A.M. Links: Romney Romps at the First "Debate," U.S. Becomes Less Enticing for Immigrant Entrepreneurs, Turkey and Syria Blast Away
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There may be somebody in that suit after all. Mitt Romney and Barack Obama met in their first presidential "debate." Romney came out swinging and scored a clear victory in the after-event polling. Chris Matthews wept.
- Whoever wins the presidency is likely to cost Americans as much as $1.4 billion every year.
- Immigrants, who have long been the engines behind start-up companies in the United States, no longer find this country so attractive.
- For the first time since World War II, Italians are buying more bicycles than cars. Wow! Poverty is good for your health and the environment.
- Turkey and Syria are now exchanging artillery barrages. This usually ends with U.S. Marines paying a visit.
- The ACLU would like the feds to stop being so coy about the mistreatment of detainees. Come on, 'fess up.
- Won't Back Down may be generating political buzz, but it's not selling tickets. The teachers-union-aggaravating film apparently lacks a key element: the ability to entertain.
- For the second time, an alligator has been found in the parking lot of a supermarket in New York. Whatever you do, don't flush it down the toilet!
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So Romney’s president now?
FIST
Kiss it, lower being.
Also, if he is, I’m not surprised NOTHING HAS CHANGED.
Debate exposes Obama’s ridiculous tax myth
http://www.humanevents.com/201…..tax-myths/
Democrats regularly maintain that the George W. Bush administration’s policies have driven the country into a metaphorical “ditch.”
I would respond that it’s the same policies from the Bush era that the Obama administration has openly embraced.
A memory-hogging Disqus comment section that doesn’t display properly. (Disqus comments are the spawn of the devil.)
An overlay pitch to join an email list that you can’t close if you have images turned off.
A story that’s relatively content free.
At least you didn’t link to an article that’s split up into two pages.
script blocker ftw!
Morning Joe…
Yummy, yummy, yummy (^10) tears. What a great morning.
Whoever wins the presidency is likely to cost Americans as much as $1.4 billion every year.
Do we have to start reading stories about how Bush never left the country and his Crawford ranch was more environmentally sound than Gore’s mansion?
We could compare the number of First Lady Aides, cocktail parties, staffers, chefs, etc…
I have the impression that Bush was somewhat more careful with taxpayer money spent on himself (which could be incorrect). I would love to see well phrased question asked on this subject in the debate.
Karl Rove: Can We Believe the Presidential Polls?
Last week’s CBS/New York Times poll had Obama ahead by nine points in Florida. That’s not very likely.
http://online.wsj.com/article/…..on_LEADTop
I can only hope more people read this and realize polls are, more or less, meaningless. Dick Morris in one of his books had a great section explaining exactly how and why polls are bullshit. The rest of the book was worthless, but Dick does understand polling.
exactly how and why polls are bullshit.
I’m taking Statistics Risk Analysis as part of my MBA program; my professor spends at least a third of the class bitching about exactly this.
Note to professional pollsters: your methods offend actual statisticians.
The problem is, people with MBAs and Journalism degrees take these classes (statistics for dummies) and usually fail to understand/retain the pertinent points of statistics and poll taking.
A lot of statisticians fall into the same trap. I’m not saying any of these folks are dumb, just that the subject matter takes some extensive (and sometimes counter-intuitive) understanding to get to what statistics should and shouldn’t be used for.
Re Turkish/Syrian conflict…
The Turkish Army is huge, and full of Turkish men aching to prove their masculinity.
With U.S. Air Force providing air cover, they would pound the Syrian Army into dust.
At this point the Syrian govt needs to look to how they are going to wind up operations, because the only question is how big the pile of bodies before an Al Queda aligned regime is flying its flag over Damascus.
Yeah, its not like the Greeks would be able to give ’em a fight, so you gotta go somewhere.
But seriously, maybe Assad just wants to see the world burn – because they would not last a minute against Johnny Turk.
Cannot France open the old “Bring your loot and we’ll find youy a nice chateau on the southern coast” book back up?
Also, the rebels are “backed by Turkey”, according to the AP story, so there is some provocation for the attack.
Hopefully Assad gets Ghaddafi’d at some point.
Semper fidelis tyrannosaurus!
I lived in Turkey for a couple of years. The Turks don’t play. Any contest between the Turks and the Syrians would be no contest at all.
Winston Churchill found that out the hard way.
You just don’t irk the Turk.
Why would the USAF have to provide cover. I may be way off base here, but I’m pretty sure Turkey has a larger and more modern air force than Syria.
Being a cynic, this is how we get involved. Turkey is an ally and Nato member. Oh, noes! Syria attacked us! We’re invoking the mutual aid section of our treaty!
It’s not quite Tonkin Gulf, but it’s close. Turkey,as y’all have noted, can stomp Syria flat with no help.
I vote we sit back, let the Turks blow off some steam pulverizing Hez and the Syrians, and make a tidy little profit on arms sales.
Who’s with me?
I was with you at “sit back”. As Tarran pointed out, having a stake in Syria’s next regime will probably bite us in the ass in the long run.
Syria’s Air Force seems like more than a match for Turkey’s in terms of numbers, at least if this is to be believed.
I’m pretty certain that, assuming they have enough missiles, the 175 Turkish F-16s and 150 F4s can have their way with 50 MiG-29s and 400 MiG-21/23. Also, note that Turkey actually has almost as many training aircraft as fighters. Syria does not. It would be more Leyte Gulf than Battle of Britain.
This definitely isn’t my specialty, but I’m under the assumption that, assuming equal training and skill, F-16 and M29 are basically a match, the SU24 and M23 are better than the F4, and the F4 is about equal to the SU22 and M21. I’d give the edge to the Turks, but I think it’s closer than you say.
Factoring in training and armaments, though and I’d think the Turks are pretty clearly the ones to bet on.
Who has the AWACS—or can borrow a few? Who has better ECM? Whose shit is better maintained? Whose pilots get to play at Green Flag? (or whatever the equivalent is where NATO members get to chime in.) I’d think the Turkish Air Force would absolutely roll the Syrians, no matter how shiny the MiG-29s look.
In 1982 Israel and Syria’s air forces sparred and the kill ratio was IIRC, 80 to 0.
I’d think it’d go like the Battle of the Philippine Sea, AKA “The Great Marianas Turkey Shoot”, not Leyte, but I think we’re agreeing.
Actually they are about the same size with the Turkish being slightly more modern in that they have about 150 F-16’s to Syria’s less than 50 Mig 29’s. The remainder of both air forces are 1960’s and 1970’s era fighters (F4’s F5’s for Turkey, Mig 21, 23, 25 for Syria).
My guess is that Turkey’s air force is better trained and equipped from an ordinance standpoint but that is really just a quess.
Hillary Clinton caught checking out Christina Aguilara’s rack!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new…..ments.html
She’s not checking it out. She’s caught in its gravitational field.
She still has a long way to go before she is crowned the “Queen of Soul”.
I recommend a daily serving of flan.
So eleven less than she’s currently taking?
In soul terms, a daily serving is 240 dollars worth of pudding.
“That’s a lot of pudding”
What is it about latino women getting chunky after they reach a certain age?
Beans, rice, meat; beans, rice, meat–EVERY DAMN MEAL.
IIRC, Bobby Slayton referred to it as, “I think the old Mexican women eat the young Mexican women.”
Man, Hilary is looking rough.
Chris Matthews wept.
He’s openly trolling conservative talk radio now, right?
Kids skip school, mom goes to jail. Only in California.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new…..uancy.html
No perverse incentive for the kids there.
Seriously.
“What’s that mom, I can’t go to the party on saturday? I guess I might just have to skip school again…”
Strangled By Taxes, Will Michigan Loosen The State’s Grip?
http://www.forbes.com/sites/re…..ates-grip/
What’s going to happen if both this and the “Unions Fuck You Over” amendment pass, and the unions claim this impedes collective bargaining?
Why, the courts will side with the unions, of course.
This is Michigan, after all.
Phili cop who suckerpunched woman will be fired. I give it a week before another department hires him.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new…..FIRED.html
Wow, I am surprised at that – seriously. However, you are probably right – he’ll end up on some sherrif’s force somewhere (“we need someone with his kind of experience!”).
Not every man is ready and willing to physically harm a female.
I bet the woman’s prison has already offered him a job.
I’m actually not surprised by this. The current mayor has tried to distance himself from the kinds of systemic corruption the PPD has been known for in the past and his image as some sort of reformer is necessary for his possible run for national office. Not that he’s changed all that much, but the local machine won’t stand for the bad PR.
Has she sued him into bankruptcy yet? Open and shut battery case.
Wait, why the future tense here?
Shouldn’t this read “Has been”?
Florida cop who has been jailed three times and fired at least six times, has lost his job again. He’s been investigated forty times, accused of battery, car theft, boarding a plane with a loaded gun, and carrying drugs.
Some highlights of his career include beating up handcuffed suspects, beating up his girlfriend, unauthorized pursuits, and smoking crack.
I’m sure he won’t be out of work for long. By Florida standards he’s a model officer!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new…..-home.html
Its South FL, dude. All the ones who are just sort of thugs get paid more to work in Miami-Dade.
Daily Fail just can’t leave Christina Hendricks alone.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvs…..style.html
Good grief.
With good reason. *Drools*
Yo Christina,
Imma wreck dat azz.
Love,
Heroic Mulatto
Looks like she’s auditioning for the sequel to Anchorman.
How to know if your cooworker is a terrorist.
http://www.wired.com/dangerroo…..er-threat/
You have “peculiar discussions.”
Oops.
Wait, I know half of the people here are various varieties of engineer and the other half are lawyers. I’m an engineer and I married a lawyer, and our discussions tend to the bizarre. They’re a combination of ‘is it physically possible to do this, and what would the legal ramifications be’.
I work with engineers, and you can pretty quickly get a discussion going on how much counterweight you’d need to fling a dead horse some arbitrary distance given a trebuchet with a set moment arm. (And, yes, I’ve had that discussion.) ‘Peculiar’ doesn’t even begin to cover some of the conversations I’ve had at work.
how much counterweight you’d need to fling a dead horse some arbitrary distance given a trebuchet with a set moment arm.
Well? Don’t keep us in suspense, dammit!
Trebuchet math is more complicated than you’d think. The sling adds a lot of complexity. We couldn’t ever agree on a theoretical solution.
So of course, we tried to get the plant manager to subsidize some experiments, but he wouldn’t go for it.
I can only imagine some of the ancient snafus in siege warfare.
The trebuchet was more of a “don’t stand directly in front of or behind” type of weapon. Like a MANPAD.
Far more compelling is launching a live horse by trebuchet and landing it safely.
Using the Punkin’ Chunkin’ as a general analogous situation, that’s not possible.
They said we couldn’t nuke the Moon, too!
I’m unclear on whether we still have the technology to do so.
Yeah, we could probably do it. We can still send sizable probes into deep space, so a nuke to the Moon should be easy.
Assuming there aren’t nukes there right now, waiting.
So IOW, anyone who thinks for himself.
I sure hope my coworkers do not read this.
Shit. I’m going to have to stop going on political rants in the break room. Oh wait, I work alone. My nearest co-worker is 300 miles away.
How dare someone be “frustrated with mainstream ideologies”!
Immigrants, who have long been the engines behind start-up companies in the United States, no longer find this country so attractive.
Why the fuck should they be different than any native-born potential entrepeneur?
Maybe different ideas and perspectives?
But why wouldn’t immigrant start-ups be just as discouraged as citizen start-ups?
Aren’t they? It’s virtually impossible to convert an F-1 visa to an H-1B visa, for example.
Okay, I’m just going to come out and say it. I think you misinterpreted my original joke. The environment in the country is not welcoming for any business. Immigrants are joining an unfortunate club.
Doh…..
I need coffee.
Desperation, inspiration. Immigrants are more enthusiastic in their love of freedom and willing to take risks. They have taken risks to come here.
This. Despite what many mipay think. Immigrants don’t come here for the amazing welfare. They come here because they think its pp’s easy to get rich.
Romney Romps Ruler’s Rump?
Walloped Wary Barry’s Derriere
What the fuck is this shit? The site is taking my link as a too-long word.
Obama’s Re-Election Case Rests On 5 Phony Claims
http://news.investors.com/1003…..phony.aspx
Wow…not only are those phony, several of them are downright super-villain level delusional.
A slow recovery was inevitable.
I think once TARP passed during the Bush years, this one became true.
1/5 is actually pretty good for Obama.
TARP could have been repealed. 0/5
By what congress?
Yes but let us not forget that Obama (and McCain as well) was invited by the Bush administration to be involved in crafting TARP and he not only voted for it but also spoke out in favor of it from the Senate floor. So while it is true that TARP happened under Bush one cannot realistically give Obama a pass on it since he clearly was in favor of it as well.
No, Obama’s Reelection case rests on just one claim….
“I’m not Mitt Romney”
Of course Romneys case for winning is simply that he is not Barrak Obama which creates quite the conundrum for the electorate.
From a policy standpoint they really are pretty indistinguishable.
When you’ve lost Dave Weigel…
Fuck Dave Weigel, and all the rest of the journolist Obama-worhsipping cocksuckers.
^^THIS^^
“Why wasn’t the president more aggressive?” asks a dark-suited man with a Swedish accent.
I think this leads to the most intriguing thing about the next debate. Does Obama over-correct? He should consider walking on stage and smashing his lips into Romney’s lips like Gore did with his wife.
Obama wasn’t more aggressive because the only way he could have been would have been to go full leftist retard. Good luck with that in a national debate.
Yes. I mean, more aggressive about what, his failed stimulus or the health bill almost everyone hates? The man is running on the worst record since Carter. Malaise forever!
When Obama said “a budget is about choices,” I wish Romney had asked, is that why you haven’t passed one in 4 years?
OBAMA: That’s what we’ve done, made some adjustments to it, and we’re putting it forward before Congress right now, a $4 trillion plan…
ROMNEY: But you’ve been — but you’ve been president four years…
http://www.foxnews.com/politic…..z28L1FawEG
No teleprompter in debates, and when he has to go off-script, his natural fallback is faculty-lounge “justice” babble, which his handlers know won’t sell on the big stage.
So he’s got nuthin’. And it sounds like it showed.
I’m still convinced that he would would have lost four years ago if the economy hadn’t gone all Hindenburg and sealed the deal on his behalf.
Even with that, if McCain hadn’t panicked and run back to Washington to vote against his base on TARP, and had been willing to go after Obama, I think he could have won.
Of course, then we would have been stuck with McCain. But still . . . .
If McCain had found a backbone, stayed out of Washington, kept campaigning and gone against TARP, he would have won easy.
Quite possibly true, had the economic meltdown held off for 6 months Obama’s campaign was in some trouble and it would have been another extremely close race that McCain could realistically won.
Of course it is a good thing that didn’t happen because we’s still be listening to how the Republicans somehow magically stole another election.
Four years ago, he was also potentially the first black president. That really doesn’t carry any weight anymore, and it won’t help a black presidential candidate ever again.
It’d be better than kissing Tipper or the wookiee.
Oh, and Katharine McPhee is still hot!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvs…..a-top.html
She is no Christina Hendricks (lucky for her).
SHUT YOUR MOUTH HOMO!
For the second time, an alligator has been found in the parking lot of a supermarket in New York. Whatever you do, don’t flush it down the toilet!
I suspect Big Gulps are poisonous to the alligator. They’re understandably feeling pretty brazen right now.
Where is Alligator Dundee when you need him.
“That’s not a dunny. This is a dunny.”
Only 2 – 3 ft? Yawn. Come to Central Florida. We have real gators.
We have 3 footers. We call them “babies”.
The alligators are fleeing before the python menace.
Well send in the snake eating gorillas then.
Soon, soon.
New Anti-Obesity Ads Blaming Overweight Parents Spark Criticism
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesa…..-criticism
“Fat people know about nutrition. We know that eating four cheeseburgers a day is not the way to go.”
OK ….
When shopping for groceries, I’ve noticed that *shock* fat kids usually have fat parents. Genetics, low-insulin resistance? The psychological urge to gorge oneself into a state of mindless oblivion?
Shitty, government-approved diet high in processed carbohydrates and low in saturated fat.
It’s them turducken sandwiches
Yes, how dare we suggest that parents influence their kids. What do we think parents do, raise them?
Smokers are coughing out our weezy, sad, throaty laughs right now in vindication. Welcome to the club fatties.
http://news.yahoo.com/north-da…..13808.html
In North Dakota, hard to tell an oil millionaire from regular Joe
STANLEY, North Dakota (Reuters) – The retired men shooting the breeze at Joyce’s Cafe in Stanley don’t look like oil barons but appearances can be deceptive, especially in North Dakota.
Take Robert Western, a farmer who was dressed in rumpled overalls and a baseball cap as he sipped coffee and discussed the oil boom that has transformed this once sleepy town.
“Some of the younger people buy a lot more – machinery, vehicles, things like that,” said the 75-year-old Western. “The rest of us, I guess it doesn’t alter our lifestyle a great deal. I don’t have a lot of needs.”
After he left, his friend Earl Rogstad remarked to a visitor: “It’s too bad Robert didn’t have his airplane ready… He offered last summer to fly me over and see (the oil wells) from the air.”
————
Time to move to North Dakota.
I spent some time north of Bismarck last year and I found it to be quite pleasant, if desolate. The oil boom there has a bit of a different character than here in western PA. It seems more freewheeling, probably because around here there are too many incorporated towns and politicians trying to get in on the action.
Beaks have to be wetted.
Or else.
“Nice oil gig you got there. ‘Shame if somethin’ were to happen to it…”
Western North Dakota is absolutely gorgeous. South Dakota’s badlands get all the love, but they’ve got nothing on those of North Dakota.
Yeah, but North Dakota has a really ugly Capitol, and nothing else matters.
As soon as global warming makes the winters less The Shining, I’m moving up there.
The retired men shooting the breeze at Joyce’s Cafe in Stanley don’t look like oil barons
This is true just about everywhere, at least among the folks who own the land where the drilling is. Most of them are farmers/ranchers by birth an inclination, and the oil money is just a good way to make sure they don’t ever lose the land.
Agreed. It certainly is the way things are in western Kern County, CA. I’ve ridden to lunch with a guy wearing overalls in a beat-up old pickup and flown with him in his G-3 to play Pebble Beach the next day.
Yep. I know several very rich men who grew up farming and ranching. If their wives didn’t bully them they wouldn’t put on a clean shirt but once a week and they all drive used cars or trucks bought at a discount and beat to hell. It is extremely effective camouflage.
some of the richer guys I’ve met don’t look the part. Of course they get rich by saving and investing, not flashing the cash.
Tell me they at least had one top hat and monocle set?!
You’d have to ask their wives, since the last thing I want to know is what goes on behind closed doors.
The one I knew best had two or three exquisitely well tailored suits. For when he needed to intimidate lawyers. But usually it was jeans, a ratty t-shirt, and 30 year old boots.
Whoever wins the presidency is likely to cost Americans as much as $1.4 billion every year.
In an unrelated note: liquor stores expected to increase revenue by 1.4 billion dollars next year.
Conrad Black: Blind Justice
America is victimized by a rapacious prosecutocracy.
http://www.nationalreview.com/…..nrad-black
Overcharge the person, steal all their assets so they can’t hire an attorney, give them a public pretender, then explain how they can go to trial and be found guilty of this charge or just plead guilty to a lesser charge.
Works 97% of the time!
Yup. Or just get a cop to say they lied to the investigator and get them for obstruction or lying to the police.
They have anticipated people starting to notice that. Hence the new show “Major Crimes” (a spinoff of Kyra Sedgwick’s “The Closer”) in which their focus is to get the guilty party to agree to a plea deal as a way to save the city money.
Of course being a TV show they always get the guilty party and railroad him into a confession but it does a nice job of getting people to think how wonderful those Plea Deals are in much the same way that CSI has convinced people that Forensics experts are never wrong and their methods are scientifically valid.
Man they are amazing at making sure they’re prosecuting the right person! It’s almost uncanny.
According to a Washington Post/ABC News poll, 59 percent of Americans expected President Obama to win the debate, 29 percent expected Romney to win. A Pew Research poll found 51 percent of Americans thought Barack Obama would win the debate and 29 percent said Romney. Early this month the CNN/ORC poll found 62 percent anticipated Obama would win, 32 percent thought Romney would win.
But they didn’t know that it would be *Obama’s anniversary* and that *Jim Lehrer* would moderate!
Well, when you form opinions based upon MSM bullshit, you shouldn’t be surprised when you’re wrong. The media truly runs the country, simply because your average 100 IQ believes everything they’re told.
NPR was totally in the tank for Obama this morning, “fact checking” Romney’s claims in typically biased manner. Like they go after Romney for saying he’s not going to add to the deficit, not going to have a $5 trillion tax cut, but conveniently ignore the point that Romney’s said he won’t cut taxes as much if he can’t do it and remain deficit neutral.
Also, pretending that cutting payments to medicare providers won’t affect patient care because they were only cutting “overpayments”.
Obama can tell the hospitals to accept less and it will have no negative consequences. He is just that charming.
I heard that. The mope was going on about how ObamaCare really was the bee’s knees because it “saved” all this money without affecting care at all! Because you can extract billions from a system running on a 3% margin without affecting quality or quantity delivered!
I fully expected her to say something about loaves and fishes at one point.
I’d hate to have been in Barry’s shoes lastr night after the debate. Michelle must have torn him a new one, because that guy got spanked!
Well, it was their anniversary after all.
And I can’t even *imagine* Valerie’s reaction.
But I’ll bet SugarFree can.
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ti…..ction.html
DENVER – Amid the widespread judgment by the news media that Mitt Romney beat President Barack Obama in their first debate, top aides to the incumbent argued that the challenger came off as unlikable and failed to offer the policy specifics Americans want.
“The governor had a tough debate, he was testy. He wanted to argue with both the moderator and the president. I think if you’re sitting out there, the American public, is that what you want for the next four years?” Obama campaign manager Jim Messina told reporters. (Messina used the word “testy” at least five times in a three-minute scrum within the cavernous media workspace).
And Obama’s aides predicted that the rhetorical bout would not win over undecided voters in battleground states to the Republican’s cause.
“We don’t care about national polls,” White House senior adviser David Plouffe told reporters when asked whether he expected polls to show Romney gaining. “We have deep respect for voters in New York and Alabama” but “they won’t contribute anything” because “they’re red or blue.”
——
Whiney fucks are whiney.
“The governor had a tough debate, he was testy. He wanted to argue with both the moderator and the president. I think if you’re sitting out there, the American public, is that what you want for the next four years?”
He could be scrooge and I wouldn’t care if I thought he was going to implement sound economic policies.
Obama’s lackies have no idea what America wants.
Ya know, that’s exactly what I want: a cranky fuck as President who won’t take shit from the smarmy douchebags who infest Washington and the media.
He could hurt somebody’s feelings! Better to live through a depression.
It was such a thorough drubbing that they are grasping at straws to find some sort of positive spin.
The teachers-union-aggaravating film apparently lacks a key element: the ability to entertain.
Maybe Won’t Back Down II, entirely recast, will do better.
What you did there? I spotted it immediately.
The Search for Curly’s Boogaloo?
Like Universal Soldier*?
*How sad is it that JCVD’s career declined to the point where he returned to the franchise long after it had become a straight-to-video joke? I’m glad Stallone and the boys gave him a piece of Expendables II.
For the first time since World War II, Italians are buying more bicycles than cars
I understand the confusion, but those are Fiats.
Rofl. +1.
Fix It Again, Tony!
T O N Y?
I am not sure he could repair such.
http://news.yahoo.com/philadel…..ories.html
Philadelphia Officer Who Punched Woman to Be Fired
The Philadelphia cop caught on video punching a woman in the face will be fired, according to ABC News’ Philadelphia station WPVI.
A video posted on YouTube shows Lt. Jonathan Josey punching a woman in the face and knocking her to the ground before she is led off bloodied and handcuffed.
Earlier today, the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office said it intends to drop the disorderly conduct charge against the woman who was hit.
The woman was identified as Aida Gusman, 39, a mother of three and domestic worker, according to ABC News’ Philadelphia station WPVI. She denied throwing anything at police and said she did not know why she was punched.
“I’m 40 years old. I don’t have time to play games like that,” Gusman told WPVI earlier in the week. In addition to her facial injury, she has cuts and bruises on her arm and hand.
——
Where are the charges of aggravated assault battery? Equal treatment under the law, indeed!
*assault and battery. Ampersands — we miss you.
At least they dropped charges against the woman.
They could have charged her with assaulting the officer’s fist with the back of her head.
I’m surprised the cunt didn’t get a raise for perpetrating assault, to be honest.
Where are the charges of aggravated assault [and] battery?
Well, the coppers can’t fire you when you sucker punch someone half your size, or that’s what they’d do. So they arrest you. But they can do their preferred response to this guy and just fire him. It’s all above board.
This election reminds me more and more of 1980. In 1980 Carter couldn’t run on his record. So he ran on “well you can’t elect Reagan”. It was pretty successful throughout the summer. People really thought Reagan was this senile old man, a shallow actor who was going to nuke Russia. Well then the debates came and Carter was standing there with his dick in his hand. He couldn’t defend his record because it was horrible. But Carter couldn’t attack Reagan as being a nut because Reagan was standing right there and was obviously not a nut.
The same thing is happening this year. I know a lot of Obama supporters. And I have yet to have them give me a single reason to vote for Obama beyond “well you can’t elect Romney”. So Obama was like Carter last night. He couldn’t defend his record and he couldn’t claim that Romney was some crazy rightwinger after your lady parts because was standing there to disprove it.
Debates are very important for incumbents with bad records. If you have a good record, debates don’t matter. Mondale killed Reagan in 84. But Reagan could just say “well that sounds nice Walter but we have done it my way for four years and look at the results.” And it didn’t matter how smart or clever Mondale was, he was done. If Obama had a record to run on, he could have just fallen back on that and it wouldn’t have mattered what Romney said. But Obama doesn’t and the fact that Romney was sharper and more competent than he was mattered.
This actually sounds about right. Romney’s taking decent advantage of the fact and although he’s a scum sucking big government technocrat, if he wins atleast we’ll have different things to complain about. Maybe he’ll actually fail in a net positive direction…one can dream right.
What is going on right now cannot go on much longer. Events are going to force either President to do things they never planned on. So your guess is as good as mine what will actually happen. The one thing I will say for Romney is that he actually will be President and make decisions. I am starting to think Obama has pretty much checked out on that and has ceded everything to the bureaucracy.
Yep – If he really wanted to be President, he would have do so at some point in the last 3 years.
And you are correct, the constant criticism of Romney in the mainstream press did lower expectations. Watching him drub Obama makes liberals question lots of things. Was I mislead? Or, is Obama way dumber than this stupid robot?
If you are one of the 20 or so percent of the people who has no strong feeling about either guy, how could you watch that debate and not conclude Romney is more suited to be President and that Obama and the media have been lying to you about Romney?
Present.
/Obama
Interesting. I hope you’re right.
Carter didn’t have near the cult of personality that Obama has.
Nor did he have the entire media-entertainment complex in his employ.
Doesn’t matter. The Obama cult is not 51%. And there is another cult that hates Obama just as much as his own cult loves him. What matters is the people in neither cult. And Obama’s only argument to those people is that Romney is unfit for office.
And a lot of the Obama cult circa 2008 was idealistic young people who 4 years hence can’t get a job. I wonder if they will go into the booth and press the Romney lever out of sheer self-interest, though of course they’ll never tell their friends they did it. Way uncool to cast a vote against sheer incompetence.
I wonder how many suburban moms who went all hopey changey in 08 will do the same and just not tell the play group.
This is an excellent point. I think it quite likely that the numbers of cultists are matched or outweighed by the people who outright despise the man for his crappy presidency. Neither is a majority or probably even close to it, of course.
Its possible.
Ive argued that Romney is running the Kerry 2004 campaign (Anybody but [incumbent]) but the one difference is the incumbent is running an Anybody but Romney campaign so it might be different.
The difference is that Bush had a record in 2004. Iraq didn’t get hard until 2006. The economy was good in 2004. Everyone thought Afghanistan was over. Bush worked with Congress and gave the country its goodies in the form of Medicare Part D and NCLB and tax cuts. Everyone here seems to think that 04 was like 08. It wasn’t. Bush had a record so Kerry wasn’t going to win without giving a really compelling reason.
The thing about debates is the media’s left wing talking points don’t work when there is someone in the room to rebut them.
Mittens did a good job.
I watched on CSPAN, because there is no commentary. But the instant it ended. I switched to MSNBC. The first words out of Maddow’s mouth was how Obama seemed professorial while Romney seemed hyper “but not in a bad way”. Professorial? Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!
Madow claimed that there was no winner in this debate. If it was so bad that even Madow couldn’t figure out a way to claim Obama won, it was bad.
Professorial…aka like an puffed up dick…hiding behind his notes most of the time, looking exasperated alot.
Bill Maher actually said something funny last night. “This Obama guy seems smart but I don’t think I will take his class next semester”. Zing
Oh phew, for a second I thought he ripped off his clothes and shouted “THERE IS NO GOD”
LOL!
http://news.yahoo.com/secret-c…..08828.html
ST. LOUIS (AP) ? Doris Spates was a baby when her father died inexplicably in 1955. She has watched four siblings die of cancer, and she survived cervical cancer.
After learning that the Army conducted secret chemical testing in her impoverished St. Louis neighborhood at the height of the Cold War, she wonders if her own government is to blame.
In the mid-1950s, and again a decade later, the Army used motorized blowers atop a low-income housing high-rise, at schools and from the backs of station wagons to send a potentially dangerous compound into the already-hazy air in predominantly black areas of St. Louis.
Local officials were told at the time that the government was testing a smoke screen that could shield St. Louis from aerial observation in case the Russians attacked.
————–
I hope this isn’t true.
It would not surprise if it was.
Tony approves. It’s what the voters want!
Dump enough VOCs into the air and both sides could be true. I mean, the shit they used to coat telephone poles and spray on dirt roads turned out to be pretty toxic shit. They weren’t out to “test” the stuff on poor people. Just, poor people happened to live on the dirt roads for the most part.
I don’t have a particularly difficult time believing it.
Kate Upton, still hot. You can thank me later when I’m back from my bunk.
That’s tempting me to go on another Hot Babes Photo Dump binge. And if I start, I won’t be able to stop, dude.
Even she looks better with her clothes on. And that is a bold statement.
You know who else looked better with their clothes on?
Lara Flynn Boyle
She looked much better when she was wearing adequate amounts of body fat.
DAT ASS!
Kate posed with Sex and the City legend Chris Noth
I don’t want to live in a world where Chris Noth is regarded as a legend.
Mexican troops arrest two in killing of U.S. border agent: officials
http://news.yahoo.com/u-border…..22728.html
MEXICO CITY/PHOENIX (Reuters) – Mexican troops arrested two men on Wednesday suspected of involvement in the killing of a U.S. Border Patrol agent shot dead in Arizona while responding to a tripped ground sensor, Mexican security officials said.
The agent who died was among three who were patrolling on foot about 5 miles north of the international border when gunfire erupted well before daybreak on Tuesday. A second agent was also wounded while the third, a woman, was unharmed.
The agents involved in the incident had been patrolling in an area near the border town of Naco, well-known as a corridor for smuggling, and the Cochise County Sheriff’s department has said that tracks were found heading south after the shooting.
———————–
I wonder if the perpetrators were armed by the Department of Justice. Any bets?
“Turkey and Syria are now exchanging artillery barrages. This usually ends with U.S. Marines paying a visit.”
No, no! Wrong Tripoli!
Turkey is part of NATO. If they invoke the mutual defense clause of the NATO treaty, we will be obligated to help. Oh boy.
FOOD FIGHT!!
Holy shit. A full-scale American invasion. Just what we need.
Dude, do you really think Obama is going to send troops to help the Turks. There is no way that will ever happen.
If they asked, he would have to or leave NATO. I think leaving NATO is a lot less likely than not sending troops.
Wait, isn’t the conservative theory that he’s trying to destroy American influence? If he dicks NATO and then claims that the rules don’t apply to us, he guarantees that NATO won’t want to help us in the future, while future presidents will still feel obligated to help other NATO members. Sounds like a win win if your goal is to lose.
Not to mention:
7) Hez is heavily engaged in Syria right now helping Assad. If the Turks go in heavy, a lot of Hez fighters are going to get butt-fucked (and not in the good way).
Turkish troops with American air support? Butt-fucked is a nice term for what would happen to those savages.
The Turks get real touchy about their sovereignty though. Islamist or not, they are still nationalistic as hell. I can’t believe Assad is dumb enough to provoke them.
Yes, but they all can united against a common enemy, yes? Namely the U.S.-JOOOZ!!! alliance.
This is what most people miss, I believe, about the Middle East.
Most of the conflicts there aren’t along lines that we traditionally think of (nation v nation, left v right, secular v religious). They intramural Muslim fights that go back centuries, with Shiite v Sunni at the top of the card.
Persian v Arab, Turk v Arab, Arab v Persian, Shi’a v Sunna, everyone crap on the Druze, etc, etc, ad nauseum.
I was trying to riff on “to the shores of Tripoli” considering the crap going on in Libya and the Tripoli in Lebanon, right by the Turkish and Syrian boarders.
I haz fail.
epic
How ’bout we let the French and the Germans take point on this one. We’ll send them advice.
Well, it’s clear now, Assad is going to go down the hard way. You don’t engage the Turks in artillery tiddly-winks unless you enjoy getting ass-raped by invading troops.
If Turkey entered Syria from the rear, would Greece help?
You’d think so, but man the Turks and Greeks hate each other for even the Greeks to turn down surprise butt seks.
“Turkey attacks Syria.” For a second I thought that was an article about the debate.
Hey, I was kidding about restoring the Ottoman Empire. Well, mostly kidding.
No, no, no. Let Russia be Russia, let Germany be Germany, let the Turks be Turks, and let America pull back to Fortress America and sell them overpriced weapons systems.
Nearly 2,400 Americans who received unemployment insurance in 2009 lived in households with income of at least $1 million, according to the Congressional Research Service.
The service’s 10-page report focuses on unemployment following the longest recession since World War II and efforts by Congress to reform the federal unemployment system amid several years of $1 trillion-plus budget deficits.
The Labor Department requires states to pay unemployment compensation to eligible beneficiaries regardless of their income levels because individual or household income does not impact the “fact or cause of unemployment,” according to the report.
The Republican-controlled House passed a bill this session that included a provision to impose an income tax on unemployment benefits for high-income earners. However, the bill signed Feb. 22 by President Obama did not include that provision.
http://www.foxnews.com/politic…..-benefits/
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Wow. The system’s even more broken than I thought, if that’s possible.
I remember listening to Jerry Doyle on the drive home and he was talking about his Babylon 5 days, and how his fellow actors and actresses who were pulling in twenty some-odd thousand dollars a week would apply for unemployment between seasons.
Hollywood exists off of unemployment benefits. The crew positions all work like hell and take unemployment between projects. I have a friend who’s an Assistant Director, and the practice is endemic, and not limited to actors. Basically, if you have more than a week between projects, you file for benefits.
I like The Michael Garibaldi Show. While he wouldn’t pass the purity test, he portrays libertarians in a positive light. Wish he’d run for office again.
Meeester Garibaldi!
The one question I have from listening to his radio show is was he even acting on Babylon 5?
I mean you could see Garibaldi saying pretty much every thing that Doyle does.
On a slightly related topic, anyone wonder if Bobby Valentine will be filing for unemployment benefits here in Mass after the Red Sox fire him this week?
if someone’s handing out free money, it takes a big person to say “nah, i don’t want anymore”. The system is designed to efficiently distribute money, because…poor people…and has minimal requirements to slow the process down because…votes.
Also, see Medicare.
My parents did that back in the 70’s
Both of them had to have surgery that kept them out of work for 6+ months within like 2 weeks of each other. With 3 kids and no real savings their only option was to go on Welfare.
When my father was finally cleared by the Doctors to return to work he had an new job within a week and after he got his first paycheck went down to the welfare office and tried to unenroll. They told him he couldn’t because he didn’t make enough money for his family size. So he proceeded to rip up the checks they continued to send him.
Of course how times have changed, he’s been living on VA disability (and he is legitimately disabled for multiple reasons from Vietnam, primarily PTSD that went untreated long enough to make him dangerous to have in any sort of work environment) for the last 15 years.
As a business owner, I can tell you that the system is seriously screwed up. And I live in a reasonable state, Virginia.
A forensic chemist in the Massachusetts State Laboratory Institute has been arrested on charges of falsifying instrument calibrations, forgery, and intentionally contaminating samples, among other charges. Thousands of convictions stand in question. The former President of the Massachusetts Bar Association says, “I don’t think this is going to end with a single chemist…this is an ever-expanding spider web and I don’t know where the end is going to lie.”
Watch for the Massachusetts prosecution community to go into full scapegoat mode. Someone needs to make sure the perverse incentives that lead to this kind of fraud do not go unreported, and that ethical breaches by prosecutors and police looking for convictions at all costs do not go unpunished.
http://cen.acs.org/articles/90…..andal.html
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012…..latestnews
Design for Titanic II to be revealed in New York City
The plans for a ship that has been dubbed Titanic II will be unveiled in New York by Australian billionaire Clive Palmer, MyFoxNY reported.
Palmer announced plans in April to construct the replica Titanic with exactly the same dimensions and class separation as the original.
Unlike the Titanic, Palmer has said the new ship would have more safety features and air conditioning.
He will reportedly release the design at the Intrepid Museum during a Dec. 4 gala.
————-
What could possibly go wrong?
I was surprised someone didn’t do this in the 1990s when the movie was so big.
The movie about how an unsinkable ship sunk…why any publicity is good publicity, I’d think twice about jumping on something representing the hubris of men.
The way things are now, it would be nice to see a little hubris in men.
Will the maiden voyage be through an ice floe?
I’m thinking NYC to Bermuda to the Azores to Porto to NYC.
Fast Furious now officially a campaign issue
http://www.examiner.com/articl…..aign-issue
“Operation Fast and Furious has officially been elevated to the status of ‘campaign issue,’ courtesy of a new fund-raising solicitation mailed by Republican vice presidential hopeful Paul Ryan, just as Barack Obama and Mitt Romney prepare to square off Wednesday evening.”
“Partisans on both sides in Washington State will be glued to their flat screen televisions, same as they were for Tuesday night’s gubernatorial debate on KCTS. The Seattle Times also notes that Michelle Obama blew through town Tuesday, picking up more money from a state Democrats take for granted, which a growing number of people living outside the I-5 corridor find insulting.” …
She doesn’t have the balls to go to Spokane. Well she does have balls, but the She-wookie still isn’t going to Spokane.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…..29015.html
Chicago Homicides Reach 400 This Year, City Turns To Twitter For Ideas To End Violence
Homicides in Chicago have reached a new high this year, even as recent data show that surging gun violence in the Windy City has slowed from its devastating midsummer heights.
With still three months of the year ahead, Chicago has seen 400 murders so far in 2012 as of Friday, marking a 25 percent increase over last year’s numbers, WGN reports.
Tio Hardiman of Cure Violence (formerly Ceasefire) Illinois told the station that he expects the city may hit 500 homicides this year, a mark it has not reached in several years.
On Sunday, almost 200 people took to the streets of Chicago in an anti-violence rally led by Bishop Larry Trotter of Sweet Holy Spirit Church. Trotter told the Associated Press he has presided over four recent funerals of teenagers in the city.
“The city has gone wild. It’s no longer just gang killing, it’s random killing,” Trotter told the AP.
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If only they’d ban guns!
Seriously. Chicago’s overly permissive firearms CCW law has turned the place into an Old West slaughterhouse.
I’m honestly afraid the homicide increase might lead to blowback for the still-incredibly-restrictive handgun laws we did get out of McDonald. So…shh…
There was never any doubt the gun haters would grab any straw. This assertion can be easily disproven using records of how many of these guns were lawfully possessed at the time of the crime.
“almost 200 people took to the streets of Chicago in an anti-violence rally led by Bishop Larry Trotter of Sweet Holy Spirit Church.”
There are gangs in Chicago that could put 200 dudes on the street in minutes.
Maybe the PD there could pay off the El Rukn again, only this time, so they won’t shoot people.
CNN: The 25 funniest tweets about the debate.
Funniest? *facepalm*
Oops, left off “via Iowahawk.”
Not bad: Rachel Lichtman, Kathleen Madigan, Doug Benson
Good: Todd Barry, Aaron Blitzstein
I do believe that’s the Rachel “Jugs” Lichtman I went to high school with. Sounds like something she’d write.
Romney came out swinging and scored a clear victory in the after-event polling.
So, it’s about time for the Mormon-sliming to start creeping into Obama’s ads, isn’t it?
I am not sure that would help. The only people susceptible to such appeals would be liberals who are voting for him anyway and evangelicals. And if it worked with evangelicals, Romney wouldn’t have won the GOP nomination.
As Ive mentioned before, the SC primary vote shows that evangelicals dont vote that way.
Final results:
Catholic, Mormon, Catholic, Baptist.
I was hoping for a bit more religious intolerance in that state.
Yes, but the Baptists wanted three year olds to shoot up heroin and would hand the country over to terrorists. So they couldn’t vote for him
*Baptist
http://www.reuters.com/article…..3W20121002
Gun training for tax cops is off target: IRS watchdog
“Armed Internal Revenue Service agents need more thorough firearms training and they need to be more consistent in reporting accidental firings of their guns, said the tax-collecting agency’s watchdog on Tuesday.”
“‘Special agents not properly trained in the use of firearms could endanger the public, as well as their fellow special agents, and expose the IRS to potential litigation over injuries or damages,’ said J. Russell George, Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration.” …
———————
Lol.
Just have the IRS contract out their armed ops to the FBI. There’s no reason so many federal agencies need armed agents.
There’s no reason so many federal agencies need armed agents.
These agencies routinely do things that aggravate citizens into wanting to hurt them, so they need to be armed for self protection.
Fuck you, we’re the goberment, we ALL ARMED BRUH
Everyone except the military. Baghdad, 04, deep in the shit…
Not allowed to have a round in the chamber inside the wire. Safety!
That crap ass rule was everywhere Iraq, AF, gah! (I disobeyed it, at least with my pistol – who could tell?)
“I’m from the government and I’m here to kill.”
Elliot Ness hates this idea.
need to be more consistent in reporting accidental firings of their guns
Just how many unreported negligent discharges are we talkin’ here, Chief?
http://www.miamiherald.com/201…..ating.html
FL: Broward deputy accused of beating homeless man
“A Broward sheriff’s deputy is being accused of punching a handcuffed homeless man while he sat in the back of a patrol car.”
“Deputy Mathew Eisenberg, 39, was charged with battery, official misconduct and falsifying official reports. He surrendered himself to authorities at Broward’s main jail on Tuesday.” …
—–
Wow. They charged him. Now let’s see if the charges stick.
In Florida even.
Sadly yes. I have always thought one of the great might have beens is what if Cuba had collapsed along with the rest of communism? Imagine if Cuba were like Estonia right now, only a gorgeous island 90 miles from the US where Spanish and English are spoken equally. They would be dealing with the endless flood of American expats.
We should have made Cuba a state back in 1898 or whenever.
But we might have fucked it up. I want Cuba to be this free nation right off our shores where Americans can escape to.
We had that from 1902-Castro.
They fucked it up themselves. Im not sure we could have done worse.
Yeah Batista was fucking awful. Horrible shitholes all over South America managed to keep from going Commie. Bastista had the best real estate in the Western Hemisphere and was such a fuck up he managed to let the commies take it over.
I still like the idea of turning Guantanamo into a Hong Kong-like enclave.
Okay, looked up the peace settlement of Spanish-American War, I guess that wasnt really an option available, unlike with Puerto Rico and the Phillipines.
We probably should have made the Phillipines a state. 🙂
The tourism industry in Florida would never have developed to the extent it has. Havana would be Miami.
Romney @ Obama: “You didn’t just pick winners and losers, you picked the losers!”
That was a zinger.
I thought that was the zinger of the night, but no one seemed to pick up on it.
My theory is that most people are so sick and tired of politics that the fatigue leads to a decision not to seek entertainment in political themes.
Why good men do not become president.
http://dailycaller.com/2012/10…..president/
Teacher quits after getting caught screwing in school parking lot.
A teacher has been accused of having sex with a 17-year-old student in her school parking lot.
Courtney Speer, 31, is also alleged to have had sex with the teenager at her home after striking up the illicit relationship.
We are fucking barbarians. That poor sexy lady should get a medal from the president, not a jail term. Fuck us.
She looks pretty cute. Way to go man.
From doing some cursory research, it looks like the age of consent in Arkansas is 16, so what the hell?
I love that they call the kid a “victim”, that’s a good one. The only thing he did wrong is he squealed to the cops. You never kiss and tell, son.
Different standards apply when a position of authority, such as a teacher, is involved.
Yeah, but this is Arkansas, so they’re probably cousins. How does that affect the analysis?
I think the problem was that they weren’t related. Then a cousin finds out and its all, “so now you’re too good for your own family.”
I’d say the premise that entrepreneurs are getting turned off from the U.S. is probably true. The future is the Orient. Power is shifting.