Nate Silver Rides High, GOP Doesn't, Puerto Rico Wants To Get Serious: P.M. Links
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In the wake of the national election, Nate Silver's job as a political forecaster is looking pretty secure. He called the outcome almost precisely.
- Republicans … not so chipper, today.
- One of the few national Democrats left unhappy by yesterday's results was Nancy Pelosi, whose sell-by date may have arrived after the GOP held the House.
- Puerto Rico has apparently tired of casually dating the United States, and now wants to go steady. At least, Puerto Ricans voted in favor of statehood yesterday. Congress gets the final say.
- Europeans better find somebody else to do the heavy lifting. German manufacturing is down as the country's economy loses steam.
- Missouri voters barred their state from setting up health care exchanges in compliance with Obamacare, while Montana and Wyoming voted to block individual health insurance mandates. Your move, feds.
- Analysis of election outcomes shows that those big, bad super PACs had little or no effect on races, despite the money they threw around.
- Charter schools got a big boost from voters in both Washington and Georgia.
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Your move, feds.
DRONE ATTACK!
The Obama Gambit, eh?
Not a very imaginative first move, but 100% effective.
Next time, how about a ballot measure to give everyone a fair shot at the first comment on the PM Links?
Life isn't fair. Get over it.
that problem will be corrected by legislation in the next two years, so they say.
5:16? You have the nerve to come here and comment at 5 fucking 16 complaining about a chance at first comment? LISTEN UP EVERYONE. TOMORROW WE'RE ALL GOING TO SIT AROUND AND NOT COMMENT UNTIL CE HERE DECIDES TO GET OUT OF BED AND THEN FIRES UP HIS COMPUTER AND CHECKS DRUDGE AND EMAILS SOME PEOPLE AND THEN COMES HERE AND PERUSES THE LINKS AND COMES UP WITH A STATEMENT AND GETS FIRST COMMENT.
I couldn't be more happy with how this went.
You know what you are? You're a first comment bully.
Well someone has to be.
I am pissing myself over here.
I love H&R
Up-twinkles?
One of the few national Democrats left unhappy by yesterday's results was Nancy Pelosi...
Are House Democrats even relevant?
Inject some botox and she'll be happy again.
I think she was less relevant when she actually had control of the house.
Leading the way for Obama and the Democratic Party victory, Jesse Jackson Jr coasts to election victory in his House Seat. Even though he has not voted in Congress for months, did not campaign, has been at the Mayo Clinic suffering from what is said to be Bi-Polar disorder and is under ethics investigation. .
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....mg00000016
JJJr is about as competent as BHO.
Amid health issues that have kept him from office since June and various reports of bizarre behavior, U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.) was re-elected in Tuesday's election.
Hmm. Must be the bizarre behavior that's the key to re-election.
Who on the left would notice?
Must be the bizarre behavior that's the key to re-election.
Not unless you consider skin color to be "bizarre behavior."
Well, skin color and parentage.
Pretty sure it's none of the above, and just "having your district in Chicago." I can guarantee you Jan Schakowsky would have done just as well in the same circumstances.
We don't pay people in Congress to vote on bills. Unless they're Republicans, in which case they have to get back to work and compromise because their obstruction is unprecedented and invalidating the reason we are paying them to be there in the first place.
I'll be pleased with the Republicans in Congress if they simply kill everything for a while. It's not like they can unilaterally undo the damage, so just blocking the nonsense will suffice. If they get control of the Senate in 2014, then they can maybe start repealing stuff.
Not that any of this will happen.
I know, Boehner and his crew growing a backbone seems pretty unlikely.
I'll be surprised, but it would be a good gambit.
Boehner caves in .... already.
House Speaker John Boehner offered Wednesday to pursue a deal with a victorious President Barack Obama that will include higher taxes "under the right conditions" to help reduce the nation's staggering debt and put its finances in order.
Mr. President, this is your moment," Boehner told reporters, speaking about the "fiscal cliff" that will hit in January. "We want you to lead."
http://www.cnbc.com/id/49731550
Well, that didn't take long.
Lead us off the cliff? WTF?
Want to know why the Republicans didn't win? It's because they don't stand for shit. Plenty of Americans want someone to make tough decisions to fix things. Instead, it's more of this crap.
Boehner needs to be unseated for these comments if the GOP wants to hang on to even a shred of credibility.
He needed to go even if the GOP had cleaned house.
Boehner should be saying: "Please don't let us go over the fiscal cliff, Mr Obama. Please help us find a way."
a la Br'er Rabbit
Boehner and the rest of the leadership are just so feckless. They have been outmaneuvered by Obama time and again, into presenting their plan first, where it turns into a stick to beat them with.
All they have to do is sit back and say they are willing to work with the President on his plan. And if he doesn't present one, well, waddayagonnado?
Unless this is some jujitsu move: "Yes, Mr. President, please propose raising taxes, so all the Democrats in Congress can vote "yes" on it and we can vote "no", and take back the Senate in two years."
Yes, excellent.
Not enough of them, I am afraid, Pro'L Dib. More American want more "coming together" and "reaching across the aisle" and other such drivel.
Want to know why the Republicans didn't win? It's because they don't stand for shit.
Wrong. It's because people think they stand for tax breaks for the rich and reduced govt handouts.
Why on earth would Boner fight for the bush tax cuts at this point? The electorate is boss and it has spoken.
The people who voted for Obama, by and large, have no idea what they were voting for. If they did, a chunk of them would've voted differently.
If they actually DID stand for that stuff, people would have showed up and voted for them.
I'd love it, but they'd get killed in the media. I already heard about the Republicans "unprecedented level of obstruction" as the second most prevalent meme liberals were spouting about this election.
(The first was war on wymenz.)
True, but why should say my congressman from SC give a shit what anyone outside his district thinks?
He shouldn't. But the people in your district are a bunch of idiots too.
There is more truth to that than you know.
So what? They're getting that, anyway.
Valid point.
Might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb.
Thank you gerrymandering.
Even though he has not voted in Congress for months, did not campaign, has been at the Mayo Clinic suffering from what is said to be Bi-Polar disorder and is under ethics investigation.
I would be delighted if the rest of the statists in Congress followed this admirable behavior -- at least, the not voting part.
In the wake of the national election, Nate Silver's job as a political forecaster is looking pretty secure.
He knows how to fill out his bracket.
Gotta hand it to him.
Beneath the spurious decimal point accuracy and the unfalsifiable percentages, he called it.
The sports radio station I listen to (SPORTS radio) has a really big douchebag on in the afternoon show. He's spent about 2 hours going on about Silver today. Shut the fuck up or talk about sports. I don't care about a fucking pollster.
Sports talk died when FSN fired Steve Czaban.
Silver's a sports guy made good. No surprise they crowed over it.
I wouldn't have complained if he was mentioned, or even discussed for one break. I don't need to hear about it for 2 hours.
crap I'm about to get into my car for the drive home, I presume you mean Felger's on a tear again.
I do, but he finally shut up when they had a guest on (though he pushed the guest back to rant a bit longer).
made good?
Leaving baseball was his biggest fucking mistake?
Sports guy turned evil, is more accurate.
He did. And Romney supporters, both casual and hard-core kept ignoring the utter blind conviction with which Obama supporters were operating.
Dude couldn't conceive of a former Obama supporter not being an Obama supporter in '12. And neither could I. It just didn't seem possible.
12 point swing after the first debate my narrow ass.
A big part of the reason why Silver has been so accurate on the Obama elections is because the Obama people have been giving him inside access to their extensive internal polling data, which is available to very few. When he doesn't have inside data, like in the case of the Scott Brown and Scott Walker special elections, his predictions have sucked.
Oh, and orher thing: the schmuck has still never even cashed in a meaningful poker tournament, despite his ludicrous claim of being a "professional" player.
Again, tournament poker is not all of poker. Perfectly reasonable to be a cash game grinder and not do tournaments. It's extremely unlikely that a very good player has never cashed in a major tournament, but not impossible.
Googling him and tournament results indicates that he's never cashed at all, even in a SnG, which seems incredibly unlikely to me. I mean, I'm not good, and even I've won a few of those.
As I tried to write though in the morning thread, he can hold his head up high with his predictions. I thought that he was smoking Rick James's stash of crack with his electoral predictions and he turned out to be right. I still can't believe that O outperformed his swing state polls by 3-4 percent in all of them. And yet, it happened.
"Perfectly reasonable to be a cash game grinder and not do tournaments."
Used to be that the pros would play all the big cash games that take place around the tournaments. Now with TV and endorsements and all that jazz, its about getting TV time during the tournament.
Nate Silver = reality based.
GOP = bubble.
Why don't you just blow Silver and get it over with?
Seriously. The love for this guy from the left is creepy, they really do have Great Man fetish.
The hell you say. Shreek is a die hard, REAL libertarian. Just ask him.
That, and they love the appearance of science that is created by using statistical methods.
Impenetrable cult of personality. I say again, I believe that they can be shamed into shutting up, but you can't switch their vote.
Says the party of that demi-god Reagan. Silver is the best at what he does and proved it.
Reagan was a Libertarian? Who knew? I thought he was a Republican with some Libertarian ideas. Books and the internet must be wrong.
So you want to go beyond just blowing. Understood.
Look, the guy fucking called it. He showed that he knows what he is doing.
If it was a Republican landslide, he probably would have called that, too. So why the hate?
This. You have to admire smarts. And I thought we didn't give a shit, anyway. You're harshing our cool, Tulpa.
He absolutely called it. By the way, does anyone have a breakdown of how party-affiliated voters broke?
Ie, did Obama get damn near 100% of the registered Democrats, as I postulated he would?
We're talking about a very small sample size here. How many states were realistically in play, six or seven? There may be some skill there but it's probably mostly luck. There are factors that Silver could not possibly control for that would skew these results.
His explanations in the popular press were fallacious as heck. He basically said the margin of error is negligible if you average polls, which is ridiculous to anyone who knows the first thing about statistics.
Do you know anyone else who has called two elections back-to-back?
Consistent luck maybe isn't luck after all.
I really can't hate on someone for being competent and predicting reality in advance with precision. Not into shooting the messenger.
Gott-Colley has, in fact, predicted the last three correctly.
Instead of all the super-detailed modelling Nate Silver does, though, they just take the median state poll from RCP, and predict the state will follow that poll.
They're very slightly less accurate than Nate Silver, with a hell of a lot less work.
Are there? Maybe people are just a whole lot more predictable than we like to think, and the whole election process is really just Kabuki theater to help people rationalize their premade decisions.
If it was a Republican landslide, he probably would have called that, too. So why the hate?
Actually, he didn't predict the 2010 republican midterm landslide very accurately at all.
Analysis of election outcomes shows that those big, bad super PACs had little or no effect on races, despite the money they threw around
Overturn Citizens United !!!
At least, Puerto Ricans voted in favor of statehood yesterday.
Do they know what they're getting into? Plus which, I'm not changing all my flags and flag apparel. Some existing states are going to have to be combined.
Do we really need two Dakotas?
I know, right? Or a Mexico and a New Mexico? I mean, come on.
Combine Alaska and Rhose Island. Fatty and Skinny - for the lulz.
You gerrymandering bastard.
Or Hawaii and Mississippi.
There's a NEW Mexico?
Same as the Old one.
Cleaner than the old Mexico
But just as much of a welfare state.
Actually more of one. I don't get the impression Old Mexico has a lot of welfare.
Do we really need two New Yorks?
They're like nesting dolls
You mean Russian dolls. Yes, like Russians.
I n Soviet Russia, dolls nest in you!
+matrjoshka
You mean the one in the northeast and the one in Dade county?
Probably part of the Florida problem right there.
"Do we really need two Dakotas?"
Considering their election results were almost identical yesterday, I don't think that anyone would particularly complain other than the Dakotans,
Del Jersey
You know the reason there are two Dakota's? Because a political party wanted more senate seats. Honest.
There's at least 3 Carolinas, too. North, South, and East, judging from College Football Gameday.
There's also Coastal.
How about all of those little slivers of "states" in the Northeast that are smaller than most decent sized cities?
"Do we really need two Dakotas?"
They can merge with the resulting single state to be known as Both Dakota.
Why the hell would they WANT to become a state?
Got a pretty sweet deal right now - why fuck it up?
The joy of voting for the President.
Moar free shit!
Right now PR residents get all the government goodies and pay none of the federal taxes.
I don't know how you get MOAR FREE SHIT than that.
Really disappointing that Fortuno lost by a hair -- by which I mean, the graft and fraud perpetrated by the ruling party in PR was successful in stealing the election for their machine candidate.
Umm, Fortuno is from the ruling party in PR. His party has the legislature.
It's weird, because his party has pro-GOP and pro-Dem wings, whereas the Commonwealth party is mostly just pro-Dem. His Administration had members from both wings, but the legislative leadership was from the pro-R wing, and he governed quite conservatively.
The PR parties are based on statehood, commonwealth, and independence. He's in the statehood party.
I'm from PR. By the ruling party, I meant the opposition -- which has had almost uninterrupted control of the legislature and the governorship since the 30s.
The graft in San Juan is simply amazing.
Ah, you mean the traditional ruling party, the "natural governing party." Got it.
Immaculate Trouser, where are you from? I lived there for two years (Luquillo and then Fajardo). And are the PIP's doing anything anymore?
Yauco, PR. Smallish town in the southwest of the island. Opposite side from where you were at. Haven't lived there in a while, but I have family there and visit all the time. Great place, awful politics (isn't that always the way?).
PIP isn't really doing much -- it's more interested in Marxist panegyrics than independence, go figure. They booted out all the left-libertarians and anarchists, and last I heard they are looking to establish contacts with other socialist parties.
How did you like PR?
I loved it. I worked at the El Conquistador and spent most of my off-work time sailing or playing golf at their course. (That and drinking at Papa Joe's outside of Rosie Roads)
Damn, you lived in a beautiful area in my opinion. I loved the west and the south...spent many a night at the Ponce Hilton but my favorite spot was Rincon a little up the coast. Sweet waves and wonderful people.
Fuck, I wish I was back there right now.
The graft in San Juan is simply amazing.
Not to mention the really scary, violent, professional wrestling fans.
Yeah, it was definitely awkward to find out that the continental US isn't that big on professional wrestling or beisball.
And Puerto Rico's southern coastline is proof that God loves us and wants us happy.
Once you're in, you're in for life.
You can check in any time you like...
That's called "stimulus".
I thought of taking Upper Peninsula Michigan and making in a new state to get us out of the recession back in '08.
Or listen to Grampa Simpson: "I'll be long in the cold, cold ground before I'll recognize Missourah!"
They didn't actually vote for statehood over the status quo, is the thing.
The two-question format was deliberately used to create a phony impression of a majority for statehood. What the results actually say is that 1) the number of Puerto Ricans who want statehood plus the number who want more independence plus the number who want full independence, all combined, is greater than the number who like the status quo, and 2) that forced to choose a status other than the status quo, the ones who want the status quo favor statehood.
If the election was, "Statehood, the status quo, or independence?" all on one question, the status quo would win a plurality, like it always has when the question has been put like that. If the election was a binary "Statehood or status quo?", status quo would win a majority, as the people in favor of (more) independence would vote against permanent attachment to the US. If the election was a binary "Independence or status quo?", the status quo would win a majority, as the people in favor of statehood would vote against independence.
51 STATES! WOO HOO! USA!USA!USA!
Forward to 57!
Great title for "Back to the Future XLIIIV", wherein Doc Brown and Marty go back to 1957 AGAIN, but in a '57 Chevy! And Marty's mom and dad....something something something....Biff and...something something...FIFTY SEVEN CHEVY!
"Back to the Future XLIIIV - Forward to '57"
I'm looking at that Roman Numeral and realizing I dyslexiced the I's and V. Please rearrange as you deem necessary.
Carry on.
LVII ought to do it.
If you were thinking, you would have just made it LVII.
"if"
The Black Jeebus was years ahead of his time. A real prophet.
North Puerto Rico
South Puerto Rico?
Cuba's going to be South Peurto Rico when we finally stop fucking around and nuke them into statehood.
Uh, Cuba is northwest, mostly west of Puerto Rico.
Isn't PR already south of Cuba? By a long way?
Puerto Rico becomes 51, maybe Guam and American Samoa as 52 and 53. What is 54? Libya? Syria? Cuba?
Now that he doesn't have to worry about re-election, we're going back to Iraq for #57.
They could always split California into 2 or 3 different states....
You'd have to get the approval of the CA legislature, the leadership of which would not be happy about splitting their empire in thirds. It's easier to just invade Cuba.
You'd have to get the approval of the CA legislature, the leadership of which would not be happy about splitting their empire in thirds.
If you have a Dem president pushing them, they'd probably jump on board. Christ, we're talking an extra 2-4 seats in the Senate for Team Blue just off of that, and state offices could just co-op the old CA bureaucratic infrastructure.
Depending on how they split, there would also be serious water distribution issues, as SoCal depends heavily on NoCal water.
the leadership of which would not be happy about splitting their empire in thirds.
You are selling it wrong.
3 Californias means there are 3 ways to the Governor's house....and 6 Senate seats.
2 or 3 new *swing* states, at that.
"What is 54? Libya? Syria? Cuba?"
Southern California or maybe the US Minor Outlying Islands.
I presume the Marianas are going to be part of Guam.
Actually, 56 would be idea, so we could move to a 7x8 grid.
Republicans ... not so chipper, today.
Like the Democrats in 2004, doomed to extinction.
Wall Street ..... not so chipper today.
It's 1980 all over again - except Carter won.
1980 was a big change.
This year confirmed the status quo.
Not sure where you're getting this.
It's like you stopped reading after the first five words.
Sorry, still doesn't quite compute for me. Massive change =/= status quo.
Perhaps if I heard your tone of voice -- snarky? Ironic? Dunno.
Yeah, it's so funny to hear partisans talk about the total death of the other party, like that's even close to happening. The GOP controls the House, the Supreme Court, and isn't that far from taking the Senate if the Democrats continue to do jack to control spending. And the likelihood of any strong recoveries happening soon are pretty small.
But they won, ProL! And there will never be another election ever again! Or something.
MAN DATES FOREVER!
I do think this part is accurate.
He can try but eventually she wants a ring.
Is the United States a common law marriage state? Just wait 10 years.
At least I have the satisfaction of knowing that all of these expanded powers will likely result in a conservative dictator. I'll be sure to point that out to the lefties who are in the re-education camps with me.
"Don't blame me, I voted for Kudomoncles."
I'll also get to see the lefties hauled off for execution first, as the conservative dictator will need more time to decide that libertarians have to die as well.
I would think libertarians would go first, right after the anarchists, the gays, and the gay anarchists. And the Jews.
this makes sense, as you take out the weakest first. nobody would notice we're gone.
Finally, another gay Jewish anarchist!
They have a soft spot for some of our rhetoric. Also, we're totally nonthreatening, politically speaking.
In the U.S., I believe the left hates the Jews far more than the right. Which is interesting, because American Jews tend to be Democrats.
The gays won't be killed off but will be sent to labor camps to ensure fashionable uniforms for the stormtroopers.
You know what we should work on once we wrap up all those Cap'n Jayne scripts?
We should make a Nehemiah Scudder show.
Too late -- it's already 2012, and Huckabee hasn't been elected.
That's for an alternate timeline.
No, we just do a reimagining.
A reimaginging which involves Tricia Helfer as one of the slutty "Virgins".
I'm in!
At least I have the satisfaction of knowing that all of these expanded powers will likely result in a conservative dictator
Team Red's as full of neutered nancies as Team Blue. I don't think there's really anyone there that has the stones to become the next Pinochet.
It'll happen by accident.
Newcular Titties would take the job in a heartbeat.
Yeah, it's so funny to hear partisans talk about the total death of the other party
I'm likely the most vocal about the death of the GOP at the national level. Done for, caput. The villain in every simpleton chick dystopic story. That guy you dated in college that like to receive but not give. Who invited your uncle over for a threesome. That guy. Forget about ever having a Republican president in our life times. That's half of a good thing but that means 200% of a very bad thing.
However, I'm Team This Guy, not Team Be Ruled.
You do realize that this was being said about the democrats 8-12 years ago. These people can't help themselves but to overreach and piss off the public. They had a shitty candidate this time because no one wants to run against an incumbent (and the voters hate freedom). Ebbs and flows, my friend.
Cognitive dissonance knows no bounds. If it did people would have noticed that the anti-Wall Street message of the first Obama run was at odds with his votes as senator and that would automatically disqualified him from serious consideration for even trying to pull that fast one. Nope, he will be considered a great success. Unemployment will officially tally around ten percent in 2016, and they will still throw him a full parade to mark the end of his benevolent rule. You see, there is no justice.
A decade from now you are going to see entire chapters in your kids history books devoted to his awesomeness. Get use to it. Swallow hard. It's cumming.
Yeah, the Republicans were talking about the death of the Democrat Party 12 years ago.
Yeppers.
There is no real lesson to that other than Rove is an idiot. Democrats have it in the bag now. Public School education is destiny.
No way. The way this works now is that someone is to blame for everything. If shit gets worse, that'll be the Democrats. If the GOP takes power and fails, then voters will go back to the Democrats.
We should just save the effort and let them alternate every month.
That equation is dead now that the Dhimmis have thrown milk chocolate Jesus in the mix (as opposed to the Man of Galilee who was the Dark Chocolate Jesus). Notice how the rhetoric has taken shape and form, that is the mythology being cemented. Winning a second term means that he is an success without qualifiers. In their world where intentions are more relevant than actions (Nobel Prize, remember?) he cannot fail at this point.
Waiting for the "Repeal the 22nd" bumper stickers
If I ever do see one, I'm going to replace it with a "Repeal the 19th" to see if they notice.
I already saw a tweet along these lines.
"chipper"
OT - They took a huge maple tree down across the street last week and every time I heard them putting branches though the wood-chipper, I grinned ear-to-ear while thinking of that scene in Fargo.
Puerto Rico didn't really vote for statehood. Instead of their previous ballots, they had a two part question:
1: "Are you satisfied with the status quo?" Yes/No - No got 54%, favoring change.
2: "If we don't have the status quo, what should it be?" Statehood, independent, sovereign free association (something more like what the Marshall Islands or Federated States of Micronesia have, still an association but greater autonomy). Statehood won 61% of the valid votes here, but there were an enormous amount of blank ballots, over 460,000, presumably from status quo supporters. Statehood only won 44% of all ballots, if blanks are counted.
Kind of inconclusive.
Did anyone happen to ask if we wanted them?
Congress gets to do that, if statehood is what they end up applying for.
i will laugh if a GOP house approves statehood to Puerto Rico while denying it to DC.
Here's what I think. Want to join, you gotta pay up. $1 trillion, in cash. Make that gold.
no refunds.
That's for damned sure. Did I mention the $10 billion application fee?
we'll sure, you run a credit check on all your tenants.
Non-refundable and if you screw up the form we'll reject your application and you have to start all over - yes, and pay a new application fee.
With fines for any inaccurate information in the 1,000 page application.
And once you're in, you're in. No backsies!
Half down in Rum?
Didn't I say that? Gold rum.
That's a nice tax base you've got there Puerto Rico...
Well, the RNC platform says that PR gets it if they want it, doesn't say that about Puerto Rico.
Typo?
Doh, yes, typo. Says Puerto Rico gets it, doesn't say that about DC.
I'm totally blank on this for some reason, but doesn't DC require a constitutional amendment?
Congress shall have the power....
Yeah, this would imply an amendment is needed. Besides, they already have 435 voting members of Congress. They don't need any more representation.
Yeah, I'd say they're over-represented as it is.
Why don't we skip ahead to people with the federal government being citizens and the rest of us being slaves?
It's all about the foreplay.
Yeah, that language is a bit unclear though. Originally, the seat of government formed by the Constitution was part of a state (NY). So one possible interpretation is that if Congress gives up its jurisdiction of DC then DC could become a state.
No part of the constitution explicitly says that the national capital must be outside of all states.
Or, the federal govt could move to another city and allow the Potomac region to go back to being just a regular part of the country, its economy based on whatever natural industries that area would have without the government.
Can't they just devolve D.C. back to Maryland, sans the Capitol Building, Supreme Court, and White House? Don't let anyone declare residency there (maybe POTUS and family only) and the problem solves itself.
The Constitution doesn't say D.C. has to be 10 miles square, only that it can't be larger than that. It adds a couple of Dem reps, which the GOP won't like, but too goddamn bad.
That would be an elegant solution.
Thanks. Unfortunately, I understand that Maryland wants nothing to do with D.C., even with the added Dem representation. Considering the joy it must be to run, e.g., the D.C. school system, or put up with Anacostia, I'm not surprised.
But that would settle the statehood issue once and for all. To balance PR coming in, we could always grant independence back to the Hawaiians, like they're continually bitching at us to do.
One of the recent MD governors was willing to take the district back, but he got unelected and DC wouldn't go for it anyway. DC has delusions of grandeur.
The governor doesn't have a role, it has to be the legislature that approves.
Maryland wouldn't take it back, probably. The Baltimore politicians don't want their influence diluted.
Also, of course, DC is less than 10 miles square already, as they already gave land back to VA in the early 1800s.
Are mosquitoes and malaria industries?
Don't do P.R. It's like a gang once you get in you can't get out. At least not with out a serious beat down and even then you might not get out.
From your first cigarette to your last dying day?
WHERE IS MY COMMENT!?
You were deemed invalid.
I'm about to take some HGH and really kick some ass!
Did you use greater than, less than signs to bracket it? If so the squirrels assumed it was HTML and ate it.
I was working with a quote.
Anyway, fuck Puerto Rico (not the original comment)
&
Charter schools got a big boost from voters in both Washington and Georgia.
THOSE WERE ROMNEY'S VOTES. Oops, I mean THOSE ARE REGULAR PUBLIC SCHOOLS' FUNDS.
The time for massive civil disobedience is here. It may be the only hope we have left.
Live in WA or CO and ready to blaze up? Be wary!
Gun rights could be at stake.
Since the Second Amendment doesnt say "As long as you fill out FEDERAL form 4473" I would love to see this as an opportunity to strike down laws that restrict our right to bear arms.
A libertarian can hope...
Could this turn into a federalist thunderdrome sort of thing that goes to SCOTUS? Obamacare without any motivation for the judges to side with the Federal Government.
Good old GCA '68, which deprives you of your liberties without a trial, you damn dirty drug taker, you.
yeah sure...Washington has had democrat control and concealed carry permits and open carry laws since the beginning of time.
I seriously doubt Washington is going to change its ways AFTER Heller when it had 1 billion years to do so BEFORE Heller.
The big untold story is how the GOP had a 23-10 pickoff advantage in the Senate and managed to lose two while holding the House easily.
That's a big story, but I'm not sure it's an "untold" story. Are you just saying cliches by default?
It is interesting that the GOP Senate candidates ran behind Romney's vote, the US House vote, and the gubernatorial vote where appropriate regardless of moderate, socon, movement conservative, libertarian, retread, or whatever status or wing of the party.
Looking back a year it was inconceivable that it would be D +2 today even with an Obama win.
Let the finger pointing begin. Start with Rance Priebus and whoever was the GOP Senate election guy (Cornyn or DeMint?). The Tea Party will be blamed as well as voters too.
As I recall, 2 Rs screwed the pooch by making incredibly ignorant comments.
Without that, the Senate would have been roughly the status quo, too.
Reason's favorite sheriff, Sheriff Joe Arpaio gets reelected. 🙂
http://www.azcentral.com/news/.....-term.html
Another reminder that democracy sucks if you're in the 49 percent.
Europeans better find somebody else to do the heavy lifting.
Don't look at us. We've got our own issues that just got more issuey.
If we ad Puerto Rico as a state can we get rid of Massachusetts? I just don't want to see the stars become unbalanced you see.
While I'm sure I wouldn't mind not being part of the US anymore, I don't want to think about what the country of Massachusetts would be like.
At or near the top of most human well-being metrics relative to all the other states?
Sure, Tony. You don't live in Mass, I can understand your lack of understanding.
No I live in one of the states governed by a small-government ethos, and it's a relative shit hole.
You guys love your "laboratories of democracy" states' rights, right? Well experiments do sometimes produce results, and small government isn't doing so hot.
What's tying you down big guy?
Family and a good job. I try to get away as much as possible though.
You're complaining that you live in a shithole, but you're tied to it by a good job that you evidently couldn't transfer to a state you prefer?
Hmmm....
I'm not aware of any state that actually has a small government. Not even Texas.
So we've never tested this theory of yours. Why don't we inflict it on 300 million people?
Oklahoma would not be a shit hole in Africa. But you did say relative.
I'm sure you could find a nice job that pays 15-25% less than what you make now, a nice house that costs 25-30% more than what you pay now, and a comfy helping of taxes that make you feel like you're really helping ... someone ... somewhere.
Without federal funds to prop them up, how long do you think Massachusetts would be able to uphold their spending levels? All the profit-making firms would bug out as soon as possible. Unfortunately, the upper middle class Massers would continue to move to New Hampshire, though probably few than before because it would be more difficult to commute across an international border.
Furthermore, Massachusetts doesn't have any industries that we can't get elsewhere, cheaper. Norway has oil, Sweden isn't so socialist anymore. Massachusetts has nothing.
The Red States universally are net takers of federal dollars.
Alaska, I'll give you that. Texas, I know. I don't have any figures for anywhere else.
But how about Massachusetts? I call slight red-herring.
You "know" Texas? is a net taker of Federal dollars? Really?
http://www.censusscope.org/us/map_nhblack.html
Not what we're looking for...unless that's a joke, in which case: still not what we're looking for...
Massachusetts is currently constrained by the Constitution. If they became their own country and could ditch all those inconvenient rights, I'm guessing it would turn out about the same as Chavez's rule in Venezuela.
Detroit East, basically.
Detroit got the way it is while still being theoretically subject to the Constitution.
Like Boston?
I'm thinking it might experience a civil war shortly after being cut loose as the people in the west realize what just happened.
Shays Rebellion redux?
More like the Whiskey Rebellion only in Mass and without Washington coming in to save Boston.
I'm sticking with Shays, sorry.
The rebellion started on August 29, 1786. It was precipitated by several factors: financial difficulties brought about by a post-war economic depression, a credit squeeze caused by a lack of hard currency, and fiscally harsh government policies instituted in 1785 to solve the state's debt problems. Protesters, including many war veterans, shut down county courts in the later months of 1786 to stop the judicial hearings for tax and debt collection.
"Your papers, please..."
Balanced 51 star flag
If you'll recall I wagered a bottle of Scotch on Obama's electoral count being 303. The other party unilaterally upped the stakes to a week at the Florida beach house, which was supposed to be apt considering Florida would make the difference between my projection and his. So, I'm incentivized for Obama to lose the count in Florida. But I suspect I'll be buying a pair of plane tickets soon. It could have gone either way, and all I did was go with Nate Silver. Meanwhile John was yapping about Peggy Noonan's semilucid observations in a pathetic display of utter desperation... the day before he nonchalantly declares he didn't give a shit about the outcome one way or the other.
Didn't you say that you don't gloat on the AM links?
Ah, but this is the PM links! Victory by semantics!
The important question, though, is what brand of scotch?
The kind it's safe to butt-chug would be my guess.
I hadn't decided by the time the stakes were changed, but I'm a fan of the Glenmorangie port wood.
If you didn't specify the brand, you get Loch Dhu:
http://recenteats.blogspot.com.....-ever.html
If you didn't even specify single malt, you get McCormick's or one of these other fine products:
http://www.examiner.com/articl.....15-or-less
You sound like an asshole.
I consider that an achievement on this blog.
I guess everybody needs a goal in life.
Why? Pretty much everybody here is an asshole. One more isn't really much of an achievement.
Now, if you were the biggest asshole here, that'd be something to brag about.
You have to wait until the Electoral Votes are counted in December to collect. Right now we don't know how many Ron Paul plants there are in the EC.
One more State and one more Star Wars sequel, WHAT A WEEK!
I sure hope they're using cell phone "weapons" in the new Star Wars movie.
If Puerto Rico becomes as state, the Libertarians should leap on that like a starved house-cat on a wild mouse. Technically, it would be up for grabs. Now the question is: can the Libertarians brand themselves in such a way that the Puerto Ricans would give them anything resembling a chance?
PR is Dem territory. As are all the remaining US dependencies.
Not a chance. PR has a government that makes California look like a model of Madisonian restraint -- though to be fair, they were more supportive than I thought they'd be of Luis Fortuno's efforts to clean up the place.
Luis Fortuno lost his reelection attempt.
http://www.newsmax.com/Headlin...../id/463228
Yes, but the election was much closer than I anticipated. His favorability ratings were in the low 20s in 2010.
I was afraid you were going to say that...
It would have been a better target for the Free State Project, I'll say that much. Not culturally, but more people would want to go there.
As far as Ibero-America goes, you'd have better luck finding an isolated spot in Brazil. French Guinea is relatively small population-wise as well -- and it houses a good amount of France's space program, so ProL and Auric would be happy.
The Free State Project was to choose a US State. I use Puerto Rico liberally. Wyoming was the runner up in their contest.
If we're going to another country, New Zealand was tossed about last night. A few other places came up, PR might have been one. Chile would be workable if it weren't so corrupt.
Chile isn't *that* corrupt, at least not for a Latin American country. It compares favorably to PR and Mexico/Central America, methinks.
I'm citing an article I read over a year ago. They're at about 20% GDP government spending, I got that part right.
Damn, really? It was pretty reasonable when I visited in the 90s.
So much for that backup plan.
That's about half of our government spending.
I also have French heritage. They'll accept me as one of their own.
First, the Guinea Space Centre... then the world!
Duh. Ever heard of the golden rule:
"He who holds the gold makes the rules"?
It's wrong. It should be:
"He who holds the orbital kinetic missile station makes the rules".
Liiiiiiiiiiiibertarians iiiiiiiiin Spaaaaaaaaaaaace!
PR couldn't be a whole lot worse than Hawaii, governance-wise, if you like tropical-ish weather.
Whoops, google mapped it. PR actually is in the tropics, about as far south as Hawaii.
Never lived in Hawaii, but compared to Guam PR government is pretty bad.
Hawaii -- 90% Democrats. Labor unions rule with an iron fist.
OTOH, beautiful weather and lots of incredibly hot women wearing very few clothes year round.
So, still here.
PR = public union control of government; 70-90% PDP in normal times and really, really corrupt police unions.
OTOH, everything else is divine.
FREE STATE PROJECT! How do you say that in Rican?
Stato projecto libertado?
Perfect, but keep working on your pronunciation. It's absolutely atrocious.
Colonia Dignidad?
Idea: States could nullify the individual mandate by reimbursing residents who incur the "penalty" via a mirroring tax credit.
It's a tax!
Right, and there's no law saying that states can't do tax-rebates for federal taxes.
Except the state tax rebates would then be taxable as federal income.
No they're not! Since when has a state tax rebate ever counted as income on a federal tax return?
No they're not! Since when has a state tax rebate ever counted as income on a federal tax return?
Possible 51-star flags. I like the middle one.
But we're probably going to have to do it in pairs, just like during the free state vs. slave state debate. I wonder if Canada would mind if we annexed Saskatchewan.
The middle looks like the Kraaken's toothy round maw. The far right looks like three dollar signs. I'd go with it.
John Galt approves!
The one on the right looks like a rotated version of these assholes' logo, so I must oppose it.
Nunavut!
I like the one on the left, because it's aesthetically similar to the current one. The center one looks like a lame flag from a sci-fi game or something.
They'll go for the one on the left.
Although the middle one looks kind of Euro-ish. Their flag has stars in a circle, so I expect a lot of lefties will want the middle one, cuz Europe is so dreamy.
If DC becomes a state they'll definitely go for the circular one. And DC will be officially designated as the star in the middle.
No racist "monkey in the middle" jokes, people. This is my final warning.
The current one is boring as hell. It's the Gary Johnson of flags.
Though it does make good use of the fact that the sum of the first five odd positive integers is 25, and thus cutting the canton in half and putting 5 diagonal lines of stars in each half will give you 50 stars. But I don't know that non-mathematicians would appreciate that.
I heard someone say that you can arrange 51 stars into a star shape. That might be kind of cool.
Showing how all 51 states are really just components in one big star that represents our President. I like how you think.
Donald Trump calls for a revolution, then has those tweets deleted.
http://thehill.com/blogs/twitt.....al-college
Really - he is as full of shit as Reverend Jesse Jackson.
They both can help their party most by shutting their fucking mouths.
The Revolution isn't necessary--yet. Give in 5-10 years.
Can we stop blaming Bush now?
Why does Bush's reputation concern you?
Shouldn't his level of blame be judged empirically? As in, what problems are we facing that are actually his fault?
exactly.
according to exit polls, no.
The Bush disasters keep piling up.
Obama is the Bush disaster that just keeps on giving.
Not until he finally leaves office.
"There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws." - Ayn Rand
Just waiting for the "You May Already Be a Felon!" envelope to show up?
To everyone who tweeted pictures of their ballots, including Hannity. As if deleting your tweet cancels out the felonious act itself.
Why would tweeting your ballot be felonious?
In some states it's illegal to take pictures of your ballot. This was all over the internetz yesterday.
The thing that strikes me is that McCain got 59.9mm votes in 2008, while Romney got 57.4mm votes in 2012.
The Repubs actually managed to find a weaker candidate than John McCain. Now, maybe those 2.5mm McCain voters bought into the negative caricature peddled by Obama, and that's why they didn't vote this time, but I kind of doubt it.
The more I look at it, the more I'm convinced that Obama won because Romney was just too easy to beat.
The guy who lost to McCain, lost to Obama? What? Did they never play Stratego?
No shit, running Obama Lite vs. Obama isn't going to get anyone enthused about the electoral process. At least McCain differentiated himself by being a grumpy old guy who wanted to bomb everything.
Here we go with playing games with numbers.
McCain lost by almost 10M votes, Romney lost by less than 3M.
Romney also got 10M more votes than Clinton did in 1996. Is Romney in 2012 a better candidate than Clinton was in 1996?
Hey, Tulpa (LINO-PA), I'm just pointing out that the Repubs managed to gin up fewer votes this time around than last time, against the same opposition, in spite of supposedly having a boss GOTV op and a highly motivated base.
Perhaps those old people are dying faster than we think.
It was the death panels!!
Aren't there a few more people in the U.S. in 2012 than 1996, Tulpa? Plus, bless the LP's sweet heart, but they're not exactly a vibrant third party. At least the Reform Party in 1996 picked up 8 million votes.
My question is: who from the GOP stayed home? Was it evangelicals who couldn't bear pulling the lever for a Mormon? Was it Goldwater-types who for whatever reason didn't want to vote for Johnson?
It occurred to me that maybe the Mormon angle played a role. It's not like he lost by tens of millions of votes--as with most elections, it was actually pretty close. Just a small amount of anti-Mormon sentiment could've done the trick.
I don't think that's the reason, but who knows?
He probably lost my mother's vote. She really hates Mormons -- which caused a lot of cognitive dissonance for her when I was one.
I think the dissed Ron Paulers and the pissed-off Latinos were a bigger factor in people staying home who might have voted GOP for a different candidate.
The youth who would have voted for RP and got told to fuck off by the GOP
The GOP keeps buying into the idea that attracting independents is more important than getting your base to turnout. Well, they ran a candidate who was not scary and attracted independents, and had a base more unenthused than the incompetent incumbant.
Well, Obama got somewhere around 9 million less votes than he did 4 years ago. Once it's all said and done, he won't have more than 61 million. So all Romney had to do was get about 2 million more votes than McCain did, but this time the shitty ass incumbent was in the other party instead of his own.
more votes (for both) are being added all the time as the #s come in. They just haven't counted everything yet.
The thing that strikes me is that McCain got 59.9mm votes in 2008, while Romney got 57.4mm votes in 2012.
Only old people vote, and unfortunately, some of them die over the course of four years.
Yes, but old people are also born during that span.
Well, technically, somewhat old people become 4 years older.
No one is born old.
Wtf, what did Brad Pitt ever do to you to make you want to offend him so greatly?
I have to say the amount of people I speak with that seemed to earnestly believe that if Romney was elected, abortion and gay marriage would be banned and women's rights rolled back wholesale is simply shocking.
But it's the Republicans who are stupid and informed and only vote for Romney because Faux News lied them into it.
It's funny that the Dems are praising Nate Silver way more than they're praising Obama. If aliens were starting to observe us this morning they would probably think Silver was the new Democrat president.
Actually Plouffe is the nerdy genius running the Obama operation. I give him the most credit for the election win.
Cop loses ammunition and lies about it in police report. He will not face perjury charges and will instead be given five weeks off without pay.
FTA: Coldros' suspension hours began Monday and will be spread out with scattered days through January to accommodate the department's scheduling.
I wonder if he'll be allowed to work OT to make up for his lost hours that will be scattered over 3 months. I also wonder if a "civilian" would have gotten off with a few days off from work for lying to police investigators and filing a false police report.
File this one under the "cops are punished more harshly than 'civilians' are" heading...only don't.
Illinois police chief pleads guilty to illegal lane change in lieu of facing hit and run charge and a possible DUI. Cops do not administer breathalyzer when they catch up with him later even though they smell alcohol.
The judge says he was harsher on him than a civilian in giving him 8 hours of community service. No word on whether or not a "civilian" would have not been issued a breathalyzer or been charged with the hit and run after admitting to it. You be the judge.
Did I get poll taxed?
I parked on the street last night so that I could be at the polling station sooner (rather than navigating the stupid one way streets that would have caused me 5-10 minutes to get the 150 feet to my driveway). I have a parking permit for any permit based street parking anywhere in the city. The spot I parked had a sign saying permit parking only, and I got a ticket for parking "Within 20 feet of an intersection", despite the lack of a "No Parking Here to Corner" (or similar) sign. Was this voter suppression?
Depends. Are you black, hispanic, or female?
depends on your skin color
That depends heavily on where you select. About 30% of my body is darker than Obama. The rest is pale as can be.
Auric has HUGE areolas.
Your mom thought they were sexy.
Well, she has huge ones too, so that makes sense.
I think that counts then!
Congratulations, you have been suppressed!
This is fascinating. 30% is a lot of ground to cover. Lots of birthmarks/moles/dark freckles? Or do you have, like, one brown, rotting leg or something? In which case maybe investigate Biblical-style plagues/afflictions.
I'm darker than my Vietnamese GF in all the parts of my skin exposed to the sun when I bicycle -- face, arms just above the elbows, legs just above the knees.
Sounds like 30% to me.
Fair enough. Goddamn you people who can tan. Although I think you meant below the knees, unless you bicycle in some sexy knee-high sock + booty shorts combo. NTTAWWT
I cannot tan. I just have an insane number of freckles.
Yeah, you've got to tell us more. INQUIRING MINDS ARE READY TO OBJECTIFY A MAN.
PoliceOne officers shit their pants over Colorado and Washington legalizing recreational pot use.
Example: BTW.....to all of you young sheep dogs out there; If I were still a young buck I would start looking for a new line of work while I could. Now that the Communist and Cheat has won another term it is going to be hell on law enforcement. He will be appointing at LEAST one more liberal activist judge to SCOTUS which will give those anti American piece of shits a majority. If that last bitch that he put in there is any measure of what we can look forward to, we are F@CKED!!!
That tree hugging twit isnt qualified to rule on the piece of foreskin I left on the hospital floor as a baby, let alone how I do my job!!!!!!
-and-
We are witnessing history here ladies and gentlemen, make no mistake. This is the beginning of the fall of the United States of America!
Hahahahahahahaha. Pussies and psychopaths.
That alone almost makes Barry's reelection worth it. Okay, so it doesn't. But the tears are still yummy and sweet.
I fail to see how they are wrong in their assessments. They're correct for the wrong reasons, but they ARE correct.
Or is this just a way to piss on more cops?
Puerto Rico has apparently tired of casually dating the United States, and now wants to go steady. At least, Puerto Ricans voted in favor of statehood yesterday. Congress gets the final say.
So two new senators.
Hey republicans here is your chance to go after the Hispanic vote.
Good money says the republican controlled house in a vote of brilliance declines in giving it statehood.
Two new Democratic senators.
Regardless, I think if they actually apply, they will be approved. By both parties.
Maybe at first. It could turn out to be swing state like Florida once more people move there from the current states.
They did elect Fortuno, so they can't be all bad.
Tax the fuck out of them. The FUCK... out of them.
Saw this on the FB this morning, and I lol' and lol'd:
A liberal Muslim homosexual ACLU lawyer professor and abortion doctor was teaching a class on Karl Marx, known atheist
"Before the class begins, you must get on your knees and worship Marx and accept that he was the most highly evolved being the world has ever known, even greater than Jesus Christ!"
At this moment, a brave, patriotic, pro-life Navy SEAL champion who had served 1500 tours of du...
ty and understood the necessity of war and fully supported all military decisions made by the United States stood up and held up a rock.
"How old is this rock, pinhead?"
The arrogant professor smirked quite Jewishly and smugly replied "4.6 billion years, you stupid Christian."
"Wrong. It's been 5,000 years since God created it. If it was 4.6 billion years old and evolution, as you say, is real, then it should be an animal by now."
The professor was visibly shaken, and dropped his chalk and copy of 'Origin of the Species'. He stormed out of the room crying liberal crocodile tears. He wished he had a gun to shoot himself out of embarrassment, but he himself had petitioned against them!
cont'd
The students applauded and all registered Republican that day and accepted Jesus as their lord and savior. An eagle named "Small Government" flew into the room and perched atop the American Flag and shed a tear on the chalk. The Pledge of Allegiance was read several times, and
God himself showed up and enacted a flat tax rate across the country.
The professor lost his tenure and was fired the next day. He died of the gay plague AIDS and was tossed into the lake of fire for all eternity.
Semper Fi.
P.S. Close the borders
I like the cut of his jibberish.
And boy are my arms tired!
Flat tax, huh? Cool.
lolwut
I don't get it.
I don't get it.
You really have to read between the lines, but it's best thought of as a cautionary tale against being non-Christian, noninterventionist, and a homosexual.
It's a poorly paraphrased version of an old evangelical urban legend/chain letter. A distant cousin of the famous story of the atheist chalk-dropping professor.
I still don't get it.
Read it in a Scooby-Doo voice.
That didn't work. But then I read it in Scrappy-Doo's voice and pictured everyone as Dondero, including the eagle. Then I got it.
That didn't work. But then I read it in Scrappy-Doo's voice and pictured everyone as Dondero, including the eagle. Then I got it.
Good. So now will you stop your baby-abortin', America hatin' homosexualin' ways?
Never!
Never!
Then prepare yourself for the lake of fire, worm.
It's a poorly paraphrased version of an old evangelical urban legend/chain letter.
Poorly paraphrased, yet infintely more entertaining.
So I won't get accused of an anti-cop bias, I equally despise judges that do not hold their peers either criminally or professionally responsible when they beat their daughters on video.
No charge. No protective order. No termination. No class.
Wow. I remember that from when the video broke. Sounds like the wife divorced him in the meantime.
I love your new handle, btw, in referencing that post you made earlier.
Thank you!
Can't believe no one linked this yet:
Dondero fully unhinged
Awesome. I knew that today I would be getting salty ham tears regardless of who won, and there they are.
DONDEROOOOOOO
Yep. While I still long for an apoplectic Chris Matthews, I'll admit that this Dondero piece is doing it for me.
I just don't get that kind of reaction. Obama isn't much more than a continuation of the policies implemented during the Bush administration, some of which occurred with a GOP-controlled Congress. Yes, he's worse, but it's not like a libertarian end-game would've happened with a big GOP win last night.
The only way limited government and fiscal sanity returns to prominence is if we all get our faces shoved into an economic disaster that everyone (more or less) agrees is due to too much government.
For Eric personally, I recommend a trip to Tijuana with Spitzer's whore and ten pounds of coke.
Yeah, I never saw much difference in the two, maybe energy policy, maybe getting rid of political officers in the regulatory agencies who have a real hate for private enterprise, but other than energy policy, big because the proglodytes really are gunning to end coal, but beside that not much. I just find it absolutely galling Obama won. He took a shit on the country and then rubbed everyone's faces in it. He ran on Romney being a very bad man who cannot be trusted to distribute the free shit to you. That's bullshit. Romney is fully capable of delivering the free shit.
That's the funny part--Romney would've made a fine Democratic candidate with only a few tweaks.
In fact, I'd like to see him run in 2016 as a Democrat.
If he wants to be president someday he'll have to convince them he is one of their own in the primary.
You know what they called dissidents like Sakharov in Russia? Obstructionist! Get use to it, Republicans, life for you will now read like Notes From The Underground.
Jesus Christ on a popsicle stick.
WOW
"Are you married to someone who voted for Obama, have a girlfriend who voted 'O'. Divorce them. Break up with them without haste. Vow not to attend family functions, Thanksgiving dinner or Christmas for example, if there will be any family members in attendance who are Democrats."
Well, at least he's not advocating violence.
Until he goes on H&R clearly drunk and challenges someone to a fight...again.
I missed that. I'd take his ass up on that.
Is that first picture of the pedostache him? It doesn't look like he'd survive a fight too well.
Read his Facebook post.
I'm now assuming his slurs on Ron Paul was simple projection.
Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.
If I did that, I'd be left with neither friends nor family.
Let's not forget that DONDEROOOO is also a midget like joe.
Hey, is all that directed at just Obama voters? What about people who, hypothetically speaking, voted for Gary Johnson?
If you see me on the street somewhere's, say Philly, Wilmington, DE, somewhere in Florida, Houston, Dallas, Austin, Phoenix, San Diego, wherever, do not approach me. If I see you do this I will spit on the ground where you walk. Then, I'll turn and walk the other way.
Sounds like a guy I once knew who wound up in a shallow desert grave. Or, at least that is where we assume he went acting all shady like that.
OH NO HE DI-INT!
I'm not sure that's the real Dondero. Did he post his fax number?
Holy shit this is gold!
So is urine.
You know, if you guys ignore another 20 or 30 of my posts, I'm gonna stop posting so often.
I appreciate the news bits, sloopy, especially since Balko doesn't write here anymore, but what would you like us to say?
Thanks for your efforts though.
but what would you like us to say?
I just want to be loved.
[runs off sobbing]
Umm, I thought Banjos had that unfortunate duty so as to spare the rest of us?
Actually I just thought of something sloop. I might be able to help out Banjos with one of her perennial problems, previously discussed. Could you have her hit me up via my blog contact?
[looks skeptically at nicole]
Girl talk!
Sloopy, your posts have become dog bites man. You need to post a story where the LEO's get the same treatment as us plebians to garner any attention.
I'll continue scouring the internet, but so far I've come up dry.
Does this count?
Did someone say something?
Is Ken blathering again? I just tune him out, to be honest. Was it something about his football bracket?
He's selling pieces of Armstrong's mailbox on eBay.
No one cares, Ken. Oh, ProL, that was you.
Did you buy anything? I think it might be fraud, as he's sold seventy of those little metal flags. I also doubt that Armstrong actually had Moon stickers on his mailbox.
Haha, sucker. It was Lance Armstrong's mailbox you've been trying to reconstruct piece by piece.
Chump.
You've got me confused with someone else. My hobby is collecting Moon rocks and building a full-scale model of it with them in my backyard.
A full-scale model of a sound stage? Cool.
Well, you've seen my proof that the Moon is actually only a few feet in diameter, right?
No, I haven't. Why don't you link to it?
Sorry, my rage must've made me SF the link. Try again.
Will you guys just shut up? No one cares about your stamp collections. Jeez.
Moon rock collection, bitch. It's better than your collection of props used in Michael Bay movies, though I confess to being envious of that Nick Cage wig.
I do find it odd that Epi choose to get the Shia Lebeouf life-sized and anatomically correct doll instead of the Megan Fox one.
His ways are mysterious, if predictable.
Says the man who checks IBDM daily to see when the GoBots movie is gonna finally get green-lighted.
Who me? I don't even know what you're talking about. The gritty reboot of Barney is another matter, of course.
I worked last night so didn't have a chance to get in on all the election gibber gabber.
At first I was looking at what I though was the good side. That Obama after 8 years in would be forced to eat the full turd sandwich that he has put together and not be able to blame anyone else but himself and his policies...
Then I talked with an O supporter. I was told that we just don't appreciate how very bad a mess things were 4 years ago, and how lucky we are that Obama saved us all from a great depression. Standard stuff. But then he tells me...it may take TEN YEARS to fully fix the mess. That means even after 8 years of recession, he'd STILL give the Dem's another 2 years(4 for the next president) to run things.
How in the world did we get to the point where a (hypothetical) 10 year recession would be considered normal and unavoidable? What would this guy think Obama saved us from?
We are in a world were FDR is widely considered to have saved us from the Great Depression and laissez faire capitalism.
Sorta OT: Ayn Rand voted for FDR in 1932.
Can't find the link wading through all the Paul Ryan stuff.
She was probably fooled by the democratic party platform and FDR's campaign, which was 180 degrees from how he actually governed.
Public school is destiny.
We are in a world were FDR is widely considered to have saved us from the Great Depression and laissez faire capitalism.
I actually had someone tell me today that Hoover was a laissez-faire President. It took me a couple minutes to stop laughing at him.
I think it's hilarious how the minimalist Drudge Report almost has a personality. It's still in arms-crossed sourpuss face mode.
What's so sad is that so many in the GOP actually believed that Romney was going to win.
What's really sad is that so many in the stock market were apparently expecting a Romney victory. Was Obama winning really a surprise?
They weren't expecting a Romney victory-- that was in reaction to Fitch and Moody's threatening to downgrade the US credit rating if Obama and Congress don't figure out some sort of actual debt-reduction plan.
I have a few Republican friends who are more bummed out by the margin than the actual result.
He didn't win the popular vote like I expected, but it would have been really difficult for him to win the EC. With the left coast and northeast perpetually Blue at this point (and California/Arizona migrants turning NM and CO the same), you need to flip states in the Rust Belt to have a chance. The only way I could see a Rep doing that is by actively promoting the death of NAFTA and embracing protectionism.
On good thing for both Republicans and Libertarians from last night:
Joseph Biden will be our Vice President for 4 more years. This means that by 2016 he will have a total of 8 years as Vice President behind him. This makes him rather qualified for the Presidency, and he has shown an inclination to run.
However, Joe Biden is dumb as a box of rocks. He's a walking gaffe machine that even Democratically-leaning youth mock. If nominated for the Democratic ticket, he will be an incredibly easy target for the Republican candidate. Unless the Republicans run Rick Santorum or someone equally unpalatable to the general public, Joe Biden will almost certainly loose, as a level-headed and principled GOP challenger could easily hoover up the independents (especially if they manage to pull the diversity card).
I'm seeing the possibility of an electoral and popular landslide for the Republicans. Hidden in this, though, is the possibility for the Libertarians to cross the 5% line if they nominate someone more charismatic and start earlier, especially at marketing to independents and moderates. I'm secretly hoping for 15%, but 5% would send me into T o n y 2008 levels easily.
The LP not only needs to start earlier, they need to line up a few Super PACs to bankroll an early TV blitz, and somehow find a candidate as qualified as Johnson who can connect with voters.
I can't do anything about the money, but I think that buying up Republican and Democratic primary commercial slots early could have some merit. "You don't have to vote for either. 5% ends it forever" sort of thing.
Hoping your opponent scores a lot of own-goals is not a good plan.
But it does sound like a GOP plan. I think you're on to something.
Biden scored an own-goal when he talked about how much Americans had suffered over the last four years.
Then the GOP plan is working.
I think I speak for a lot of Democrats when I say I hope Biden decides against running. I want a woman. Unfortunately Elizabeth Warren won't be ready yet. Hillary it's said would win in a walk, but she'll be pretty old. Republicans actually have some decent options (they all stayed out of it this year), but as far as one of them getting the nomination, I'll repeat Chuck Todd's question: How do you do away with the Republican primary?
I think I speak for a lot of Democrats when I say I hope Biden decides against running
Come on, T o n y. Throw is a frickin' bone. One of the things that kept my mood up yesterday was wondering how you guys would be getting out the pom-poms for Biden in 2016.
I want a woman.
Don't we all.
Unfortunately Elizabeth Warren won't be ready yet.
Warren has too much sex-lies-and-videotape baggage for a nat'l election.
Hillary it's said would win in a walk, but she'll be pretty old.
They said the same thing about Reagan.
If Hillary wants to run she needs to bail as Secretary of State before the shit hits the fan with Iran and we end up at war with them or cleaning up Israel's mess.
I'd say something about Benghazi and the coverup, but uhh, I'm guessing that's going nowhere.
Nah, the media quashed that, and whatever damning evidence there is will be quietly released during the Obama victory lap. It's actually quite perfect: most people won't give a shit because they're more focused on Thanksgiving and Christmas shopping and if the GOP tries to use it they'll just be dismissed as sour grapes.
A war with Iran, on the other hand, is hard to ignore.
Something only FOX News cares about is not something anyone should care about.
If the Democrats start a war with Iran, will the Republicans be opposition or support? How could that affect 2016?
I really shouldn't be going here, but I am.
Republicans will support it all the way.
How it will affect 2016, I don't know.
T o n y| 11.7.12 @ 5:53PM |#
I think I speak for a lot of Democrats when I say I hope Biden decides against running. I want a woman.
You might want to add a few qualifiers to that last sentence, unless you are coming out as bi instead of gay.
He's "questioning", OK?!
Why wouldn't Warren be ready? Obama evidently was.
Unless the Republicans run Rick Santorum or someone equally unpalatable to the general public
I'm pretty sure this is exactly what they'll do, mark my words.
This is all the Pentaverate's plan to set us up with a Rand Paul nomination, only for him to lose in a squeaker to Joe Biden. Just for laughs, you understand. The Pentaverate hasn't let our votes count in nearly thirty years.
No, no, they've learned their lesson, I assure you. It's only bedrock conservative principles going forward.
Phew! I'm so relieved!
If they do and Biden is the Demnod, then Libertarians could easily get 10 to 15 percent on the "who really wants either of these dupes" factor.
You mean like yesterday?
Well, did you count the votes?
We should never discount election fraud-with both of the two parties of state.
Are you saying we were cheated out of a Romney win?
No. Gary Johnson won last night and in the GOP primary. The whole thing's a scam.
How low can we go? I think we may actually find out!
You're underestimating
a) The FREE SHIT factor
b) Women voting with their vaginas
c) The sheer stupidity of the TEAM partisans
TEAM L will be lucky to break 1%, even when the other TEAMs field the most noxious candidates possible.
"b) Women voting with their vaginas"
Can't do anything about the other two, but the Libertarians should rebrand themselves as the pro-woman party. Old-style feminist, if I may.
Fuck that, libertarianism is about having a big set of brass balls and hearing them clang loudly when you walk by the TEAM sycophants huddling in their voting booths.
Even our ladies got balls.
b) will be overruled by a). Nobody cares about a vagina if you can't get stuff for free.
Well, it is his turn.
Another possible Obama election consequence...Remember that Anti Islamic filmmaker they were going to release after the election? They just gave him a year in prison for "Probation violations"
http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/st.....id=8877589
That'll teach him to offend
What does puerto Rico know about being serious?
DON'T TALK SHIT ABOUT PUERTO RICO
DON'T TALK SHIT ABOUT RICO SUAVE
Whatever happened to him?
He's a producer and talent agent for one of the major record companies. I don't remember which one.
That's not Puerto Rican trash music, that's Ecuadorian trashy music! Dammit, I knew you were a racist!
They all sound the same to me!
I was just at the bank, and another teller was chatting with a customer about how the election went last night. She had been too stressed to actually watch the results last night, but now was "so relieved...now I don't have to move to Europe!"
It's almost like Europe isn't completely fucking imploding right now or something. And like that isn't our future because of the same exact bullshit.
Uh, great story, nicole, but the actually important thing here is why the hell did you go inside the bank? Here's some mandvice: there are these things called ATMs, and not the porn kind, that allow you to avoid the tellers and their tall tales of moving to Imaginationland.
That mandvice is free. But you have to report it as income when you do your taxes.
Check your privilege, bro!
I'm not your bro, pal!
Epi, I may have a vagina, but I'm not completely retarded. ATMs don't accept EE series bonds.
Wait, I thought vaginas were nature's way of giving women extra secure storage space for their EE series bonds and other things of that nature. Have I been doing it wrong?
Vaginas are for bearer bonds only you numbskull.
Epi knows of what he speaks. Which, I mean, given the name, let's hope so.
Cash tehm in before they're worthless!
If she went to the ATM, then she would put putting the teller out of work (as the great Obama showed us). Since the teller was a vagina-American, nicole doing that would be being a sex-traitor.
Mandvice? A man device? Some sort of male vibrator? What kind of perversion have you sought out this week?
Is "man advice" really to complicated for you to get? nicole got it, and she's a freaking chick for Christ's sake!
That doesn't make any sense. I mean, you being a hermaphrodite and everything.
Sure it's not mandrovice, some sort of androgynous vice? That sounds more appropriate to you.
And it's called a fleshlight, grandpa.
Is that something from E.T.?
It has been one too many man-date for him lately, I'm afraid. That, combined with all of these ends of men we've been hearing about, and his poor fragile brain just cracked under the pressure. Shame, really.
We're now reduced to women mansplaining things to dudes. The ultimate outcome of last night's Obama win.
We're all Alan Alda now.
I think it's time to discuss putting ProL in a home. The time has come.
Only if it's an RV. Mobosenile.
He is already old and in Florida.
Finally, two Congresmen I can fully support: Florida and Alabama elect dead men to Congress.
Both men died weeks ago, but still beat their living opponents by comfortable margins.
There is nothing I can reply to this that won't get me added to a Secret Service watch list.
In a world without Obamacare, survivors will elect the dead.
So if the election law says something about the "person" receiving the most votes, I wonder if the other candidate could make a case that he was the person with the most votes as the other guy is no longer a person... Anyway, I suspect the state election law has some specific language dealing with this situation.
Both men died weeks ago, but still beat their living opponents by comfortable margins.
Well then tough tittie, they won fair and square, and they get sworn in and seated like any other winning candidate. Then we can have a meaningful discussion about the stink of corruption.
"... the stink of corruption."
I LOL'd
Weekend at Bernie's III: Death to America?
From a review of some new book that for a second I thought sounded hopeful but turned out to be about the wrong kind of anarchist.
Sounds retarded and most anarcho-capitalists give away their writings for free in a digital format. The only people that still pay for paper copies are old fogies and Marxist academics (so much better to display your self-importance to the world.).
Hey, I still pay for paper copies to support C4SS!
I've never understood the anarchist obsession with communism and syndicalism. They're not at all compatible.
nicole, if you haven't seen it, you might want to check out our discussion of individualist anarchism from yesterday.
Yeah it was pretty good. I would have continued posting but Reason's threading sucks dick and I had a salon appointment.
Oh I did totally miss it. Danke sch?n.
In sadder news, my one colleague who knows I'm an anarchist (of an undefined variety, and only because almost had a stroke once when I said I hadn't voted) asked today if my "anarcho-syndicalism allowed [me] to vote for the fauxcialist." I raged, I wept, I texted him back about how the best ballot I had seen was a write-in for al-Awlaki for pres. No response.
I've stopped referring to myself as an anarchist when talking to people irl just to avoid inevitable comparison to the losers with Guy Fawkes masks and black hoodies.
You should just break something and start a fire when they do that.
Making copious references to Nestor Makhno and Catalonian anarchy also helps.
Tell them to go read some Lysander Spooner too. The Catalonian anarchists were a...questionable bunch. More the kind who take it in turns to act as the executive officer of the week than our kind.
Splitters!
Proves them wrong every time.
I was about to when I got into an hour long debate about the definition of the term at a family gathering. Never again.
I will not use the term "anarchist" by itself or "anarcho-capitalist"; I say "individualist anarchist". That seems to be enough to differentiate me from balaclava wearing fuckheads who like to break shit. You know, people like you, Bingo.
Indarchist? Nogovernmentist is available.
Cool story bro, I just avoid labels all together. I art more anarchist than thou.
Nuh-uh!
I was trying to make things as palatable as possible for someone who was almost stroking out because I hadn't voted in an election I literally forgot was happening because it was fucking 2011. I mean...I can only imagine what would have been on my ballot last year.
Dude is my friend, but he is so upset by guns that he had a whole sadface phone call with me when the company booked him into a hotel that had lame hunting-style decor. In LA. As if there was any real hunting involved.
Shit, now I want to stab myself for being such a pussy.
No offense, but your friend sounds like an enormous beta faggot. Be careful, that shit is contagious.
That's an insult to beta faggots everywhere. nicole's friend is an omega.
My 6-year-old daughter is more alpha than this guy, and she wants to be a ninja radiologist ballerina.
What's an omega? When I hear that, I see this.
The lowest-ranking wolf in a pack is called the omega, ... The omega must constantly submit to his fellow pack members, and is sometimes persecuted by them or treated as a scapegoat. However, omegas often take the initiative in play, thus helping to ease tensions in the pack.
Take Mr. Candyass shooting and you'll cure him of that.
There isn't a cure for being a whiny bitch.
And ruin the elite class signifier at the heart of his complaint?
He is the. most. sensitive dude I have ever met. It's kinda painful sometimes. I think of it as inoculation.
He doesn't drink beer does he? I've notice some guys in college when they finally learned to tolerate beer went from sensitive guys to full on jerks. Okay, I only know one guy like that. Okay, it's me.
Hahaha, no, he does. He's way older than me though.
And harking back to an earlier thread, he told me once that he had had to have couples therapy before getting married to his wife because he felt bad about making more money.
I have to say, he is a really, really nice guy and I am glad he is my friend. But damn.
Tell him to get his testosterone levels checked.
Also, what Killaz said.
Having a $6000 Citori isn't an elite class signifier? Man, that changes everything.
*swoon*
Oh, I don't have one, I would never spend $6000 on a shotgun. $2000 max. Well, maybe $2500. But that's it! Probably.
Unless the wood from the stock was illegally taken from endangered forests by 3rd-world sex-slave orphan children workers and stained with an oil-based dye taken from pressed dolphin cerebrospinal fluid, I would never spend 6000 bucks on a gun, period.
But HM, just look at it!
It's a work of art, for sure.
But as I like to play "zombie hunter," I like my shotguns to look less "huntin'" and more "tacti-cool".
I know, I know. I have the gun taste of a mall ninja.
I know, I know. I have the gun taste of a mall ninja.
You said it, I was thinking it. It all worked out.
someone once pointed out that should you ever end up in court due to defensive home use of a shotgun, god help you if Exhibit A is some scary black gun. Far better to be a genteel sportsman who was forced to use his duck huntin' gun on those awful intruders.
Well, considering in that hypothetical, I, as the defendant would be "some scary brown guy," I might as well go balls to the wall with my scary black guns.
I was swooning for the gun, dude.
Yes, but as Epi and I are frugal Yankees, we need to bitch about the price. Now, hush!
I didn't know Epi was Jewish.
It's cool. It's all fantasyland for me, because I can't even bring myself to get a FOID let alone fill out form 4473.
I got my Weatherby for $500. Beat that, HM.
I will choose to take swoons however I wish, and that is always in the way most complimentary towards me, actual intentions regardless.
(Actually I was trying to get an "all women care about is money" joke in but I see I failed. I'd better work on my act.)
Ha, not far off. You have no idea how well a classy shotgun would go with the rest of my look.
I read that as "a $6000 Clitori" and was mighty confused for a moment.
I'm listening...
"the plural of clitoris? But why the 'a'? And $6000? For all of them?"
Thank you, Google, you're my only hope.
You could tell him how it hurts you that he is anti-gun. It is like being subjugated to the will of men who have a physical advantage that a gun equalizes. Guns are the most feminist tool ever devised. 67,000 rapes are prevented every year (for the actual number you'll have to ask someone who cares more about utilitarian truth than I do, I would support ownership with the right of passage in governed spaces no matter what so it isn't a number I keep at the top of my head).
I did do that with another guy with pretty much the same perspective. He was saying something about how if someone stopped him to mug him he would just hand over his wallet, not have any desire to shoot/hurt the person. So I was like, "Yeah, totally, I can just be like 'hey, rape me!'" I got a "touch?," at least.
I think we just took a giant leap away from anarchy yesterday. Or, rather, we took a step towards the other definition that uses that word.
Well, legally Obama is more of a God-King than an archon -- so I guess you're right.
I don't know, he sure seems like a Landru to me.
Dude, that doesn't make me a lawgiver, does it? Shit, I don't know about those heavy robes in Florida.
We're talking legality here, though. Our math brains aren't equipped to deal with matters of law. One of the legal eagles will be along shortly to clear up whether Obama is legally a God-king or not shortly, I hope.
Legally? Not until he dons a toga and starts referring to himself as The Obamanator.
So you ARE a lawgiver!
Yep. I've even got one of those hollow tubes you get when all the wrapping paper is gone.
A tikun? All my gifts always come that way.
Also, ever since I read your quote from Prof de la Paz a few weeks back, I have been like shit yo, I really need to read that Heinlein. And The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress is not even available on Kindle! I can blame Obama for that, right?
Here you go. You'll need Calibre to convert it to MOBI.
If you own a Kindle, you need Calibre.
Calibre is so useful I actually donated to them even though it's free. It's fucking great.
And thank you again! Paper was cheap, yes, but the problem with going Kindle is the addiction to immediate gratification.
This site also converts directly to mobi.
http://www.convertfiles.com/
Really? That's surprising. You can pick it up on Amazon in paper form cheap, I'm sure.
Or use Episiarch's liberated version, which he'll post before I type this.
That thread sucks Epi, as does everyone who posted in it.
Fag.
SHUT YOUR DIRTY WHORE MOUTH JJ
That Donderoo link is greatness though.
Did you read through all the comments? The guy has gone off the fucking rails.
He was never on them.
He went off the rails a long time ago.
I think I most love the part where step 1 involves Facebook. I guess it's not worth asking how he can take himself seriously...
How unbelievably petty can one man be.
One commenter even said, look, I'm not out to get you. I don't even know you.
And Eric called him a filthy communist pig whore.
People need to not take this shit so seriously. And btw, I hope he never watches a movie or TV show ever again, b/c guess what the political leanings of most of those guys are?
HAhahahaha
You know who else lived in Nazi Germany...?
That's right, it was Barack Obama.
Oh, cruel calculus!
Scott has received a lot of praise from libertarian anarchists. I still haven't picked up his previous book, so I can't give my own opinion.
Really? I mean, I'm not saying this is necessarily terrible, I've only read the review. The passage I quote actually sounds good from my perspective, bad from the reviewers, but I get the idea it's aimed at a different audience from me.
He's definitely not our kind of anarchist, but the impression I get is that he's similar to Elinor Ostrom: not a libertarian per se, but writing about self-government and anti-statism, which I think is useful.
That said, I wouldn't be surprised if his Two Cheers for Anarchism book is focused more on his personal conception of anarchism.
I am full of anger and rage and I think I'm coming down with a cold. It's like the 100th fucking cold that I've caught in the past 3 months.
Inform me of something that will enrage me and my journey to the Dark Side will be complete.
Do it.
Jar Jar's son is going to be the main character of the next Star Wars trilogy.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
By the way, in case you were wondering what Disney has in mind for Star Wars.
I have spent the last three days unable to speak because of my cold. It was enraging. But that's not what you're looking for is it...
Aww... are you saying I have no empathy for you, nicole?
Well it would take some pretty perfect empathy for that to actually enrage you.
Someone did give me the "ancient Chinese secret" of boiling Coke with some ginger. I haven't tried it because I don't have any Coke but it sounds yummy.
(Killaz, I usually do salt water, haven't tried vinegar but will do.)
Are you saying that, as a Space-Jew Toydarian, your Jedi mind tricks won't work on me?
I heard from a hot Korean chick I know (so it must be true) that if you take zinc pills at the first early signs of a cold, you can head one off. Try that.
You've just reminded me I have Zucol in the house!
Thanks Mr. Kaiju and Hot Korean Chick!
BTW, something that may actually (re-)enrage you, I did not have any idea what was actually going down between you and Ken. WTF?! *hugs*
Thanks.
Gargle vinegar, Nicole. Your throat will thank you.
Love the new nick.
Well now that makes a lot of sene dude.
http://www.post-anon.tk
Norman Ornstein on NPR is educating me about how the Republicans are unprecedently radical and want to abolish the regulatory state dating back not just to FDR, but to Teddy Roosevelt.
Now we've dodged that bullet, everything is coming up roses!
omg it's even worse than that! They want to repeal price-control regulations dating all the way back to the Roman Emperor Diocletian!
Wait! I thought we didn't have regulations before Obama?! That's how we got into this mess.
I notice that Obama is now up by 2.4% in the popular vote and Silver's model predicted 2.5%. However, half of Washington State has yet to report, so he might well be right on the money (or a little short). Pretty impressive.
He did underestimate the third party vote by quite a bit. It's around 1.6 percent rather than .9 percent.