Every year pundits tell us that the latest election season is the “least civil ever.” Reason TV offers some historical perspective:
Now I’ve got to figure out how to work “Hatchet-Faced Nutmeg Dealer” into my everyday conversation.
Reason Presents the Attack Ads of the 1800s
October 30th, 2010Could Dennis Kucinich be in Trouble?
October 28th, 2010So The Weekly Standard is reporting, and his Republican opponent Peter Corrigan seems to be putting up a stiff fight.
You hear that and you think that the Republican wave is going to be even larger than we anticipated. But remember that as much as we think of Kucinich as a liberal icon and his seat as a safe one, he only won his 2008 race by 57%; a very solid victory, to be sure, but not an overwhelming one given the Obama wave of 2008.
Certainly Kucinich is one of the most liberal members of congress, ran to Obama’s left in the 2008 Democratic Presidential primaries, and is known for having some pretty wacky ideas (like his bill for banning Orbital Mind Control Satellites; perhaps Rep. Kucinich has played one-too-many games of Illuminati).
But it would still be an upset. Kucinich has a lot of assets and advantages in his race: incumbency, a national liberal following, and a reputation as a genuine character.
And, of course, a very hot wife.
An incredibly hot redheaded wife.
This is a serious political post, and in no way a shameless attempt to get a Fark greenlight by posting all these pictures of Kucinich’s exceptionally hot wife.
This is a serious political blog.
Serious, I tell you!
If someone told me: “If you run for President, you’re going to lose really badly, but as a result, you’re going to marry an unbelievably hot wife,” I’d be filling out the paperwork tomorrow….
LinkSwarm for Thursday, October 28, 2010
October 28th, 2010So much election news, so little time to write about it:
- It’s the ObamaCare, stupid.
- Stuart Rothenberg touts up Democratic House members in trouble, with lots of familiar names: Steve Driehaus, Suzanne Kosmas, Kathy Dahlkemper, as well as Chet Edwards, Paul Kanjorski, James Oberstar, Solomon Ortiz and Ciro Rodriguez.
- Karl Rove talks of a Democratic Apocalypse (at least when he’s not taking swipes at Sarah Palin).
- James Cameron calls for a vote against California’s Proposition 23, which would reign in the most radical of the state’s job-destroying “green” excesses. That’s Canadian citizen James Cameron.
- Is Nurse Bloomberg planning a run for the Presidency in 2012? “If he runs, Bloomberg is prepared to spend between $1 to $3 billion on his campaign.” That’s Billion, with a “B”.
- “Poll Finds Obama Voters Leaning Republican”: That was the original title for that New York Times piece. It looks like someone at the Obama White House got through on the emergency NYT Red Phone, as it now bears the less-depressing-for-liberals title “Obama Coalition Is Fraying, Poll Finds.” But the article itself should be just as distressing to them: “Republicans have wiped out the advantage held by Democrats in recent election cycles among women, Roman Catholics, less affluent Americans and independents.” And take a look at the accompanying graphic, which shows lots of groups breaking heavily for Republicans, including college-educated voters. Man, that’s got to really stiing for those enveloped in the soft comfort of the Obama Reality Bubble.
(Hat tips: Real Clear Politics, Fark, NRO’s The Corner, and probably some I’ve forgotten. I’m dancing as fast as I can.)
If You Bet on Republicans To Take Control of the House, Collect Your Winnings
October 28th, 2010Note: I don’t mean that headline metaphorically. An Irish bookie is already paying off bets for a Republican takeover of the House.
Saying there’s no way Democrats can keep control of the House, Ireland’s largest bookie on Wednesday said it has already paid off all bettors who wagered the GOP would capture the chamber.
“In our opinion this race is well and truly over with nothing short of a miracle stopping the Republicans taking down the House,” said Ken Robertson, communications manager for Paddy Power, the Irish bookmaker.
Of course, that begs the question: Just how many people in Ireland bet on U.S. election outcomes? It could very well be that the number is so small, paying them off prematurely might be more than offset by the anticipated additional business from publicity for making the announcement.
Either way, as Instapundit has repeatedly warned, “Don’t get cocky.” It’s only five days until the election, and election fatigue has already set in for many. (Hell, even I’m starting to get tired of writing about it.) Election night should provide plenty of reasons to celebrate, but only if people execute in the last five days, a period that can be surprisingly long in politics, especially if Democrats are planning an ever-popular October Surprise. Remember that at this point in 2000, Democrats hadn’t even unleashed their Bush DWI smear yet. Expect to hear that presumptive Speaker of the House John Boehner is a cross-dressing furry porn addict sometime this weekend.
(Hat tip: Michelle Malkin.)
Dwight Goes to Town Fisking Those WaPo Gun Pieces
October 26th, 2010I’ve already put in my two cents worth on the first installment of that Washington Post series on guns used in area crimes and the gun shops where they were originally bought.
But Dwight Brown at Whipped Cream Difficulties digs into the issue like a dachshund pursuing a badger, fisking each piece for a host of questionable assertions, gaps, omissions, and unasked questions. Not once, but twice, with more promised. But would you expect any less of a man with a “FRONT TOWARD ENEMY” t-shirt?
His pimp hand is strong.
If you’re interested in the issue at all, you should give it a read.
Edited to add: And here’s part 3.
Rick Perry Doesn’t Pull Any Punches
October 26th, 2010As seen by this video by a Houston Police Officer talking about how her husband (another police officer) had been killed by a multi-arrested illegal alien while Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill White was touting Houston as a “sanctuary city”:
I haven’t spent much time on the Texas gubernatorial race as I’ve thought all along that Perry was going to beat White like a drum, and this video is a good example why.
(Hat tip: Dwight. )
Diana Maldonado’s Killer Issue: Gun Control
October 26th, 2010No, seriously.
I got a 4 panel flyer in the mail today slamming Larry Gonzales for supporting concealed carry on campus, as you can see from my picture of it below (click to embiggen):
Because, you know, one suicidal student firing an AK-47 (which was already illegal for him to bring on campus) into the ground before killing himself pretty much demands a knee-jerk call for stricter gun control laws.
Slamming Larry Gonzales for not being pro-gun control is a great tactic…if you’re running against him in the Democratic Primary. In Austin. In 1990. Unfortunately for Maldonado, she’s running in the general election in Williamson County in 2010.
And we all know what a bloodbath Texas has become since the state started issuing Concealed Handgun Licenses on January 1, 1996. Oh wait, no it hasn’t. Violent Crime numbers have been down to flat across the board even in absolute terms, and even more clearly down on a per capita basis in light of the state’s growing population.
Democrats at the national level learned that gun control was a losing issue in 1994. Evidently Maldonado didn’t get the memo. I suspect she’ll be getting a good, long vacation in the near future to contemplate that mistake at her leisure.
Washington Post Gun Article Followup
October 26th, 2010Yesterday I mentioned what I thought was the largest problem in that David S. Fallis Washington Post article on Realco: The failure to mention that the shop is the one nearest the District of Columbia and located in an overwhelmingly black (and high crime) area.
However, reading through that article, I couldn’t help be struck by all the other information Fallis and the Post seemed uninterested in pursuing because they thought of this as a gun story rather than a crime story. Instead of spending all that time pouring through 35,000 gun traces, they could have taken the same 18-year period they traced 86 guns (i.e. roughly 4.8 guns a year involved in homicide) back to Realco, and looked at all (by my count) 4,911 homicides in the District of Columbia. They could have looked at each convicted offender (certainly less than the 4,911 number) and tried to find out:
- Which had already committed felonies
- Which already had a warrant out for their arrest at the time they murdered someone
- Which were on probation at the time they murdered someone
- What level of education they had obtained before committing their crime (how many were high school dropouts)
- Which came from single-parent homes
- Which came from homes where the primary source of income was government welfare
- How many were involved in the illegal drug trade
- The race of the murderer
- The race of the victim
- Sex of the murderer (almost certainly overwhelmingly male)
- Sex of the victim (ditto, though I suspect less overwhelmingly)
- If the murderer already knew their victim
- Etc.
A comprehensive look at all those variables would have provided a valuable, multifaceted look at inner city crime in the DC area, and could have generated real insights into the problems and possible solutions to them.
Sadly, I suspect such a project would have seemed far less sexy to Washington Post editors than yet another “Guns are bad, mmmkay?” article to pander to their core liberal readership.