Archive for August, 2012

The border South region and it’s Senate races

Monday, August 20th, 2012

Bad headline.

McCaskill wants Akin to stay in race despite rape comment.

It should read “McCaskill wants Akin to stay in race because of Rape Comment”.  Remember, McCaskill played a part in the selection of her opponent: ran an ad which attacked all of the Republican nomination candidates, which attacked Akin with phrases that would come out of a pro- Akin Primary ad.
I don’t know if this means he’s doomed.  Nate Silver offers his thoughts here — and you will note that the example given for parallel’s sake — George Allen against Jim Webb — Allen very nearly won.
Further South… to Tennessee

Woods said there has been a lot of second guessing about how Clayton was able to win as an unknown. Some think that Democrats confused his name with that of Clayton McWhorter, a venture capitalist in Franklin, or even Jim Clayton, a Knoxville banker who’s been part of Clayton Homes.
“Of course, we wouldn’t be mixed up about Clayton in this area,” Woods said. Jim Clayton is a Republican.
Woods supported Overall not because she thought she would win but because she would be good in a debate with Corker, she said.Jim Gray, a former Knox County Democratic Party chairman, said he, too, supported Overall. As for November, he’ll probably vote for Martin Pleasant, an engineer with the Knox County Public Works Department, who is running on the Green Party ticket.
A federal judge on Thursday refused to take any steps toward removing Clayton as the Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate. Larry Crim, who finished fourth in the Senate primary, is seeking to have Clayton removed.

Incidentally
Mark Clayton, the Democratic Party’s unconventional, disavowed candidate for the U.S. Senate, didn’t push the button for party nominee Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election. He said he voted for Constitution Party candidate Chuck Baldwin, a personal friend from his days in Pensacola, Fla.
“I used to go to his church,” Clayton said at a news conference last week. “If you have a friend that’s running for president and you like them and you agree with a lot of the things that he says … I did that as a supportive friend.”

And that race keeps on swirling.

More seriously, kinda… but of a “sigh” variety…

Paul Sadler in Texas.  Now the general asumption is that’s it, game over and that is probably right. It is true Sadler has virtually zero name recognition but why is that? Did state newspapers ever mention the Democratic race? Have you ever even seen a picture of Paul Sadler in print? …On Television?
It is bad enough the Republicans have taken over state government but it seems they dominate the state press as well.
… The Sigh variety is because… y’know… for some reason Mark Clayton’s problems are getting lumped in to the tag “anti-gay”.  Doesn’t really do it all justice, and also this is Tennessee, but… Ted Cruz is anti-gay too?

look what obama’s wrought

Friday, August 17th, 2012

Here we see not the latest issue of the National Review, but the one that’s probably on your newstand right now.  It laments the omnigovernment Commissioner Obama taking control of all aspects of our lives when the better bet is in the hands of Community and Society.

Unless they’re John Taylor Gatto, I don’t know how far they’re taking the tsk tsking at the Progressive Reform entity of Public schooling.

Marriage is an interesting one here.   They do show a heterosexual couple I might as well say.

Healthcare is, I guess, the raging debate in the land.  Obamacare and all that.

 

All adds up to a Hollow Country.  Crade to Grave.  At all stages of life.  People go to school under the yoke of taxpayer dollars, are married under the yoke of Government.  And then when they die, the government does some last minute paper shuffling of record keeping.

All very disturbing.

As we await the Big Paul Ryan and Rand Paul convention speeches at the RNC Convention, I’ll take us back and hope that they can weave some literary references into them.  From someone other than Ayn Rand, naturally. Here’s Herbert Hoover, 1936:

“The New Deal may be a design to replace the American system with despotism.  It may be the dream stuff of false liberalism.  It may be the valor of muddle.  Their relationship to each other,, however, is exactly the sistership of the witches who brewed the cauldron of powerful trouble for MacBeth.  Their product is the poisoning of Americanism.”

More Shakespeare in our casual political partisan demagoguery, please.

where relationship problems start

Wednesday, August 15th, 2012

“At first I thought he was a douche.  Then I got to know him and saw that he wasn’t a douche.  Now I find out that he is a douche after all.  I guess you should always trust your first instincts.”

“We met at the Naked Bike Run.  I guess he thought that just ’cause I was naked, then…”

Donald Trump and Ron Paul not to speak at Republican National Convention

Friday, August 10th, 2012

Could the Republican National Committee Convention get any… screwier?  I suppose in terms of screws, it dodged a bullet with this one

Trump was offered a major speaking role during the convention, but has told the Romney campaign that he relishes the role he plays as an independent voice and believes his support of the Romney campaign could be served in other ways. The Romney camp is said to have already proposed to Trump how they would like him involved at the convention, but the nature of his involvement is being kept secret.

In election news simultaneously related and unrelated, Roseanne Barr has picked up the Peace and Freedom Party nomination, which basically descends a run into presidency into about this:

And her campaign for president’s continued long past the point when it could be either a career-revitalizing stunt or a sharp jab at the major-party contenders.

This isn’t too bad.  But there’s a parallel with Trump in that in 2000, Donald Trump ran for the Presidency on the Reform Party for a time, and basically taking stabs at Pat Buchanan and aggravating Jesse Ventura because the run ended up not being all that seriously and wouldn’t take out Buchanan.  Roseanne Barr’s campaign is — well, either career revitalizing stunt not worked out or a sharp jab at the major party contenders not worked out, but she will never descend to —

Billionaire real estate mogul Donald Trump is back on his birther talk, tweeting yesterday that he received a call from a credible source confirming that President Barack Obama’s birth certificate is a fraud.

And he was invited for a big speech at the Republican Convention?  One thing that gives me pause is the story originated with newsmax.

And here’s the actual speaking parade.

In particular, Sen. Rand Paul’s (R-Ky.) presence on the stage in Tampa will help supporters of the senator’s father, Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), who ran for president this year and caused the GOP headaches at multiple state party conventions.

And former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), who waged a hard fought and at times bitter battle with Mitt Romney during the Republican primary, will also be a primetime speaker.

The Republican National Committee announced Paul and Santorum’s speaking slots along with slots for former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin.

Announcing Paul and Santorum one day after publicizing the first group of headliners looked like a way to try to mitigate the lumps that the GOP knows it will take from Democrats, who will likely use Paul’s statements on fiscal policy and Santorum’s past remarks on social policy to label the party as extreme.

The party has a Ron Paul problem they hope to stuff with Rand Paul.

most bewildering item in the latest willamette week

Thursday, August 9th, 2012

Willamette Week letter to the editor:

First, I have been using the library computers on a daily basis for about three months. During that time, I have seen various problems there, mostly rising from the fact that the library is now being used as a social-service agency. But I have never seen any signs that anyone was watching porn, and I know that the librarians watch out for that kind of thing.

3…2…1

Laughing laughing laughing.  Not terribly observant is this library patron, is he?

Actually I believe porn viewing is allowable to some degree or other, or better to say it is left to the discretion of the immediate fellow patrons to complain.   I once sat by and watching as the security corralled a man who was masturbating, and insisting he wasn’t, and you can imagine the conversation was of the “No I wasn’t” “Don’t insult my intelligence” variety and awkward for all involved.

Anyway, the initial anecdote in the Willamette Week article may or may not be relevant to the story, but that is a different debate than that suggested by John Emerson in denial vantage point.

Tea Party whipped in Washington’s 4th District

Wednesday, August 8th, 2012

Yeah, Doc Hastings came in first, and the Democrat came in second.  After that we get this

Kennewick Republican Jamie Wheeler picked up 7,368 votes, or 11 percent, while Ephrata Democrat Mohammad H. Said received 2,012 votes, or 3 percent.

And 3, 2, 1…
Voters will have a clear choice in November between the Democrat candidate who is devoted to President Obama’s liberal government-knows-best agenda, and my commitment to end Obamacare, the bailouts, the out-of-control spending, and the endless government red-tape in order to free small businesses to create new jobs and grow our economy.”

At least he didn’t use the word “Socialist” in that… “Huh” yawner.
But looking over the results this is kinda interesting…

Wheeler fared slightly better in Benton and Franklin counties, where she’s had local tea party support, than in the district on average.

In Benton County, she earned 2,686 votes, or 12 percent. Hastings picked up 13,228 votes, or 58 percent, while Baechler received 6,110 votes, or 27 percent. Said received 668 votes or 3 percent.

In Franklin County, Wheeler received 552 votes, or 12 percent. Hastings received 2,779 votes, or 59 percent. Baechler won 1,230 votes, or 26 percent. Said got 152 votes, or 3 percent.

We’re parsing statistics here, aren’t we?  Just to nab some information out of the lackluster political results somehow.  So, Local tea party support is worth a percentage point against a supposed Establishment Republican, on average.
All right.  Let’s go to the county info.  Big Liberal Yakima County gave Baechler her greatest support, and Wheeler her weakest support.  Walla Walla County is apparently Tea Party haven, giving Wheeler upward over 15 percent, beating out Baechler’s support — not a Democratic bastion, apparently.
 We’ll just have to see where those 11 percent of Wheeler supporters…
It is my sincere hope than Jamie is our new U.S. Representative – It doesn’t bode well for the district if she is not!

… slump off to.  I’m sure Edward Said’s support will slide comfortably into Baechler, so you know… I’m sure these 11 percent of Tea Party support has the balance of power between Hastings and Baechler… sure to consider her business experience and how that will apply to government policy and …

Harde har har, I know.

Jay Inslee came in first in the gubernatorial primary, by the way, which unless the “also runs” is packed to the grill of frothing right-wingers is a good sign that he should be the favorite for next gubernatorial spot.  (Does his Eastern Washington pedigree garner him any increase in support there?  Oh, probably not.).  And “Netroots Favorite” Darcy Burner fell down to the kill.