Archive for May 5, 2010
Boycott “The Sawaya Law Firm”
Attention Colorado: Boycott “The Sawaya Law Firm.” They support Fox “News.”
Tweets of The Day
Here are my favorite “Tweets of the Day.” I couldn’t decide which tweet to pick to be the tweet, so what the hey, why do that?
Why Am I Fat?
Yep, we’re fat because we eat insane concoctions like this:
Hey, I confess. I feel holier than thou because I ate a spinach salad for lunch but I’m drooling over pork tacos for dinner.
The Gulf Spill is Dick Cheney’s Katrina
You know that Halliburton has been implicated in the Gulf oil spill, right? And you know Republicans have been making hay with that whole thing, blaming President Obama every which way possible, right?
With that in mind, where are the wimp-ass Democrats? How about this kids:
Grow a freakin’ pair already!
GOP Hoping African-Americans Are Like Chickens
Bill Press was on The Ed Show a few minutes ago during a segment about the 32 African-Americans running on the GOP ticket this year: An African-American who “votes for a Republican is like a chicken voting for Colonel Sanders.”
Love it.
Even Ronald Reagan Wanted Us to Become Energy Self-Sufficient
Look at this Ronald Reagan presidential campaign ad from 1980. In it, he says:
This is a great country, but it’s not being run like a great country. Look at these heating bills. Many families pay hundreds of dollars a month. Others go without heat. We must eliminate restrictive controls and use more of our domestic oil and natural gas. And we must use all our technology to become self-sufficient in energy so no one can blackmail us. This is a great country. It’s time to start running it like a great country.
Yes, I know, Reagan would probably be a drill-baby-driller today but at least he recognized the need to become energy self-sufficient and who knows, over time, he may even have embraced wind and/or solar.
Do Democrats Care Enough to Vote Anymore?
Wow, if Democratic turnout in the primaries in North Carolina, Indiana and Ohio yesterday is any indication, Democrats are furious with their party.
Take a look at the numbers below. Democratic voter turnout was terrible. But the significant thing is not that it was lower than it was last November — which one would expect — it was lower than in ’06 and ’04 when Democratic candidates ran in those states, for all intents and purposes, unopposed.
The Democratic party as a whole has a big problem on its hands. And I submit it is because Democrats are extraordinarily disappointed with Obama who has not been the kind of “hope and change” president he led us to believe he would be.
Heaven forbid the country is overridden with Republicans come November but if that happens, Democrats have no one to blame but themselves. Democrats have got to provide an alternative to Republicans, which they once did. They can’t be Republicans-lite (or in some cases more Republican than Republicans, which Obama was, when he approved an expansion of offshore drilling a few weeks ago).
I can’t wait to see what happens here — what, if anything — Obama and the big boys at the DNC do to try to energize their base. Then again, maybe they think they can win in November without it.
I have to say, the thought of not voting at all has crossed my mind. It would be the first time in my life if I didn’t, but I’m one of the furious ones.
Turnout among Dem voters dropped precipitously in 3 statewide primaries on Tuesday, giving the party more evidence that their voters lack enthusiasm ahead of midterm elections.
In primaries in NC, IN and OH, Dems turned out at far lower rates than they have in previous comparable elections.
Just 663K OH voters cast ballots in the competitive primary between LG Lee Fisher (D) and Sec/State Jennifer Brunner (D). That number is lower than the 872K voters who turned out in ’06, when neither Gov. Ted Strickland (D) nor Sen. Sherrod Brown (D) faced serious primary opponents.
Only 425K voters turned out to pick a nominee against Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC). The 14.4% turnout was smaller than the 444K voters — or 18% of all registered Dem voters — who turned out in ’04, when Gov. Mike Easley (D) faced only a gadfly candidate in his bid to be renominated for a second term.
And in IN, just 204K Hoosiers voted for Dem House candidates, far fewer than the 357K who turned out in ’02 and the 304K who turned out in ’06.
By contrast, GOP turnout was up almost across the board. 373K people voted in Burr’s uncompetitive primary, nearly 9% higher than the 343K who voted in the equally non-competitive primary in ’04. Turnout in House races in IN rose 14.6% from ’06, fueled by the competitive Senate primary, which attracted 550K voters. And 728K voters cast ballots for a GOP Sec/State nominee in Ohio, the highest-ranking statewide election with a primary; in ’06, just 444K voters cast ballots in that race.
30 Photos That Changed the World
I invite you to scroll through these remarkable photos, many of them fairly recent. I found myself saying, yeah, I remember that, and yes, that one should definitely be included.
The now-well-known photo of the Earth taken from the Moon is the one that has the most emotional impact on me. I remember seeing it for the first time and thinking how beautiful our planet is. Hard as it may be to believe, at the time no one had seen Earth from space before. We had no idea what we looked like. It was a very big deal.
Break Time
Pretty cool: World’s biggest beaver dam can be seen from space:
The mammals use trees, mud and stone to make a type of moat where they can use their swimming skills to evade any predators.
The families live in lodges on the dams and spend their days adding to and repairing the incredible structures.
The dam was spotted by experts monitoring the size and spread of the beaver dams in North America.
It is located on the southern edge of Wood Buffalo National Park in Northern Alberta, Canada.
While beaver dams are often found to be around 1,500ft in length, this one has surprised biologists because of its length.
It is thought that several beaver families joined forces to create the massive dam that contains thousands of trees and must have taken many months to complete.
The dams are an important part of the ecology and wider environment and climate change can be judged by the spread of the dams.
Sharon Brown, a biologist from Beavers: Wetland and Wildlife, an educational organisation in North America, said: “Beavers build dams to create a good habitat.
“They are very agile in the water but they’re a bit slow moving on land.
“They create a habitat with lots of water like a moat around their lodges so they can swim and drive and keep one step ahead of predators such as coyotes and bears.
“They also use water to move the trees they use in their dams because it is easier floating wood on water than dragging them over land.
“These habitats are not just good for them but for other animals and the environment.
“Their dams are also good because they slow the flow of water leading to less drought and less flooding.
“And when plant matters dies in water it turns to peat and that is one of the best ways for storing CO2.”
Man Who Alerted Police to Car in Times Square is a Muslim Immigrant
You won’t, I repeat, won’t hear this on Fox: Media Ignore the Fact that Man who Alerted Police to Failed Times Square Bombing is a Muslim Immigrant:
The chief suspect in the case of the failed Times Square car bombing is Pakistani-American Faisal Shadzad, who has confessed to the plot. Much of the media has latched onto Shahzad’s Muslim faith and his Pakistani identity, making inflammatory remarks and suggestions about Muslims and Pakistanis:
Yet one fact being ignored in the American media’s sensationalist narrative about the failed bombing is that the man who was responsible for police finding the bomb was Muslim. The UK’s Times Online reports that Aliou Niasse, a Senagalese Muslim immigrant who works as a photograph vendor on Times Square, was the first to bring the smoking car to the police’s attention.
The media is mum about this because Americans are supposed to hate and fear all Muslims. ALL Muslims. Period. I call it propaganda by omission.
GOP Produces Video Making it Look Like Dem. Candidate is Masturbating
Ohio’s Lt. Governor, Lee Fisher, won the Democratic primary for senate yesterday and the Republicans “immediately whipped out” an ad that repeatedly implies that a shirtless Fisher is masturbating.
Here it is (note the sound effects):
It’s going to be a long, long summer and fall.
Just in Time for Lunch, Here’s “Food Porn”
The Chicago Sun-Times is asking readers to send in photos of food, in what it’s calling its “Food Porn” reader photo contest. I thought I’d find a collection of fatty, greasy, gross dishes but some of them look delicious. Like this one:
Yum. Wish the ingredients were listed.
Joe the Plumber is Now an Elected Official
Man oh man, it’s going to be fun to follow this: Joe the Pumber, Elected Official. (Or, Joe the Plumber takes stab at trying to play well with others.)
Lost in last night’s election results, Samuel Wurzelbacher a.ka. “Joe the Plumber,” is now an elected official.
Sort of.
Wurzelbacher (or is it Plumber on second reference?) won “election as a Republican committeeman for northwest Ohio’s Lucas County,” USA Today writes.
“The Associated Press reports that Wurzelbacher won a spot on the Lucas County Republican committee by a 38-23 vote in his suburban Toledo precinct. That makes him one of nearly 400 committee members who set the agenda and pick a chairman for the local party.”
Some had encouraged him to run for Congress, but that didn’t materialize…
Phoenix Suns Makin’ Some Noise Over Arizona’s New “Immigration” Law
I love this: Phoenix Suns Wear “Los Suns” on Jerseys on Cinco de Mayo.
MySpace is the “Leading Music Site?”
Rupert Murdoch, the owner and CEO of News Corp., which owns Fox “News” and MySpace and a mind-boggling number of other assets, spoke to the media yesterday, and admitted that MySpace isn’t doing all that well:
The picture was not as rosy at News Corp’s social networking site MySpace, which continued to lose money.
But Mr Murdoch said signs were positive for the period ahead, describing MySpace as having become the “leading music site”.
“We’ve got to admit that over the last two or three years I think we’ve made some big mistakes, but we’ve got a fine new management now,” Mr Murdoch said.
“The early indications, and they are only early indications, are that we’re getting more visitors and they are staying longer.
“When that gets more substantial we will get more advertising.”
When Murdoch bought MySpace several years ago he envisioned it being what Facebook is now. Oops. Guess not. And MySpace is the “leading music site?” What?
Poll Finds Republicans Way Out of Sync With Most Voters
Don’t know why it took a poll to tell Republicans that they’re way out of sync with most voters, but it did. (That’s what happens when the only world you live in is the Fox “News” world.)
Republican voters want Congress to repeal the healthcare overhaul, aren’t convinced that climate change is happening, and don’t think illegal immigrants should have a way to become citizens or that President Barack Obama has improved the United States’ global standing – all stances that put them at odds with the majority of voters, according to a a new survey by Resurgent Republic.
The findings, unveiled at a Tuesday morning panel by the group, highlight a major challenged faced by Republicans headed into the 2010 election cycle: While their base appears more motivated than that of the Democrats, they will have to find ways to address hot-button issues like healthcare, immigration and climate change that do not alienate critical independent and swing voters.
Resurgent Republic, a 501(c)4 non-profit founded by GOP operative Ed Gillespie, provides polling and research intended to assist conservatives and Republicans. Though no consensus emerged among its panel members, some suggested messaging solutions included calling for “amending” – rather than “repealing” – the healthcare overhaul, talking about “legalization” rather than “amnesty” in any discussion about providing illegal immigrants a path to citizenship, and not denying that climate change is taking place.
On each issue, the contrast between views of Republicans and independents was striking. For instance, the Resurgent Republic poll of 1,000 likely voters found that only 35 percent of respondents agreed with the approach of the GOP members of Congress who sounded the call to “repeal and replace” the health care reform legislation passed in March. Among respondents who identified themselves as Republicans, however, support for a repeal-and-replace strategy was 67 percent, compared to 36 percent among independent respondents.
Moral of the story: Watch Republicans get very, very creative with their language but never forget who they are at the core.
Good Morning
It’s a good morning because the awful wind (80 mph) we had yesterday stopped and I’m listening to the sound of silence.
