I know that ‘Candidates swing away in final debate’ (NJ)…

…may make for an interesting headline; but I have a possibly more accurate one.

Supporters face off

An hour before the debate, crowds of Christie and Daggett supporters faced off in front of the studios, yelling taunts from opposite sides of the street and separated by cars.

“Sinking ship! Sinking ship!” chanted the Daggett fans, a reference to Christie’s slippage in the polls.

“We can’t hear you! We can’t hear you!” answered the Christie squad, which outnumbered Daggett’s group about 4-to-1.

It’s “Jon Corzine can’t draw a crowd.”

Moe Lane

PS: Christie for Governor.

PPS: A comment from Democratic Christie supporter Councilwoman Tana Raymond, on Corzine’s ties to convicted Bergen County Democratic chair Joseph Ferriero:

“For years, Jon Corzine facilitated the corrupt leadership of Joseph Ferriero at the Bergen County Democratic Organization with hundreds of thousands of dollars in financial contributions. Even as Corzine preached ethics reform in public, his actions enabled the corrupt status quo and completely contradicted his words. It’s ridiculous for the governor to attempt to play off his financial contributions to Ferriero as something other than what they actually were – Corzine looking the other way in the face of corruption for his own political benefit.”

Civilization coming to Facebook. Yes, that’s why the vulture’s on your chair.

Well, it’s not like we needed a functioning society, anyway.  And the irony that it’ll fall because we’ll all be playing Civilization is not lost to me:

Civilization creator Sid Meier has confirmed that an online version of the popular strategy title is coming to Facebook.

Civilization Network will arrive on the social networking website next year. The game will emphasise cooperative play, allowing friends to share technology and form military alliances with one another.

“The game will offer everything you enjoy in Civ in a fully persistent environment – you can play as much as you like, whenever you like, and it’ll be free to play,” Meier wrote on its Facebook fan page.

Via the Backwards Compatible webcomic, which has already made… plans.

The only Bennigan’s in Nebraska has closed.

Admittedly, in the grand scheme of things, this is probably not that big a story.  Still, if the Lorax can speak for the trees, I figure that I can at least speak for ailing themed restaurant franchises.  This one was in Lincoln:  it survived the first die-off, but just couldn’t hold on in this current economic climate…

In July 2008, about half the Bennigan’s restaurants closed when owner Metromedia Restaurant Group declared bankruptcy.

About 160 franchised restaurants, including the one in Lincoln, stayed open. That number has since shrunk to fewer than 50 in the U.S. and around 50 internationally, according to the Bennigan’s Web site.

The restaurant industry has been hit hard by the recession.

The National Restaurant Association’s Restaurant Performance Index has been growth-negative for 22 straight months, and 68 percent of restaurant operators reported a same-store sales decline in August.

I hadn’t even realized that the chain was in trouble, but apparently so: the number of restaurants has dropped by two-thirds in just under a year.  Still, customers can always go to Iowa.

For now, at least.

Moe Lane

DOOMWatch: Let the Blue-on-Blue sniping begin in Virginia.

(Via @mattklewis) I would take it as a personal favor from the Left if they would [verb deleted*] Mudcat Saunders. He’s very unhappy about the upcoming Democratic abandonment of Virginia – to the point where he’s obviously indifferent to the fact that he’s openly cussing to CNN about how stupid both the administration and the national Democratic party is being right now.  Usually all of this happens after the election, but then: there’s a reason why the title of this post is DOOMWatch.

Possibly the best part of the article – if not the most profane – is this paragraph:

“It’s a godd[*]mn shame when our center of government, the White House, won’t talk on the record. I discount all of it,” Saunders said of the Post article. “It’s a lack of courage. And it goes against transparency that Obama told us last year was going to come out of the White House. Anybody who makes anonymous quotes out of the White House should be fired.”

Remember. Democrat, saying that about Democrats.

Moe Lane

*Not for reasons of profanity: it’s merely that I don’t expect Democrats to do as I say, so I might as well let them look to their own judgment about what to do next. This strategy has paid dividends in Virginia so far, after all.

PS: Bob McDonnell for Governor.

Crossposted to RedState.

Scott Ott needs to get one last mailing out.

As noted before, Scott (of Scrappleface fame) is running for Lehigh County Executive, and he’s in the middle of a $5,000 pledge drive to fund getting another mailing in before the election. He’s no more than $500 away from it. You can contribute here.

If you’ve ever laughed at anything that he’s written, then you’ve probably gotten at least five bucks’ worth of entertainment out of him. Here’s a good time to pay him back for that; I just did, and I don’t really have it to spare.

Crossposted to RedState.

Profiles in Cowardice: ‘Moderate’ Democrats and the Chamber of Commerce.

(H/T: Instapundit) The following two paragraphs from this piece (“White House attacks worry moderate Democrats,” and the title will be brought up again later) highlight not only the problem that quote-unquote ‘moderate’ Democrats are having with the administration’s War On The Chamber Of Commerce: they highlight the general problem with ‘moderate’ Democrats.

While Limbaugh and Fox commentators like Beck make no secret of their dislike for Democrats, the Chamber’s Republican lean is partially counteracted by nominal and financial support for pro-business Democrats who need to win votes from pro-business Republicans. The campaign websites of moderate Democrats from across the country are filled with endorsements from the Chamber of Commerce.

[snip]

Rep. Sanford Bishop (D-Ga.), another recipient of a Chamber contribution, said Thursday that he had no intention of stepping into the middle of a fight between the White House and the Chamber, but he did note that he had won an award for his voting record from the national Chamber of Commerce.

How brave of him.  Bishop is from a D+1 district, by the way; and he’s got a challenger.  State Rep. Mike Keown, and his comment about Bishop pretty much sums it up:

Unfortunately, we are stuck with a professional politician who listens to liberal California House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, left wing environmentalists, big labor, and Washington lobbyists while ignoring you.

Continue reading Profiles in Cowardice: ‘Moderate’ Democrats and the Chamber of Commerce.

Quite a lot of people know Barack Obama, actually. Hence this film.

I’ve been chewing on this Richard Cohen article on the upcoming film “By the People: The Election of Barack Obama,” and I’ve finally figured out what was nagging me about it. It’s because of this passage:

What’s striking about this inside look at Obama is how being inside gets you nowhere. It is virtually the same as being outside. What’s also striking about this movie is its lack of arc. Obama is always golden, always going to win and always does. His issue, if it can be called that, is himself. He is something new, something young, something biracial and something black, but he is not something from a political or ideological constituency. He is adored by his fans — the directors, Amy Rice and Alicia Sams, included — not for something he’s done, but rather for something he is.

Richard Cohen thought that he was watching a documentary. Still does. So his confusion over the lack of tension, internal conflict, and ‘arc’ makes sense, in this context: you need all of these for the documentary genre, which is of course supposed to be a type of film where the director attempts to show the essential truth of a situation or person on camera.

But you need none of them for propaganda.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.