS IN EITHER CHAMBER, but they are having trouble corraling the blue dog dems for obvious reasons. And that was BEFORE last night in which the dem got raped in VA (I had it almost exactly called). and NJ, a solid blue state if there ever was one, where a incumbent governor outspent his rival 3:1, ran a nasty campaign, and won only 44% of the vote. As a sidenote I might have been the only one out there to nearly get NJ exactly right (off by 2 points) but leaving aside my embaressing wrong prediction about NY-23 (hey that race, in my defense, was damn near impossible to predict) I did pretty good at calling races. Bring it fivethirtyeight.com there's a new predictor in town. The GOP has infighting yes, but its nowhere near as bad as this, you want to talk about idealogical purity? Read below

a quote from the front page of moron.org, excuse me, moveon.org

“If a Democratic Senator helps block an up-or-down vote on health care reform, there need to be consequences. We’ve launched the Health Care Accountability Pledge so that a primary challenge against any Democrat who filibusters would get off to a well-funded start.”

All I can say is go for it, it would turn voters off from having a electable moderate democrat to a psycho socialist dem versus a solid conservative candidate with the dem possibly pulling a Libermann and going independent, fracturing the democrat vote. Look at your own house ab before you go shooting your mouth off about how the GOP is throwing moderates overboard.

V:An anti-Obama show (seriously)

Ok normally when a show debuts in any month other than september on january it is almost doomed to fail. That doesn't seem to be the case with the "V" where visitors come to earth (they're really reptilians bent on world destruction) in our time of need. Granted this is technically a remake from 1983-84 miniseries but I (and others) feel it is somewhat of a shot across the bow of Obamamania that has died down somewhat but still out there. Some of my favorite quotes from the episode "The V's call it spreading hope" "comprimising your principals for the greater good is a noble act" and about a half dozen others feel like rimshots to punchlines of Obama jokes. Here's the opening paragraphs from an the, drumroll please, Chicago Tribune (link in title) has today...

Imagine this. At a time of political turmoil, a charismatic, telegenic new leader arrives virtually out of nowhere. He offers a message of hope and reconciliation based on compromise and promises to marshal technology for a better future that will include universal health care.

The news media swoons in admiration -- one simpering anchorman even shouts at a reporter who asks a tough question: "Why don't you show some respect?!" The public is likewise smitten, except for a few nut cases who circulate batty rumors on the Internet about the leader's origins and intentions. The leader, undismayed, offers assurances that are soothing, if also just a tiny bit condescending: "Embracing change is never easy."

And here's a comment that sums up the show perfectly...

The original V was an allegorical reference to Hitler's Nazi regime and the internment and total control of the Jewish people. They arrived with a message of good and rightousness. And then turned to tyranny.

Even down to the human sympathizers in V, who turn in their own kind to the the Visitors, the same was done to the Jews...rabble-rousers either sympathetic to the Nazi cause turned in their own kind to the Nazi's if they resisted 'change.'

While V is a commentary on Nazi Germany, the message is loud and clear today: Any entity that tries to take total control of society (government motors, government banks, government healthcare, government-owned or bailed-out media)leads that society further away from Democracy and closer to Tyranny.

Enjoy V for its Sci-Fi faire, but open your mind to the possibility of what happens when democracy gives way to liberal-facisim.

Leaving aside the fact he spelled fascism wrong good point.

Ben nerds it up with polls...

Ok, being already an amatuer political scientist (it is my major after all) I have a love/hate relationship with polls. I will be crunching some numbers from polls from the last week that I found on realclearpolitics.com that represents the fluid, if not bizzare, data set I have to work with here. Note ***=important poll/most weight **=somewhat important poll/semi-biased/some weight *=biased poll/little to no weight. Weight means due to poll's circumstances and factoring in how many undecided voters there are in the poll and the MoE (margin of error) which for the sake of my sanity I will put at +/-3, I will adjust the poll according jto my formula after crunching the raw data and compare the unaltered data to my altered data. This should take most of my afternoon but I have nothing better to do

Monday, November 02

New York 23rd District - Special Election
Poll: **Siena Hoffman 41, Owens 36, Scozzafava 6 (undecided
Hoffman +5

New Jersey Governor - Corzine vs. Christie
Poll:*PPP(D) Christie 47, Corzine 41, Daggett 11 (undecided 1%)
Christie +6

Virginia Governor - McDonnell vs. Deeds
Poll:*PPP(D) McDonnell 56, Deeds 42
McDonnell +14

New York 23rd District - Special Election
Poll:*PPP(D) Hoffman 51, Owens 34, Scozzafava 13
Hoffman +17

New Jersey Governor - Corzine vs. Christie
Poll:**Quinnipiac Christie 42, Corzine 40, Daggett 12
Christie +2

Sunday, November 01

New Jersey Governor - Corzine vs. Christie
Poll:**Monmouth/Gannett Christie 43, Corzine 42, Daggett 8
Christie +1

Virginia Governor - McDonnell vs. Deeds
Poll:**Times-Dispatch/MD McDonnell 53, Deeds 41
McDonnell +12

Saturday, October 31

New York 23rd District - Special Election
Poll:**Siena Hoffman 35, Owens 36, Scozzafava 20
Owens +1
Friday, October 30

New Jersey Governor - Corzine vs. Christie
Poll:***Rasmussen Reports Christie 46, Corzine 43, Daggett 8
Christie +3

New Jersey Governor - Corzine vs. Christie
Poll:**Stockton/Zogby Christie 39, Corzine 40, Daggett 14
Corzine +1

New Jersey Governor - Corzine vs. Christie
Poll:*Neighborhood Research (R) Christie 42, Corzine 35, Daggett 8
Christie +7

New Jersey Governor - Corzine vs. Christie
Poll:***Fairleigh Dickinson Christie 41, Corzine 39, Daggett 14
Christie +2


Thursday, October 29

New Jersey Governor - Corzine vs. Christie
Poll:*Democracy Corps (D) Christie 38, Corzine 43, Daggett 12
Corzine +5

New Jersey Governor - Corzine vs. Christie
Poll:**SurveyUSA Christie 43, Corzine 43, Daggett 11
Tie

New Jersey Governor - Corzine vs. Christie
Poll:*Daily Kos/R2000 Christie 42, Corzine 41, Daggett 14
Christie +1

Virginia Governor - McDonnell vs. Deeds
Poll:*Daily Kos/R2000 McDonnell 54, Deeds 44
McDonnell +10

Virginia Governor - McDonnell vs. Deeds
Poll:**Suffolk University McDonnell 54, Deeds 40
McDonnell +14

New York 23rd District Special Election
Poll:*Daily Kos/R2000(D) Hoffman 32, Owens 33, Scozzafava 21
Owens +1

Virginia Governor - McDonnell vs. Deeds
Poll:**Roanoke College McDonnell 53, Deeds 36
McDonnell +17

Wednesday, October 28

Virginia Governor - McDonnell vs. Deeds
Poll:***Rasmussen Reports(NP)McDonnell 54, Deeds 41
McDonnell +13

Virginia Governor - McDonnell vs. Deeds
Poll:**VCU McDonnell 54, Deeds 36
McDonnell +18

New Jersey Governor - Corzine vs. Christie
Poll:***Quinnipiac Christie 38, Corzine 43, Daggett 13
Corzine +5

Tuesday, October 27
New Jersey Governor - Corzine vs. Christie
Poll:***Rasmussen Reports(NP) Christie 46, Corzine 43, Daggett 7 (undecided 4%)
Christie +3

Virginia Governor - McDonnell vs. Deeds
Poll:**SurveyUSA McDonnell 58, Deeds 41
McDonnell +17

New York 23rd District Special Election
Poll:*Minuteman/Neighborhood (R) Hoffman 34, Owens 29, Scozzafava 14
Hoffman +5

New Jersey Governor Corzine vs. Christie
Poll:*PPP(D) Christie 42, Corzine 38, Daggett 13
Christie +4

New Jersey Governor - Corzine vs. Christie
Poll:**Suffolk University Christie 33, Corzine 42, Daggett 7 (undecided 18%)Corzine +9

***Generic Congressional Vote Rasmussen Reports Democrats 38, Republicans 42 Republicans +4
This is BIG because usually the generic ballots underpoll republicans by 2-4% so that could actually be a +6-8% which is devestating to democrat hopes to hold on to House leadership

Monday, October 26
New York 23rd District Special Election
Poll***CFG/Basswood Research(R) Hoffman 31, Owens 27, Scozzafava 20 (undecided22%)
Hoffman +4

Breakdown
NJ Governor
10/27 Corzine +9, Christie +4,+3
10/28 Corzine +5,
10/29 Corzine +5, Christie +1, tie
10/30 Corzine +1, Christie +1,+7,+3
11/1 Christie+1
11/2 Christie+2,+6

So since 10/27 there have been 14 polls taken, 4 have Corzine leading by an average of 5%. 9 have Christie leading by an average of 3.3% and one tie. Right now it looks like it SHOULD be a virtual tossup thanks to Daggett siphoning off votes from Christie, unless he pulls a Scozzafava and drops out Christie is going to possibly have to sweat it out until the early morning hours Wednesday. My prediction
Christie 49%, Corzine 43%, Daggett 7% with the remaining going to fringe candidates. The PPP poll today is huge because it leans democratic in its idealolgy so Christie may have a 8-10% point lead which could cause some of his supporters to get overconfident and stay home on election night.

Ok back to work...

Breakdown

VA Governor

10/27 McDonnell +17
10/28 McDonnell +18,+13
10/29 McDonnell +17,+14,+10
10/30 N/A
10/31 N/A
11/1 McDonnell +12
11/2 McDonnell +14

Pretty depressing for Deeds considering Obama actually won this state last year and has had a Democratic govenor for the last 8 years. Since 10/27 8 polls have been released all showing McDonnell with at least a double-digit lead (average 14.5% lead). "Bold" prediction by me, McDonnell wins by a minimum 60-40 due to strong GOP turnout and democratic indifference, leaving the fact that Deeds was probably the worst that the state dems could do for a nominee of the 3 contenders there were. This thing was over before it started. Even Obama essentially gave the middle finger to the Deeds camp. He never stood a shot.

And finally
NY-23 Special Election aka crazy race

10/26 Hoffman +4
10/27 Hoffman +5
10/28 N/A
10/29 Owens +1
10/30 N/A
10/31(Scozzafava drops out) Owens +1
11/1 (Scozzafava endorses Owens) N/A
11/2 Hoffman +17 (from a D poll!) and Hoffman +5

My jaw nearly hit the floor this morning when I saw that Hoffman showed a 17 point lead from PPP. I can't discount it because its a self described democrat poll. My theory is that Scozzafava endorsing Owens turned some of her possible, lukewarm supporters, to switch alligence to Hoffman. She is seen as a turncoat and probably was bribed to do this. My prediction,
Hoffman 57% Owens 38% Scozzafava 5%

#1-Puddle Of Mudd - Psycho

Heres my winner folks. It wins because of the title, lyrics and the almost half dozen horror movie refrences. From what I can gather it refrences, I know what you did last summer, Halloween, Psycho, The Ring, Scream (possibly), and I think Friday the 13th. Great tune, great band. Also the Kid Rock/Pamela Anderson/Tommy Lee fight, Kayne West being a douche and Paris Hilton refrences are thrown in for good measure too.

#2-Rob Zombie - Living Dead Girl

Once again Rob makes the list. Who will be #1? Check back tomorrow to find out.

#3-Rob Zombie - Dragula

No explaination needed again, its Rob Zombie, what else can you say? What will the top two be? Stay tuned to find out. And don't be surprised if you see Rob again

The Shake Weight for Men Workout: aka the funniest infomercial EVER...

Good god, who was the genius that let this get through. "30-45 seconds and I'm already covered in sweat " yea... no sexual innuendo there. Seriously unless the (painfully) obvious sexual puns/innuendo was part of the marketing strategy. Ellen found it first and it was just for women (infomercial wasn't as funny as this one) then these people called her back and said they were making a bigger, longer... (no I'm not making this up, how could I) version for men. Jon Stewart showed it on the Daily Show last night and I nearly choked to death on my pasta from laughing so hard. Worst, or best infomercial ever depending on how you look at it.

#4- Seether- Remedy

one of the creepiest music videos EVER made. Fire coming from the end of a guitar, guy looking like a psycho carnie (oxymoron I know). Its a nice headbanger tune and thoroughly nasty all throughout.

#5-Don't Fear The Reaper- Blue Oyster Cult

do I even need to explain this one? No, I don't.

#6-Marilyn Manson -The Beautiful People

Best Manson song out there. I thought about using sweet dreams but seeing as how its a cover (albeit arguably better than the original) I chose some original work by him. Too bad he sold out. Even Trent Reznor regrets to a certain extent making him hit it big. Creepy video though

#7-Animal I Have Become Three Days Grace

Animal I have become, as in werewolf sort of? Not exactly but still kickass video and the last one I have to explain why its "halloween" related. The top 6 will be pretty self-evident

#7 Duality-Slipknot

I'm not explaining this one. Print out the lyrics and you'll understand. Plus they always, and I mean ALWAYS wear those masks in public. They showed up to the grammies in tuxedos and still had the fucking masks on! They get on the list for that reason alone

#9-Lithium (Nirvana)

The reason I've put this up on my list is because it is a downright creepy song. For those of you who don't know Lithium is used to treat bipolar disorder, in 1992-3 its all they really had. Kurt was painfully bipolar as am I so this song has special meaning to me, plus it shows his fall into madness here. Doesn't get much creepier than that.

#10 scary music video- Halloween "Meet the creeper Rob Zombie" Music Video,

Ok a thing I'm doing for halloween coming up a top 10 list of the 10 best/scariest music videos. #10 is "Meet the Creeper" by Rob Zombie

#10 scary music video- Halloween "Meet the creeper Rob Zombie" Music Video,

Remember Hamid Karzi? Yeah...

This guy was supposed to be the "savior" of Afghanistan. Frankly I'm amazed he's still alive because of all the assassination attempts there have already been on his life it also turns out he's a corrupt little bastard too. Seems that he has learned the Chicago style of voting, stealing votes. According to the UN (yeah they did something useful, I'm stunned too)

A UN-backed election watchdog has declared invalid hundreds of thousands of votes for Afghanistan's president in the disputed August election, apparently stripping Hamid Karzai of outright victory and setting the stage for a second round.

After nearly two months of investigations, the Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) – controlled by a majority of non-Afghans – found Karzai's total had fallen to 48.3%, according to an independent analysis. He needed 50% to clinch another term in office.

A separate election commission that backs the president will have to endorse the findings and call for a second-round vote to be held in the next few weeks.

I wonder if the UN monitored our election how many votes would have found out to be stolen by either side. Just food for thought. Just what we need now...

Song of the week #1 A Town Called Hypocrisy

eh, maybe its the fact that I've been sick or just lazy updating my blog but I thought I'd give this a try. A song each weekend that captures my current mood.

Story of Stuff, Full Version; How Things Work, About Stuff aka indoctrination...

ok the reason I am posting this to my blog is that I really believe in a debate an exchange of the ideas that are out there. No matter how batshit crazy they are. I am in a critical thinking class this semester at the U of M where I will either have to debate for (god forbid), against this video and the statements this crazy bitch puts forth, without much citation mind you or be a mob and go after both sides. I hope I get to debate against the video, for obvious reasons. I actually saw this on Glenn Beck about a month ago and I plan on also posting the video that debunks this. The biggest problem I have with this video is that its being used like "An Inconvient Truth" was. That is that this is fact and there is no debate about this, the issue is settled. This is being used in schools as an indoctrination method for young school children. This is disgusting propganda that Gobbles and Pravda (look it up) would be very proud of. First tool in taking over a society, indoctrinate the children (see: Hitler youth), it might already be too late.

Fox vs.Obama

It has seemed to me that ever since MSNBC/NBC have essentially went into the tank for Obama after Super Tuesday 2008 FoxNews has been in an interesting position. Faux, as the left likes to call it, is seemingly the only opposition voice left in the TV media. I can't believe how far the other networks have fallen, I used to watch MSNBC and I literally can't anymore. I do try but the seething liberalism soaks through on everything, except their weekend series where they interview prison guards and prisoners (a lot of whom I bet voted for Obama, including the dead ones but I digress). I might just be viewing it through partisan glasses but Fox actually tends to have balanced views and has liberals on, Maddow and Olberman on the other hand take people from DailyKos and AirAmerica and treat them like objective observers. Hint to MSNBC, if you want more viewers stop sucking Obama's dick and have people on that are critical of him. Fox has great debates from respectable liberals (Juan Williams and Maria Liason from NPR come to mind) and MSNBC needs to have more than just Bill Bennett as a token every now and then. Here's the article from the NYT of all places...

“We’re going to treat them the way we would treat an opponent,” said Anita Dunn, the White House communications director, in a telephone interview on Sunday. “As they are undertaking a war against Barack Obama and the White House, we don’t need to pretend that this is the way that legitimate news organizations behave.”
Attacking the news media is a time-honored White House tactic but to an unusual degree, the Obama administration has narrowed its sights to one specific organization, the Fox News Channel, calling it, in essence, part of the political opposition.
Her comments are only the latest in the volatile exchange between the administration and the top-rated network, which is owned by the News Corporation, controlled by Rupert Murdoch. Last month, Roger Ailes, the chairman of Fox News, and David Axelrod, a senior adviser to President Obama, met for coffee in New York, in what Politico, which last week broke that news, labeled a “Fox summit.”

While neither party has said what was discussed, some have speculated that a truce, or at least an adjustment in tone, was at issue. (Mr. Ailes and Mr. Obama reportedly reached a temporary accord after a meeting in mid-2008.) But shots are still being fired, which animates the idea that both sides see benefits in the feud.

Fox seems to relish the controversy.

“Instead of governing, the White House continues to be in campaign mode, and Fox News is the target of their attack mentality,” Michael Clemente, the channel’s senior vice president for news, said in a statement on Sunday. “Perhaps the energy would be better spent on the critical issues that voters are worried about.”

Fox’s senior vice president for programming, Bill Shine, says of the criticism from the White House, “Every time they do it, our ratings go up.” Mr. Obama’s first year is on track to be the Fox News Channel’s highest rated.

One Fox executive said that the jabs by the White House could solidify the network’s audience base and recalled that Mr. Ailes had remarked internally: “Don’t pick a fight with people who like to fight.” The executive asked not to be named while discussing internal conversations.

Certainly, Fox continues to aggressively bolster its on-air talent, most recently with the hiring of John Stossel, the libertarian investigative journalist from ABC News, for its spin-off channel, Fox Business. The business channel is also keen on another administration critic, Lou Dobbs, who met for dinner with Mr. Ailes last month, according to two people with direct knowledge of the meeting.

The shift for Fox News — the favorite network of the Bush administration, now the least favored one of the Obama administration — has financial implications for the News Corporation, especially given the network’s status as a growth engine in a perilous time for media companies.

Fox’s programs have drawn record numbers of viewers this year. Through last week, Fox averaged 1.2 million viewers at any given time this year, up from one million viewers through the same time last year. Previously, the channel peaked in 2003, the year the Iraq war started, with nearly 1.1 million viewers.

But controversial comments by the host Glenn Beck have also prompted an ad boycott. And the perception of Fox News as an opposition party has also affected its news correspondents, including Major Garrett, its chief White House correspondent, who Ms. Dunn says is a fair reporter. Mr. Garrett and other Fox correspondents have been directed by Mr. Clemente not to appear on the channel’s most opinionated programs.

Still, Paul Rittenberg, who oversees ad sales for Fox, said the channel existed in a climate where viewers choose cable news channels based on affinity. His channel, he said, stresses in its pitch to advertisers that “people who watch Fox News believe it’s the home team.”

To many Democrats, of course, the “home team” is conservative, a view only compounded by Fox’s at times skeptical coverage of Mr. Obama this year.

“I’ve got one television station that is entirely devoted to attacking my administration,” he said in June, though he did not mention Fox by name. He added, “You’d be hard pressed if you watched the entire day to find a positive story about me on that front.”

The White House has limited administration members’ appearances on the network in recent weeks. In mid-September, when the White House booked Mr. Obama on a round robin of Sunday morning talk shows, it skipped Fox and called it an “ideological outlet,” leading the “Fox News Sunday” anchor Chris Wallace to appear on Bill O’Reilly’s prime-time show and call the administration “the biggest bunch of crybabies I have dealt with in my 30 years in Washington.”

Ms. Dunn called that remark juvenile and stressed that administration officials would still talk to Fox, and that Mr. Obama was likely to be interviewed on the network in the future. But, she added, “we’re not going to legitimize them as a news organization.”

In an interview, Mr. Clemente suggested that there was an element of “shoot the messenger” in the back and forth. “Sometimes it’s actually helpful to have an organization or a person that you can go up against for whatever reason,” he said.

Fox argues that its news hours — 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and 6 to 8 p.m. on weekdays — are objective. The channel has taken pains recently to highlight its news programs, including the two hours led by Shepard Smith, its chief news anchor. And its daytime newscasts draw more viewers than CNN or MSNBC’s prime-time programs.

“The average consumer certainly knows the difference between the A section of the newspaper and the editorial page,” Mr. Clemente said.

The White House rejects the news and editorial page comparison, and officials there can rattle off any number of perceived offenses. They date to the month before Mr. Obama formally started his presidential campaign, when one of the network’s morning hosts falsely claimed that he had attended a madrassa, an Islamic school. (The incident happened on what Fox calls an entertainment show, “Fox and Friends”; the mistake was corrected on the air later.)

More recently, Fox hosts have promoted tea party rallies against big government and steered attention toward a number of White House czar appointments. Mr. Beck, in particular, was credited with forcing Van Jones, a low-level White House adviser for environmental jobs, to resign last month. Mr. Beck devoted numerous segments to Mr. Jones and called him a “communist-anarchist radical.”

“If it wasn’t for Fox or talk radio, we’d be done as a republic,” Mr. Beck said in the wake of the resignation.

Mr. Beck, whose 5 p.m. program consistently draws three million viewers, is a “cultural phenomenon now,” Mr. Shine said. But this success has come at a price: he is the source of considerable discomfort for Fox’s journalists, especially for false statements on his program. In August, for instance, Mr. Beck claimed that Mr. Garrett was “never called on” at White House press briefings, but Mr. Garrett had asked a question that day.

Weeks earlier, Mr. Beck labeled Mr. Obama a racist, leading to an advertising boycott by ColorOfChange.org, an advocacy group that Mr. Jones helped found. Dozens of advertisers have distanced themselves from Mr. Beck’s show, causing headaches for Mr. Rittenberg’s advertising team, although he said Fox “hasn’t lost a dime” because the ads were moved to different hours.

Fox has made the channel’s tensions with the White House a story. In August, the network’s top-rated host, Mr. O’Reilly, dispatched one of his opinion program’s producers to ask why the administration seemed “so thin-skinned” at a White House briefing. The deputy press secretary disagreed, and said that Mr. O’Reilly had interviewed Mr. Obama during his candidacy last year. The administration’s aggressive stance suggests that it does not view Fox’s audience as one that can be persuaded. During the presidential campaign, Ms. Dunn said, it booked campaign representatives on Fox to try to reach undecided voters, but by mid-October, the campaign had mostly withdrawn them from the channel’s programs.

“It was beyond diminishing returns,” she said. “It was no returns.”