Ho ho ho and Change

Merry Christmas, everyone!

The Great Senate Robbery of 2008

Al Franken won this ballot.

Seriously.


This article details some of the absolutely unbelievable inconsistencies coming from the Minnesota canvassing board when judging the ballots.

Make sure you have this when reading the story.

UPDATE: An anonymous reader provided a link to a story on 538 disputing the Fox News story. It should also be noted that Fox News has corrected their original article. But, while the above ballot did in fact get awarded to Coleman, the glaring inconsistencies used by the board as illustrated in the above Fox News article are disturbing.

Something seems oddly similar about these mugshots...

...I just can't put my finger on it!

Thanks to The Smoking Gun, here are the top mugshots of 2008:

A message to the media...

WAKE UP, MORONS!!!

Yes, I know. I'm being primitive. I'm relying on simple insults to communicate my message. But come on, at this point I just can't help it.

During the course of this Blago scandal we first heard from Obama that him and his staff had "no contact" with the Illinois Guv or his staff. Then he backed off from "no contact" and instead claimed that there was "no inappropriate contact" regarding the open Senate seat. And now, we find out that Obama Chief of Staff-designate Rahm Emanuel provided a list of candidates that were "acceptable" to the President-Elect. So, Obama lied twice. And now we find out he is just as much a part of the Chicago political machine as we all assumed in the primary.

Has anyone asked the question, what retribution would the President-Elect exact upon Blago had he selected someone that was not acceptable?

This is politics at its worst. Obama is utilizing political threats in order to obtain his desired outcome.

And this is acceptable? This is the new brand of politics we were promised? How much of this do we have to take?

And has the mainstream media taken him to task even once?

Of course not.

You're trying too hard.

Over the weekend the Columbus Dispatch ran a story explaining how Mary Jo Kilroy beat out the much more qualified and much less offensive to the eyes, Steve Stivers. Rather than wasting all of our time, here is a more honest version that should save you from reading the article.

The Teflon Governor?

During Gov. Strickland's entire term, Ohio's economy has been worse off than the national economy. Per the Columbus Dispatch, this won't be changing anytime soon. In fact, Ohio's economic climate will continue to worsen at a rate worse than the national economy all the way through Strickland's re-election year in 2010.

Ohio's unmployment rate is up 24% just from last year. It's expected to rise another 16% by 2010.

And what news do we learn from a recently conducted Quinnipac poll?

"Things look reasonably well for Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland's re-election prospects in two years, less so for Republican Sen. George V. Voinovich, a new Quinnipiac Poll shows.

As the governor nears the midpoint of his first term, 45 percent of Ohioans say he deserves another four years, 34 percent say he doesn't and 20 percent don't know. When paired against an unnamed Republican candidate, Strickland leads by 20 points.

The Democratic governor's 54-percent approval rating is his worst of the year in the Connecticut university's survey, but not by much; it was 55 percent in June, 56 percent in February. His 2008 high was 61 percent in August."

It seems the memory of Republican failures are still fresh in the minds of Ohioans. How else do you explain continued failure to remedy the situation?

But will this approval rating last? Without a Bush/Taft to blame anymore, will voters still be as forgiving towards Strickland in 2010?

The solution to our problem is simple enough. Tax cuts. Ohio continues to be worst among Midwestern states when it comes to its tax burden, and rather than remedy this situation, Strickland is focusing on obtaining a bailout from Washington using our federal tax dollars to pay for Ohio budget shortfalls.

Bringing businesses back to Ohio brings jobs back to Ohio. Bringing jobs to Ohio brings tax revenue to Ohio.

Gov. Strickland, don't put a bandaid on a gaping flesh wound. It looks silly and doesn't stop the bleeding.

Fix the problem. Bring business back to Ohio.

Vote Kasich for Governor.

Quit cheering gas prices.

Happy about the consistently lowering gas prices?

Ace says it best re: the reduced cost of oil.

"[It's a] good news, bad news thing.

Mostly bad news.

It would be great news if oil's prices were falling due to increasing supply (along with some nontrivial increases in efficiency), but it's falling due to a deep worldwide recession. Less production, less industrial output, less commerce, less trade, less wealth. Cheap gas. Not really a good trade."

Telling it like it is...

Losing a good one...

Steve Stivers lost to Mary Jo Kilroy.

He'll be back. Or at least, he better be.

A brief moment of Ohio political clarity and sensibility...

The last question mark in determining the makeup of the US House of Representatives drew closer to a conclusion today as the Ohio Supreme Court ruled that 1000 provisional ballots in central Ohio were not eligible to be counted.

"The Ohio Supreme Court ruled 4 to 2 that [Secretary of State] Brunner (D) "abused her discretion by providing different counties with differing instructions on whether these ballots should be counted," the court wrote in its decision.

The court said Brunner's directive instructing the Franklin County Board of Elections to count provisional ballots that lacked signatures or had names and signatures in the wrong places were 'unreasonable.'"

Based on the presumption that the 27,000 ballots yet to be counted in Franklin County are expected to trend against the Republican, State Sen. Steve Stivers, this judgement is good news for his chances. It's still an uphill battle...but at least we're a step closer to getting this one wrapped up.

You'll shoot your thigh out.

Screw it. I'm keeping my Hyundai.

Today the big three, GM, Ford and Chrysler, as requested by the Speaker of the House and Senate Majority Leader, submitted their business plans. Our congressional leaders requested the plans before moving forward on any type of bailout.

Rather than wasting your time by having you peruse lengthy pages of nothingness, I contacted a friend who serves as a Congressional staffer and has been focusing his energies on the issue. Fortunately, he's blunt.

This is all Kabuki Theater. Due to responsibilities to their shareholders, GM and Ford can't put anything in these reports that could prove or disprove their long-term viability. Pelosi and Reid just hatched this plan to buy themselves some time. Here are what these plans tell me:

GM = Screwed. They need $4 billion to just make it through December!
Ford = Communicating to their shareholders that they are the strongest of the three.
Cerberus = Trying to do and say as little as possible while they await a cushion that will allow them to sell off Chrysler. No plan outside of the next 6 months.

Bet that put you in a better mood, eh?

Oy.

UPDATE: Looks like my source was right about GM. From today's Bloomberg news:

You can shut up now.

You may remember this from a few weeks ago...



If you shared that with your Obama voting friends you probably got the same reaction as I did.

"Whatever, I could find you just as many dumb McCain voters."

"So what, if they had polled McCain voters it would be the same result."

":insert your favorite deflective and defensive quote here:"

Welllll....it turns out they DID decide to poll McCain voters using the same questions and same sample size. Some highlights:

• 35 % of McCain voters got 10 or more of 13 questions correct.

• 18% of Obama voters got 10 or more of 13 questions correct.

• McCain voters knew which party controls congress by a 63-27 margin.

• Obama voters got the “congressional control” question wrong by 43-41

• Those that got "congressional control" correct voted 56-43 for McCain.

• Those that got "congressional control" wrong voted 65-35 for Obama.

So at the end of the day we may be losers...but at least we're not idiots.

Seriously?

Ya gotta love cheap buys just in time for Christmas.


Yep. The New Gold Standard: Charlie Weis and Notre Dame's Rise to Glory can be yours for just $2.95 on Amazon.

Awesome.

Ohhhh so THAT'S what happened...

Back on November 6th, a semi-secret meeting took place among conservative leadership in Virginia. The meeting included high-profile Republicans such as L. Brent Bozell III, president of the Media Research Center; Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council; Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform; Al Regnery, publisher of the American Spectator; longtime conservative activist Richard Viguerie and conservative pollster Kellyanne Conway.

Their goal was to determine how best to fight the incoming Obama Administration and to refocus the Conservative ship on a path to reclaim power.

One particularly interesting outcome was this:

The participants generally agreed that new national conservative political leaders will emerge from the major public-policy battles that they anticipate.

Conway said conservatives will be looking for the candidates and elected officials who fit the movement’s “job description” – meaning that they are with the movement on the core issues at stake in these battles and are in the thick of the action when those battles begin.

So we have a general idea of what was discussed. But we don't know the strategy or tactics behind it.

Well, today's Washington Post article discussing Gov. Bobby Jindal's trip to Iowa may have given us a clue:

"The anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist believes, too, that Jindal is a certainty to occupy the White House, and conservative talk-radio host Rush Limbaugh has described him as 'the next Ronald Reagan.'

'If anything, McCain's candidacy suggests that age is not always a positive -- and sometimes is a negative,' Norquist says. 'As Republicans, you have a real problem now with younger voters and immigrants. If you were going to central casting for a candidate to deal with all that, who do you have? Jindal. He is young, and he looks young. . . . He's a great communicator. And his record is that he's sharp and quick with policy.'"

So we know that attendees at this meeting were looking for someone "new". And now we have a very positive article about his first appearance in Iowa, one of the meeting attendees talking up the young Jindal as the Party's next Reagan, and other decisionmakers identifying him as the next guy that can bring a smile to every Republican face.

Convenient.

It's a good thing they're right.

The downward spiral continues...

For the past few months as John Kasich has been visiting local leaders across the Buckeye state, he has spoken about the downward spiral that is the Ohio economy. Well today we learned just how prophetic those words were. From today's Columbus Dispatch:

"A lagging national economy means Ohio is facing a staggering shortage of up to $7.3 billion in the next two-year state budget that begins July 1, Gov. Ted Strickland said this afternoon.

And if the federal government doesn't provide significant financial aid to Ohio soon and holiday retail sales aren't "robust," the state will have to cut an additional $640 million from the current state budget, the governor said."

And here you will find Gov. Strickland's solution for the problem that doesn't rely on a bailout from the federal government:


Yep, Governor Ted's solution is to go crying to Uncle Sam and beg for more money. This, at best, is a short term fix to the nagging problems facing Ohio today. Problems that are being completely ignored by the Governor.

Currently, Ohio's tax burden is 7th highest in the country. Seventh. Know what it was 30 years ago? 45th. And which other midwest states have it worse than Buckeyes? None. Zip. Zero.

This problem will NOT be fixed by big government bailouts. It will be fixed by lower taxes that encourage growth and stability. And it CAN be fixed by a Governor that has the courage to address our state's problems head on.

Governor Strickland clearly doesn't have it.

John Kasich has gotten it done before...and he can do it again.

Six more years of Voino?

If his recent efforts negotiating a bailout for the automobile manufacturers are a hint, it sure looks like it. His latest public action was a letter addressed to Reid and Pelosi pushing them to move forward on the Voinovich/Bond/Specter plan:

"Our legislation contains strong taxpayer protections including: (1) the submission of a detailed strategic business plan that would be independently reviewed and analyzed by the Secretary of Commerce; (2) a mechanism to replenish the dollars back into the Department of Energy section 136 program so the companies can begin the important task of retooling to meet new fuel-efficiency standards; (3) prohibitions on the payment of dividends; (4) the provision of warrants; (5) limits on executive compensation; (6) a prohibition on golden parachute payments; and (7) and the creation of an oversight board. I believe our bipartisan legislation represents an excellent template for crafting a package that can pass both Houses of Congress and be signed into law by President Bush."

While I applaud the Ohio Senator's efforts, there is some concern that this plan just raises the dike a little higher, thereby only delaying the inevitable crash. But, maybe that is just what is needed.

I asked for a little clarification from his office re: point number 2, as listed above. Their response:

"It guarantees that the money that was originally intended to be used for green things, like hybrids, fuel cells, etc., is replenished and used for its original purpose."

At the end of the day, this legislation WILL help Ohioans. But, it may damage the industry in the long run. One thing is for sure...Voinovich is working to make sure his constituents remember he's still there working for them. He'll need that in a couple years.

Three whole weeks?

"Leaving the senate is very difficult for me, but during the last three weeks I thought often of our troops." - Sec. of State-to-be Clinton

Three weeks of thinking about our troops? How thoughtful of you.

Imagine it...

The scene: Hollywood Kodak Theater - Democratic Primary Debate
Date: February 1st - just days before Super Tuesday
Moderator: Wolf Blitzer

Wolf: The Iraq War is heavy on the minds of Americans voting in this primary. Many of them want the United States out of Iraq immediately. What would be your first action as President-Elect to make sure this happens?

Obama: Well, I'd keep President Bush's Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, that's for damn sure.

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