;)
The Commentariat -- Nov. 2, 2012
David Porter of the AP: "New Jersey will deploy military trucks to serve as polling places on Election Day in storm-battered communities, the state secretary of the state announced Thursday during a visit to this flood-ravaged town. The state is also extending the deadline on mail-in ballots. Department of Defense trucks will be parked at regular polling places that have lost power, as long as the sites are still accessible. Paper ballots will be used."
Presidential Race
Greg Sargent: The monthly jobs report, released this morning (see today's News Ledes for links) "was unexpectedly decent: 171,000 nonfarm jobs added in October, and unemployment essentially unchanged at 7.9 percent.... What these numbers really mean is that the last remaining catastrophe that could have derailed Obama's reelection effort didn't happen." ...
... Steve Benen: "... the figures offer good economic news for the American people, and good political news for President Obama." With charts. ...
... If you liked Benen's charts, indulge yourself in this post by Bill McBride of Calculated Risk. ...
... The View from Right Wing World. David Brockington of Lawyers, Guns & Money: "... the wingnut response, or in the words of one retweet I read, 'The jobs numbers come out today, and either they prove Obama is a complete failure or that he cooked the books. Those are the only choices.'"
Raymond Hernandez of the New York Times: "In a surprise announcement, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg [of New York city] said Thursday that Hurricane Sandy had reshaped his thinking about the presidential campaign and that as a result he was endorsing President Obama. Mr. Bloomberg, a political independent in his third term leading New York City, has been sharply critical of both Mr. Obama, a Democrat, and Mitt Romney..., saying that both men have failed to candidly confront the problems afflicting the nation. But he said he had decided over the past several days that Mr. Obama was the best candidate to tackle the global climate change that the mayor believes contributed to the violent storm, which took the lives of at least 38 New Yorkers and caused billions of dollars in damage." ...
... Bloomberg made his endorsement in an editorial opinion piece in Bloomberg News.
Michael Shear & Mark Landler of the New York Times: President Obama campaigned in Wisconsin & in Las Vegas, Nevada, Thursday. "Until Election Day, the president will be in nearly constant motion, flying to three states a day, as he works furiously to lock down what his campaign insists are narrow but durable leads. Mr. Obama was scheduled to spend all Friday in Ohio, and he is likely to return to the state at least one more time before Tuesday. In addition, the president's campaign released a television ad Thursday featuring effusive praise from [former Secretary of State Colin] Powell, [a Republican].... After avoiding attacks on Mr. Obama for 72 hours because of the storm, Mr. Romney plunged back into the fray in Roanoke, Va., mocking the president for proposing a cabinet-level post devoted to business development. Mr. Obama discussed the idea in an interview with MSNBC that was shown Monday, just as Mr. Romney was entering cease-fire mode." ...
... Here's the Powell ad:
Krissah Thompson of the Washington Post: Michelle Obama is on the campaign trail this week & is fundraising, too.
Nate Silver: "Mr. Obama continues to hold the lead in the vast majority of polls in Iowa, Nevada, Ohio and Wisconsin, the states that represent his path of least resistance toward winning the Electoral College. This was particularly apparent on Wednesday, a day when there were a remarkable number of polls, 27, released in the battleground states."
"The Blackmail Caucus." Paul Krugman: "I've seen a growing number of Romney supporters [arguing that] ... if he loses, Republicans will destroy the economy.... Arguing for Mr. Romney on the grounds that he could get things done veers dangerously close to accepting protection-racket politics, which have no place in American life." CW: I couldn't agree more with Krugman's takedown of the Des Moines Register's stupid rationale for endorsing Romney.
!!! Peter Baker of the New York Times: "Matt Romney, a son of the Republican presidential nominee, traveled to Moscow this week seeking Russian investors for his California-based real estate firm just days before his father is to wrap up a campaign in which he has vowed to take a tougher stance with the Kremlin.... The Romney campaign said it had no comment.... But while in Moscow, Mr. Romney told a Russian known to be able to deliver messages to Mr. Putin that despite the campaign rhetoric, his father wants good relations if he becomes president, according to a person informed about the conversation."
In a Washington Post op-ed, former Mississippi Governor, former RNC chair, & all-around unreconstituted redneck Haley Barbour, in a Washington Post op-ed, says the President has a lot of control over how disaster funds are distributed to states: "Republicans worried that [New Jersey Gov. Chris] Christie saying anything favorable about [President] Obama is politically disloyal need to remember that a governor's first responsibility is to his or her state and its people. Those in the media looking to determine political winners and losers in this situation should stop."
Wherein Dana Milbank proves he doesn't know the first thing about probability & statistics. ...
... Mark Blumenthal of the Huffington Post: "... some argue that Republican nominee Mitt Romney will come out on top because Obama's poll totals linger just below 50 percent. The arguments are based on what campaign pollsters used to call the 'incumbent rule,' the idea that when an officeholder seeks reelection, undecided voters would break decisively to challengers in the final days of the campaign. The problem is that such late shifts have become increasingly rare. They may never have been much of a factor in close presidential races and show few empirical signs of occurring among the undecided voters of 2012."
Congressional Races
Steven Shepard of the National Journal: in Indiana, GOP U.S. Senate candidate "Richard Mourdock's support has collapsed following his comments about rape at a debate last week, and the GOP nominee in the Indiana Senate race now trails by a significant margin, according to a new independent poll released on Friday [which] ... shows Democratic Rep. Joe Donnelly leading Mourdock, the state treasurer, 47 percent to 36 percent.... In September, the two candidates ran neck-and-neck...." CW: Donnelly is no friend of women. He's against abortion except in cases of rape, incest or health of the mother. It's pathetic that in much of the country, for a Democrat to win, his Republican opponent has to be a knuckle-dragging loon.
Voter Suppression
David Dayen of Firedoglake: "A three-judge panel of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday placed a stay on a lower court ruling that would allow voter disenfranchisement based on poll worker error. The panel, all appointed by either Bush 41 or Bush 43, ruled that Ohio may disallow ballots where the voter used the wrong precinct to vote. This is true even if the poll worker directed the voter to the wrong precinct. Otherwise, the opinion says, this would 'absolve voters of all responsibility for voting in the correct precinct.' ... the Sixth Circuit merely stayed the ruling of the lower court. The appeal still must be heard. But we are five days out from the election." ...
... BUT wait, there's more. Joe Guillen of the Cleveland Plain Dealer: "A small fraction of Ohio voters' absentee ballot requests may have been mistakenly rejected due to a recently discovered glitch in the transfer of change-of-address records. Even though the deadline for voters to register or change their address was three weeks ago, Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted just this week sent about 33,000 updated registration records to local elections officials." ...
... David Dayen: "He just didn't send the data.... This is ... just an example of how Husted has put his thumb on the scales of this election in the most pivotal state. And remember, he has to count the votes, too."
John Aravosis of AmericaBlog: at a predominently-black Broward County, Florida (yes, that Broward County!), the number of early voters suddenly drops by 1,000+ votes. How did that happen? The story is evolving? CW: thanks to Akhilleus for the link. Frankly, I'd be surprised if the Obama campaign didn't have a poll-watcher there counting noses. However, I didn't specifically see any poll-watchers when I voted early. Might be a failure of the system. ...
... Adam Smith of the Tampa Bay Times: in early Florida voting, Democrats are "crushing" Republicans in getting out the vote among "sporadic" -- i.e., UNlikely -- voters. ...
... CW: obviously, Democrats think Florida is still in play. In a last-minute call, Bill Clinton is coming to Fort Myers today. This is Republican country, although Fort Myers itself does have a tiny pocket of heavily-Democratic precincts. Except as I noted above, I have some anecdotal evidence -- my own experience -- that Democrats have a better GOTV system than do Republicans. Within 24 hours of the time I voted, I got an e-mail from the Obama campaign thanking me for voting. So they noticed. A few hours later, Sen. Marco Rubio (RTP-Fla.) robo-called, urging me to vote for Romney. A Republican lady robo-caller was on the phone this morning with something about Democrats killing jobs. And one of those fundamentalist orgs robo-called me yesterday. After I said I disagreed with something Billy Graham said about gay marriage, my "survey" was over. So only the Democrats know it's too late to persuade me. ...
... AND from the fundy crowd, here's a dire warning from Mike Huckabee that "your vote will be recorded in eternity" and it may not withstand "the test of fire." Translation: if you don't vote Republican, you'll go to hell:
Other Stuff
Read the cover story by Paul Barrett. Barrett covers all bases. ...
** Tim Egan: "Climate change is to the Republican base ... untouchable and unmentionable. Their party is financed by people whose fortunes are dependent upon denying that humans have caused the earth's weather patterns to change for the worse.... President Obama has been silent on this issue of great import to his children, Sasha and Malia, and their children. He is afraid of those pockets of coal-mining, climate-change-denying voters in Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio.... A profile in courage he is not, but at least his party has some smart advocates for treating the patient before the meteorological malady kills it.... The other cherished idea of Republicans that was thrown to Sandy's winds is the notion that people don't need government in times of domestic trauma.... When the full bill for New Jersey's recovery comes due, no single state or private entity in the land will able to come close to paying for it." ...
... Jim Dwyer of the New York Times: "The consensus of scientists globally is that climate change has taken place and has contributed to the rise of sea levels by close to a foot over the last century.... Yet climate change has been close to unmentionable during the presidential campaign. The agenda has been set by minority voices, some of them quietly financed by industries that might be threatened by measures to curb greenhouse gases. Somehow, by denying the existence of climate change, they managed to shut down debate over what to do about it. That is why a disagreement between the governor [Cuomo] and the mayor [Bloomberg] about sea gates is so refreshing."
** Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "The [TOTALLY NONPARTISAN] Congressional Research Service has withdrawn an economic report that found no correlation between top tax rates and economic growth, a central tenet of conservative economic theory, after Senate Republicans raised concerns about the paper's findings and wording. The decision, made in late September against the advice of the agency's economic team leadership, drew almost no notice at the time.... But it could actually draw new attention to the report, which questions the premise that lowering the top marginal tax rate stimulates economic growth and job creation. 'This has hues of a banana republic,' [Sen. Chuck] Schumer [D-NY] said. 'They didn't like a report, and instead of rebutting it, they had them take it down.' ... The pressure applied to the research service comes amid a broader Republican effort to raise questions about research and statistics that were once trusted as nonpartisan and apolitical." ...
... Steve Benen: "As David Leonhardt noted when it was published, the CRS analysis undermines a 'defining economic policy' of modern Republican thought. Indeed, the entire Romney/Ryan economic plan is predicated on the assumption that supply-side theory works, and here was the CRS saying it doesn't.... We simply cannot have a functioning federal system in which neutral, independent offices are ignored, pressured,and/or censored when Republicans don't like what they have to say. We've now seen this recently with the Bureau of Labor Statistics and Congressional Budget Office, and democratic norms dictate that GOP officials cut this out.... For what it's worth, the CRS pulled the report from its website, but Senate Democrats have liberated it, republishing the analysis on their own site."
Eric Schmitt of the New York Times: "Security officers from the played a pivotal role in combating militants who attacked the American diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. 11, deploying a rescue party from a secret base in the city, sending reinforcements from Tripoli, and organizing an armed Libyan military convoy to escort the surviving Americans to hastily chartered planes that whisked them out of the country, senior intelligence officials said Thursday. The account given by the senior officials, who did not want to be identified, provided the most detailed description to date of the C.I.A.'s role in Benghazi." ...
... Lolita Baldor of the AP: "CIA security officers went to the aid of State Department staff less than 25 minutes after they got the first call for help during the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, U.S. intelligence officials said Thursday, as they laid out a detailed timeline of the CIA's immediate response to the attack from its annex less than a mile from the diplomatic mission.... The timeline was offered just days before the presidential election in a clear effort to refute recent news reports [by Fox "News"] that said the CIA told its personnel to 'stand down' rather than go to the consulate to help repel the attackers."
John Burns & Ravi Somaiya of the New York Times: "Despite widespread suspicion about [British TV personality Jimmy] Savile's behavior over decades, and Mr. Savile's acknowledgment in his autobiography that he had a predilection for young girls..., a number of missteps and missed signals ... allowed Mr. Savile to escape scrutiny for most of his career.... Seven police investigations were begun into Mr. Savile before he died last year..., according to British news reports, but officers have said that separate police forces across Britain were unable to connect the dots, partly because a national crime database did not come into effect until 2010.... Newspapers, afraid of Britain's strict libel laws, decided not to publish their suspicions, although several had conducted their own investigations over the years."
News Ledes
CW: I missed this from the Nov. 1 Los Angeles Times: "Letitia Baldrige, an etiquette maven who served as social secretary to First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy and later wrote books and a syndicated column advising readers on good manners in contemporary America, has died. She was 86."
New York Times: "The American Red Cross struggled on Friday to reassure beleaguered New York City residents that its disaster-relief efforts were at last getting up to speed, after the agency's delayed arrival in devastated areas of Staten Island, Brooklyn and Queens drew intense criticism." CW: they were probably delayed looking for soupçons of soup cans from Mitt Romney. ...
... New York Times: "Across the city, New Yorkers who had found each other through Facebook and Twitter, churches and community groups, City Hall and local elected officials, tried in ways small and large to ease the devastation left by Hurricane Sandy. Several volunteers said the relief provided by their small-scale community efforts was the first to arrive in some of the most hard-hit parts of the city, outpacing large organizations like the Red Cross and the Federal Emergency Management Agency."
New York Times: "After days of intensifying pressure from runners, politicians and the general public to call off the New York City Marathon in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, city officials and the event's organizers decided Friday afternoon to cancel the race."
New York Times: "In the last assessment of the job market before the presidential election, the Labor Department announced Friday that the nation's employers had added 171,000 positions in October. The unemployment rate rose to 7.9 percent, from 7.8 percent in September." ...
... Reuters writes a much more upbeat account of the same numbers: "U.S. employers stepped up hiring in October and the jobless rate ticked higher as more workers restarted job hunts, a hopeful sign for a lackluster economy that has dragged on President Barack Obama's reelection chances."
ABC News: "With concerns about hypothermia increasing -- and another storm forecast for next week -- nearly 64,000 utility workers are now working around the clock to turn the power back on in a dozen states."
Bloomberg News: "Manhattan, slowed by power outages, flooded subways and closed markets since Sandy struck Oct. 29, should have electricity fully restored by the end of today....
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Reader Comments (28)
Good karma is definitely up today.
And it brings a smile that the issue both candidate ran away and hid from may, indeed, become the deciding factor.
I saw Romney and the WSJ mocking Obama's plan for a 'secretary of Business' if he wins second term. When the smoke screen of derision is pulled back you will see that the plan, which would consolidate nine different departments and streamline business interaction with the government, was proposed in January but stifled by the Republican controlled House. You would think that type of proposal is something that the Republicans could get behind, wouldn't you?
Five more days~
@Jerry Newman
I had the exact same thought when I heard the quote put in context. As my crazy uncle Joe says this is not your father's republican party. They have no platform other than to hold power; and will attempt to do so by any means necessary.
On another note: We here in inland Southern NJ largely survived Sandy. The barrier islands were hit hard and the communities on the Delaware bay suffered great damage; but nothing like the images we are seeing from northern NJ and NYC.
I'm 40 miles from the coast but still the winds blew hard on the back side of the storm. In my area we paid our dues in June when the derecho knocked the power out for days.
There are still many folks who tried to ride out Sandy on the barrier islands who are suffering another cold night without power. They cannot light candles or fires of any kind because gas mains have not been shut off. One of my best friends is among them. I heard briefly form him last night just to let me know that he is ok.
This storm was an epic catastrophe and if it doesn't ignite the conversation about climate change that Katrina or the melting ice caps should have then we are all finally and once again at nature's whim.
Kudo's to Bloomberg and Cuomo for trying to change the conversation. And as much as it pains me to say so I have to give credit to Christie for throwing the Zombot under the bus.
can't sleep nites waitin...
I dare not hope Obama wins as Akil has warned me here in pointed, colorful, wonderful posts, the bastards will do anything, lie, steal, cheat, to win.
If Obama wins, I may celebrate by trying something new- get a mohawk try some weed. I am already the crazy senior in the attic.
The rat will be tragic for the country.
Anyone else getting Utah calls? "Just want to ask you some questions ma'am. " I tell them nuttin! not even that I am a registered democrat....let em spend their money and keep calling.
mae finch
Here in Ohio we are being stalked by the campaigns. Both Romney and Obama will be in the city Monday. Meanwhile, our Sec of State is working overtime to mess with the election.
We have had numerous calls from Prosperity folks, asking what we think of all the shit Obama has done, rattling off a list of things. I always tell them I intend to vote for Obama, which earns me a quiet Thank You and hang up. One other such call I answered, "Honey, all you need to know is I am a yellow dog Democrat." Not sure the young thing knew what that is.
I am feeling reasonably optimistic, and even the infamous Columbus Dispatch has endorsed Sherrod Brown. Doing their worst to defeat a nonpartisan redistricting issue, though.
The post 9/11 security cult has become so entrenched in Canada that on Halloween trick or treaters calling at the home of the prime minister had to check their pirate swords and light sabers at the gate before passing thru a metal detector on their way to the front door for a photo op with the prime minister and a helping of treats.
With the Chinese "elections" coinciding ours, I can't help but make comparisons. As expressed by Mr. Burns in the Simpsons ad, it's without a doubt the Repugs consider the Presidency as the "god-given right of the Repug party." I imagine the gleeful little smiles on the faces of the Repug power-grabbers as they watch such an orderly shift in power with no legitimacy check put in place to stop it.
They must dream of such transitions, where Rmoney swaps with Boner who swaps with Rand, all the while smiling over their proletariats whose only purpose in life is to enrich their Godly father figures.
No need to rig elections. Just buy off whoever sees behind the curtain and retreat away to your mansion on the hill.
Without a doubt there are numerous little Chinese Rmoneys growing up today, insulated by the wealth and power of the party power brokers, being groomed into future leaders of the People's Party.
If Rmoney were Chinese, he would have this election in the bag.
Oh, but there's that one inconvenience that I'm not sure Rmoney could handle. That traditional retreat to the countryside each future leader must endure, sewing their roots to reality for at least a short while. Rmoney living in a shack, pooping in buckets wiping with corncobs, howing the land with his two softly moisturized hands, showering with buckets of cold water in the backyard, eating potatoes and the same corn he wiped his ass with. I can imagine his bewildered look a week later, his face covered in dirt, hair astray, sitting on the floor in his tattered, shredded clothes.
It'd be too much to bear. He'd call Daddy and give up.
New Jersey's Secretary of State is going to heroic lengths to facilitate voting and encourage turnout. Ohio's Husted must be scratching his head thinking, "Dang, she had the perfect opportunity to suppress thousands of votes and she's blowing it."
The last jobs report which just came out today is positive for the President's re-election!
Romney's folks are trying to put a lot of positive spin on his campaign having momentum. That is another pure lie!
Now, it's momentum to the election and the President has the real go power. Go Obama and remember the Supremes!!!!
Marie,
Interesting that you contracted the Times story on the jobless rate with the more positive - and accurate - one of Reuters. Catherine Rampell provided little or no context in her report and put an almost Republican spin on the whole thing. Plus, when I viewed the article the Times seemed to be showing Twitterfeeds from two months ago with a bunch of conservative worthies commenting about the disastrous economy.
Re: I didn't win so I'm taking the ball and going home; the Republican blackmail threat of destroying the economy if Mitt loses. Yo, asswipes(Kate, notice it's asswipes, not asswipers. Asswipes are what you wipe asses with; with a few exceptions we are all asswipers. Possibly Paul Ryan has someone else wipe his ass or diapers?) Anyways; Yo, asswipes; you've already done that once.
Dana Millbank. I don't remember why Obermann booted him off his show. Obermann isn't too tightly rapped. However, in retrospect, don't care why he got the boot cause I bet he is still burned over it.
Millbank rocks the sardonic superiority snark for his TV appearances and his mindless Brooksian drivel for print. Pointing out Rove's shortcomings can be handled by an 8 year old in crash mode after an all night soda, twinkie, and Dorito bender, not to mention its is paleolithic era news. But he had me at "neither candidate has been bold". Lord SB has been nothing if not bold. His lies have been Mt Rushmore in stature, his blunders have been international in scope and he has insulted 100% of women and at least 47% of folks who think they're "entitled to food". Scooter, that's about as bold a strategy as I can imagine.
The Romney campaign released a Spanish language ad in Miami on Tuesday tying Obama to Castro and Chavez. The ad was not released on YouTube. It was not sent out to reporters. And the campaign only published the ad on its web site after initially ignoring requests from news organizations to see it. US News said "The campaign may have tried to slip the ad in under the radar because of its controversial content." Do you think? http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/washington-whispers/2012/11/01/latino-voters-say-romney-ad-tying-obama-to-chavez-castro-is-outdated
There is no bottom to the depth the R&R's will go to win this election.
As a first time commenter but long time lurker (having been led here by Marie Burns, top commenter on the NYTimes before she justifiably boycotted them) I want to thank Marie for the unbelievably hard work that she does aggregating the news that counts. Also thanks to the regular commenter to this site for their insight, links and humor. Especially to Kate (RTFS) Madison and Akhilleus. My sister, who has moved back to our home state of Texas and is even more liberal than I (we are both Yellow Dog Democrats) said "I would love to have a beer and talk with Akhilleus!" And I would like to join them.
I will add that I am a retired Army officer (21 yrs), retired Defense Industry professional (21 yrs) who grew up on a farm in Old Glory Texas and has lived in the Baltimore area for the past 32 years. Not the normal profile of a progressive.
So what do members of the Modern GOP have in common with Aristotle and his followers?
Answer: Certainly not an interest in knowledge and learning.
But Aristotle did get one pretty big thing terribly wrong and his understanding of this thing created a cottage industry for science deniers, dullards, ditto-heads, religious fanatics, and regular everyday morons for several thousand years. The GOP has been trying to get in on that cozy deal for the last few decades, the idea of being able to flip off smarty pants know-it-alls who paid attention in school being so snarkily delicious.
Unfortunately for science and those interested in accuracy and truth, Aristotle, and his followers after him, promoted the idea that the earth was at the center of the universe. As the centuries wore on, astronomical observations pointing inexorably towards another answer became harder and harder to tamp down.
The problem was that once the church got hold of this thing, it became yet more evidence of our exceptionalism in the eyes of god and anyone saying different was slipped a Mickey Finn and dragged off in chains for a visit to the Burning Stake. Even as late as Galileo, the church was threatening the death penalty for stating what pretty much everyone with a brain had already figured out. For them, like the Modern GOP, truth is what they say it is. And anyone threatening their personal exceptionalism ideas should be made to pay (isn’t this the entire raison d’etre for Fox?).
And like the medieval church, Republicans will come up with the most outrageous lies and whacko cover stories in order to maintain a belief in their version of the truth on any subject you can name. Have you ever seen those models of the solar system created in order to match actual observations with the Aristotelian myth? Holy shit! They look like some crazy Rube Goldberg nightmare machine with planets moving up and down and back and forth in order to accommodate things like regressive planetary motion. All to prove a lie.
The biggest practitioner of this sort of specialized lying is Willard Mittens, the Rat. He’s become like the character in the Monty Python sketch who believes the art of argument is simply saying “No it’s not” to anything another person states.
“You’re against FEMA”
“No I’m not!”
“Yes you are.”
“Am not.”
“You said you’d kill it.”
“Never did”
“It’s right here on tape.”
“That’s not me.”
“It certainly looks like you.”
“A pack of lies!”
Talk about regressive motion.
So now, in the unlikely event that anyone asks you that thing about Republicans and Aristotle, you know the answer.
Their efforts support systems of alternative universes in which nothing really works the way it should but you simply must pretend that it does in order to get anyone to go along with you. And if they still won’t go along…put them in jail and declare yourself the winner.
Or just steal the election. Same difference.
Re: Truth is as slippery as a eel in cod oil; Ak; I think no less of a philosopher than Richard Pryor(sp) said it best, "Who are you goin' believe? Me or your lying fuckin' eyes?
Jerry,
Great comment. I don't think there's a truly "normal" profile for progressives, I think mostly we share an interest in establishing a floor for what can be truthfully and honestly discussed, and a belief that good government can do a lot of things to help all of us rise together, not just the ones that already have gigantic piles of loot.
Anyway, welcome. I'd love to share a beer (or two) with you and your sister. In fact, if Obama wins, we can split a case. On the other hand, if the Rat wins, I may have to reacquaint myself with the opium dens of my youth. At least there won't be much chance of running into triumphalist teabaggers there. On the other hand some of the crap these people have been floating do sound rather like opiate induced fever dreams.
Watching the news last night and seeing the long lines of cars wasting precious gas to try to get where they could buy more, it struck me that tanker trucks should be prepositioned closer to the residential areas. They could sell 10-15 gallons per vehicle--enough to last until things can get back to normal. Even the trucks that service construction equipment on-site could be employed as a stop gap measure. I know the Air Force uses medium size tankers to refuel aircraft, surely something like that could be utilized to ease the immediate pain.
It was heartening to click on RealityChex and find that vehicles will be deployed to assist with voting and a double bonus, a paper trail, whoo hoo!
JJG,
That Pryor bit is a perfect example of the argumentum ad fatigum, just keep slinging the same 'ol shit until you wear 'em down or they just plain give up and go home.
No different than Romney's statement that he didn't say what we thought he said but if he did, he didn't mean it.
Say what???
I applaud every article in the press that mentions climate change in a positive way which is why I am not happy with Jeff Dwyers Times article. Sea level rise over the past century is approximately 3 inches which does round up to "nearly a foot" on my scales. Mitt doesn't need exaggeration for even more ammo in the war on warming. It wasn't a good day for the Times. Acting like Lilliputians to restrain Silver from betting with Scarborough and Cohen digging up the canard about "you didn't build that" again all in the same issue.
Here's something else to think about.
If the electoral college is deadlocked (269 votes for both Obama and Romney), the House elects the president. Guess who that will be?
But then the Senate gets to vote for vice president. And while it's not nearly as done a deal as Romney's election by the GOP controlled House, a Democratically controlled Senate could give Ryan the boot and install Biden at Number One Observatory Circle.
But I don't think we'd have to worry about that. If the electoral college were tied, good 'ol Davey Koch and Uncle Karl would show up with bags of money destined for one or two happy faithless electors so little Pauley Ryan wouldn't cry his eyes out.
Still, trying to explain all this to outsiders is a bit like attempting to dissect the infield fly rule for first timers at a baseball game.
"Okay, now with runners on first and second, or first, second, and third, and fewer than two outs, a ball hit near the infield and deemed catchable by the umpire is ruled an infield fly and the batter is declared out, even if the ball is not caught. Ya got that?"
"Yeah. What's an out?"
In a Guardian article Glenn Greenwald nominates Obama as the US president with the worst civil liberties record in history.
CW: perhaps Greenwald "nominated" Obama, but he also "nominated" Dubya, not to mention earlier presidents like Franklin Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson & Honest Abe. Let's try to stick to accuracy rather than wishful thinking. I'm not appreciating this disinformation campaign you've got going here. (See my replies to your subsequent comment below.)
oops mea culpa. 100 years of sea level rise is approximately 7 inches or 1/2 foot.
I have to say it: I HATE POLLS! And, furthermore, I think pollsters could use their brains and energy to much better effect by actually at or close to the polls, asking questions of people who are trying to vote, or have just voted. I would like to know the following: how many voters (or those who have been unable to vote) have been asked inappropriate questions, told that their voter registration is not valid, told they are at the wrong polling place--or told earlier that their polling place had been changed and not given the new site. Then....our irresponsible, excitement junkie, media circus could knuckle down, investigate these reports, and give us a better idea of what is going on. In other words--do their jobs. As it is, we have only scattered reports, and no in depth investigations coming from the MSM. Big DUH, I know.
David Leonardt has a piece (from the NYT News Service) in which he quoted an academic study which said..."Over the past 60 years, poll questions that asked people which candidate they expected to win have been a better guide to the outcome of the presidential race than questions asking people whom they planned to vote for."
The people have already been asked. The answer is Obama. And, yes we are Remembering the Supremes!
@Mae Finch - I love the idea of your getting a Mohawk and smoking weed for the first time. You sound like my kind of senior! Hope you can get some Columbia Gold!
From the How Did I Miss This? Desk....
A few days ago, stand up Christian, and bona fide right-to-lifer Governor Rick (what was I saying ?) Perry, celebrated hitting the 250 mark in the number of people he has put to death. Yippee! Executions for everyone! Such fun!
Even though Ricky has broken the record in modern US history for the most executions, he was a weenie-ass piker compared to George (Dead or Alive) Dubya Six-Shooter. It's taken Perry 12 years to pile up those bodies. Coke snorting, smirking frat boy, deserter in time of war, and former Rah-Rah cheerleader Georgie put the lights out on 152 souls in just five years, meaning had he been executing people as long as Ricky, he'd have racked up over 360 dead men (and women) walking.
But it wasn't easy for Perry. Early in his career as lord high executioner things weren't going so well so he vetoed a bill that would have prevented him from executing mentally disabled and retarded people. Shit, can't have a technicality keepin' him from all that fun, now can we? Sheeeeit.
In a secret fundraising meeting held by Mississippi Teabaggers, Mittens Romney pooh-poohed Perry's great achievement. "Had I not been governor of a bunch of pussies up in Massachusetts, I'd have given hundreds the juice. Shit, I'd have injected those motherfuckers myself! And danced the Tarantella on their graves."
Hard guy Mittens had his tough little boy Tagg (gonna punch me a president) Romney pass around the hat and everyone had a good old time for themselves singing old timey hits like "Gimme That Old Time Religion". A grand time was had by all.
Perry, asked to respond to Mitty's snide belittling of his record stated that he had three things to say to Romney. But he could only remember the first two.
It's not that many of these people didn't commit terrible crimes. It's that in many states, capital crimes, death penalty cases, seem to very often execute a huge number of minorities, mentally disabled defendants and many whose defense teams consisted of guys who got their law degree from a school in Tijuana that advertised "Be a Lawyer" on the inside of match book covers. The fact that if you fuck it up, and put an innocent person to death means no do overs. No "Golly gee, we're sorry we put your dad to death."
But that doesn't matter to the Modern GOP where morality is vital for everyone. Except them.
@Akhilleus: Perry. What a piker! Obama's drone strikes have killed twice that number every year for 4 years. And Obama gets to name the prime target!
CW Note: see my comment on Page 2 of this section. After saying just today that I almost never remove comments, I don't want to have to make myself out a liar.
Cowichan,
I don't have the numbers but I can't deny the drone damage.
I've been considering that problem for some time. My goal in highlighting the Perry number was to point out the discrepancy between the hypocritically aggressive pro-life stance of Republicans like Perry and the demonstrable fallibility of this position played out in practice through the offices and under the protection of our justice system. Drone strikes in military areas are not a lot less ( or more) morally reprehensible than carpet bombing that eviscerated hundreds of thousands of civillians during WWII.
I need a lot more space (and time) to properly pull apart the moral issues here but I do think the species are a bit different. I may change my mind in that regard as I take more time to carefully parse these issues, but I am thankful for your very useful and important point.
@cowichin. That's an interesting charge, but when you make remarks like that on this site, you must back them up with evidence. Although numbers vary greatly, I haven't found any that meet your assertion. Verification, please.
Marie
@Marie Burns: This is not the site from which I derived my 500 per annum number but it will do. Google "drone war casualties.
www antiwar.com/blog/2012/09/03/tbij-civilian-casualties-in-us-drone-war-august-2012-update.
there are 291 out of 343 total attacks, 84.8%, under Obama
estimated deaths 2558 to 3319, average 2938
Obama in charge 2009 to 2012, 4 years
Then 2938 x 0.848 / 4 = 623 deaths attributable to Obama per year. I rounded down to 500 (twice 250) for simplicity. The site I originally looked up had numbers roughly equivalent (ie annual numbers ranging from 534 up)