It’s interesting. If you look at these two ads from American Action Network – one for California, and one for New York – solely from the perspective of a national observer, it’s a headscratcher as to why a conservative-leaning group is targeting six Democratic Members of Congress (Tim Bishop, Lois Capps, John Garamendi, Jerry McNerney, Bill Owens, & Louise Slaughter) in two Blue States; particularly since none of the individuals involved are freshmen. And yet AAN did not merely do the ads; they’re going to be backing them with targeted online advertising. And why are they doing this?
Because California and New York both had… unexpected… results in the redistricting wars. Ones that actually ended up not hurting Republicans as much as expected. Continue reading American Action Network’s targeted advertising and the redistricting wars.
I mean, this happens to me, I’m going to react just like these people did:
…disbelief, freaking out, and then not believing my luck.
Via my email.
Well. North Carolina just sort of… fell apart for the Democrats over the last few years, huh? The Democratic Governor is fleeing her job, the legislature flipped, the districts have gotten redrawn to eliminate some truly egregious gerrymandering, and the upcoming Democratic convention in Charlotte threatens to be a public relations disaster. It’s not very surprising, then, that NC-07 Democratic incumbent Mike McIntyre is sweating this election – Cook has him as Toss-Up, which is pretty much solely because of incumbency – and it’s even less surprising that Republican NC state Senator David Rouzer is eager for the general election. We talked a little on the election, and what got done in the state legislature over the last couple of years:
David’s site is here.
Moe Lane (crosspost)
Then again, neither do the Taiwanese news animators.
Via AoSHQ.
Moe Lane
PS: Obligatory: Don’t rob gas stations. Even if you do have large breasts.
Remember: Nobel. Laureate.
It’s multivalued irony, too. From a 1998 article where Paul Krugman apparently took to task poor technological prophesying:
The growth of the Internet will slow drastically, as the flaw in “Metcalfe’s law”–which states that the number of potential connections in a network is proportional to the square of the number of participants–becomes apparent: most people have nothing to say to each other! By 2005 or so, it will become clear that the Internet’s impact on the economy has been no greater than the fax machine’s.
…Are we at the point yet where we have to explain to the younger generation what a fax machine is?
Via… somebody on Twitter, sorry. The social media conversation moved too quickly for me to do more than get a website browser tab up for me to blog about this later. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to set up a streaming video on my TV for my youngest to watch while I use Skype to record a phone interview with a US House candidate in another time zone; said interview will later be turned into a Youtube video that can be embedded into third-party websites – and hopefully generate a decent amount of national awareness (and online fundraising) for the candidate in question.
Try doing that with a fax machine, Paul Krugman.
Moe Lane
I’d normally be more or less willing to wait until the Wheel of True Reasons finished spinning on Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr and let us know whether his ‘exhaustion’ was actually sex addiction, prescription drug overdose, other substance abuse, suicidal depression – or, hell, actual exhaustion. But this statement by Jackson’s father is simply too arrogantly provocative, even for the Rev. Jesse Jackson. And that’s saying something.
At an event in Chicago on Monday, Jackson’s father offered no details either.
“He is under medical supervision to regain his strength,” the Rev. Jesse Jackson said. “At an appropriate time he’ll share with the public that which he feels they should have.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Li974Dndffg&feature=related
California Dreamin’, The Mamas & The Papas
..Precisely one person in the live-action portion of that video is not an abject fashion victim by our current standards. It’s like they recorded it at the exact moment where styles of dress were changing. Bizarre.
I guess that I could try to do Deus Ex: Human Revolution again, although I never could get the flow of combat right on that one. Or maybe I could just start Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning from scratch, although obviously it didn’t hold my attention. Or I could just play Spider Solitaire forever.
This is starting to get grim.
(H/T: Hot Air Headlines) Or nephews. Nieces. Second cousins. Doesn’t matter, really: surely there’s a small child or two in Ricks’ life that he’d hate to see turned into an infantryman… what’s that? Yes, “infantryman:” because Ricks’ attempt to gussy up a moral-equivalent-of-war-forced-government-expansion in the form of a ‘draft’ WILL NOT FLY. If we bring back the draft – and may we never do – it will be a draft without deferments, without college exemptions, without National Guard sanctuaries… everybody goes, everybody fights. And if you have a true moral objection to war, well, the front lines can always use more stretcher details.
Sorry, but I have two kids. If they want to serve their country, I will be proud of them. But forcing them to spend three or four years enabling Thomas E. Ricks’ institutionalized need to pretend that expanding the role of government is morally equivalent to combat duty is not serving the country. Particularly since I’m not entirely certain that Ricks is entirely down with the idea that wars, once entered, need to be won… whether or not you agreed with the war in the first place*.
Moe Lane Continue reading Better idea, Thomas E Ricks: let’s draft YOUR kids.
