Month: September 2012

#rsrh FL-18 Watch: Allen West campaign kicks Patrick Murphy campaign in the groin.

You read this Roll Call article, and you get the feeling that the author was doing his level best not to laugh at Murphy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=R-lDL9_qDDs

For those without video: it’s an ad that compares what Rep. West and Mr. Murphy were doing on the night of February 16, 2003: West was getting ready to deploy to Iraq, while Murphy was ending a night of bar fights and public intoxication by getting arrested.  Hold on, let me preserve a screen shot for posterity:

God, but this business is fun, sometimes. Continue reading #rsrh FL-18 Watch: Allen West campaign kicks Patrick Murphy campaign in the groin.

Vernon Parker (R CAND, AZ-09) to deliver this week’s Republican Address.

The national party is kind of excited about this particular race and candidate:

“This week brought more disappointing economic news, and more reminders that President Obama’s weak leadership and failed policies have hurt small businesses and driven jobs overseas,” House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) said.  “We need principled leaders who will come to Congress and join Republicans in the fight to help create a better environment for jobs growth by addressing our looming debt crisis and stopping all the looming tax hikes which, according to Ernst & Young, could destroy up to 700,000 jobs.  Vernon Parker is an independent thinker and a rising star in the Republican Party who is committed to listening to the people of Arizona and restoring the American Dream.  I’m sure Vernon will do a great job outlining what is at stake in this election, and I’m looking forward to hearing his address.”

…for a variety of reasons.  First is that Parker was a pretty good catch for this race: he’s a local mayor with national experience in the federal government under both Bush administrations, as well as being one of the NRCC’s Young Guns.  Second?  His opponent, Kyrsten Sinema, is high-functioning crazy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=MVXuPGPeuu8

Continue reading Vernon Parker (R CAND, AZ-09) to deliver this week’s Republican Address.

I’m seeing what’s shaping up to be a profoundly Cranky Friday out there…

…the question is: do I participate in this one, or not?  There’s a part of me that’s actually not really in the mood to poke the anthill with a stick today.

No, I’m showing no other signs of illness.  Believe me, I thought of that possibility right off the bat.

Tracking Ohio’s absentee ballot requests.

We[**] got a guy out there doing just that, and the link to his spreadsheet is here.

Executive summary: the process is ongoing, and what’s being tracked are absentee/early ballot REQUESTS, not turned-in ballots.  So it’s not telling us who’s ahead in Ohio; it’s merely telling us what we know of which party’s members are asking for ballots.  In other words, it’s a possible measure of voter enthusiasm in Ohio.  So…

2012 2008 % of 08
Total 601208 740725 81%
Democrat 177155 288270 61%
Republican 145560 144300 101%
Cuyohoga 159572 231497 69%
D Cuyahoga 86274 119891 72%
R Cuyahoga 38134 35067 109%
Hamilton 61253 102796 60%
D Hamilton 9793 16763 58%
R Hamilton 18304 23677 77%
Summit 39056 92941 42%
D Summit 9581 43524 22%
R Summit 7525 12857 59%

Continue reading Tracking Ohio’s absentee ballot requests.

#rsrh I just realized what’s bugging all of those High-D pollsters…

…(not to mention their pet interpreters).  It’s not that they’re getting their methodology and professional qualifications (and basic morality*) questioned; it’s that they’re having that done to them now by people whose commentary will show up in a Google search.  This is apparently… disconcerting to them.

I know, I know: we have worse done to us every day.  Yes, and we’ve developed scar tissue accordingly.  Show a little empathy, willya? These folks aren’t used to being challenged, bless their hearts…

Moe Lane

*Yeah.  Cut that last one out unless you have pictures, or something.

John Crace’s mind snaps while reviewing Naomi Wolf (Theoretically NSFW).

The book in question is called Vagina – yes, of course I’m going to link to it on Amazon*; shame is is a Batman villain** – and John Crace clearly has decided that if someone is going to write a four hundred page book about her… I believe that the current term of art is ‘hoo-hah?’ …then the least he can do is to write a four hundred word review that recaps properly the transformative challenge to, and defiance of, Western patriarchy that is Naomi Wolf’s genitalia.  And, lest you think that the Guardian is merely being cruel – which it was, by publishing the article*** – read Jenny Turner’s review at the same site, which is: a, considerably longer; b, much more sympathetic to Wolf’s faction of feminism than are most of the people reading this****; and c, equally goggle-eyed astounded that Naomi Wolf wrote this thing.

All in all: that’s one sweet gig Naomi Wolf’s got there.  I’m impressed.

Moe Lane Continue reading John Crace’s mind snaps while reviewing Naomi Wolf (Theoretically NSFW).

#rsrh “Come on, honey, bring your mortars! We’re going to a spontaneous demonstration!”

Let me start this by saying the obvious: I am not on Senator McCain’s Christmas card list; he is not on mine; and we’re both no doubt very happy about that.  But as the above quote in the title shows, he is sound on the self-evident absurdity of believing that the assassination of our Ambassador to Libya (and his staffers) was anything except a pre-planned assassination by terrorist groups:

Honestly, the outside world is not your Xbox.  People do not wander around with heavy weapons, waiting for the right moment of social disorder to set them off.  Doing so causes talk.

Moe Lane

PS: Every Republican politician and pundit knows this instinctively.  Even those of us who never served in the military.  That it took the Obama administration so long to work this out for themselves is profoundly… diagnostic.

#rsrh ‘Won’t Back Down’ and the Walker Effect.

The interesting bit in this article on union pushback against the new movie Won’t Back Down is not this one…

In real life, Parents Across America, an advocacy group which has received union funding, has launched a “fight Hollywood” campaign asking members to contact entertainers at all involved with the film or even a summer concert to kick it off. The intent, according to its website, which lists phone numbers and emails of agents and publicists, is to brand the film as a “feel bad, not feel good” movie. On their list: Davis and Gyllenhaal, plus Meryl Streep, Morgan Freeman, Jack Black, the Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl, Maroon 5’s Adam Levine and Josh Groban.

…it’s this one: Continue reading #rsrh ‘Won’t Back Down’ and the Walker Effect.