Blizzard could leave Massachusetts without a GOP Senate candidate

Political Wire:

The blizzard that struck New England has some Massachusetts Republicans concerned that the storm “could jeopardize the ability of state Rep. Dan Winslow and other GOP candidates to qualify for the ballot in the special election to replace Secretary of State John Kerry,” National Journal reports.

“Candidates for the special election must submit 10,000 certified signatures by Feb. 27 to qualify for the April 30 primary. With Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick (D) declaring a state of emergency Friday afternoon and banning cars from driving on the roads, Senate contenders are forced to put a hold on signature collecting until the storm passes.”

Notice that a few days off of campaign poses no problem for Democratic candidates. Apparently they’re far enough ahead on that count that they can sit out a day or three.

That tells you all you need to know about Republican chances — even if they do manage to get enough signatures.

[image source]

Latest poll has Brown at 38% in Massachusetts

Which explains why the campaign has turned insanely racist in recent days.

[data source: RealClearPolitics]

News Roundup for 5/3/12

Ron Paul supporter

-Headline of the Day-
"The Ron Paul convention takeover plot."

Republicans have chosen Willard Mittens Romney as their nominee. Everyone knows this, all the pundits take it for granted, every 2012 campaign news story assumes it. There's only one problem; Republicans haven't chosen Willard Mittens Romney as their nominee. At least, not yet.

There's this whole Republican National Convention rigamorole in Tampa first. And that's where things could go off the rails. There, the Willard Mittens Romney coronation could get all messed up by the followers of one Ron Goldfinger Paul. RNC Council of Bishops has issued a warning to Paulites attending the convention -- It's Mittens or you're out.

Already, the Nevada delegation has gotten this warning and more could follow because, according to the report, "Paul supporters have wreaked havoc at numerous district caucuses and state conventions, producing some startling results. For instance, 20 of Iowa’s 28 national convention delegates will likely be Paul supporters – even though the Texan finished third in the state’s January caucuses with 21 percent of the vote. And 20 of the 24 delegates selected in district caucuses in Minnesota recently are Paul backers, even though he was trounced by Rick Santorum in the state’s February caucuses. Similar stories have emerged from Louisiana, Colorado and Massachusetts, with the list likely to grow."

What explains all these Paul delegates from states Ron Goldfinger didn't win? Well, the answer to that is shorter than you might've suspected -- caucuses are stupid.

The report tells us, "In many caucus states, the 'official' results that most people saw this winter were from nonbinding straw polls conducted in conjunction with precinct-level caucuses. But when it comes to choosing national convention delegates, the real action is at district caucuses and state conventions. In the past, this distinction hasn’t mattered much, but for the Paul forces – who lack the numbers to win statewide primaries but have the devotion to pack any room, anywhere, at any time – it has offered an inviting loophole. When turnout is small and no one is looking, the Paul folks can win, and that’s what’s been happening in a number of states."

So Paulites stuck around after the bullshit caucus votes and participated in the non-bullshit delegate selection votes. Why are there two votes, with one being bullshit? Have I mentioned that caucuses are stupid?

So there we have it, the coronation of Willard Mittens Romney has a real good chance of being temporarily derailed by Ron Paul cultists unable to take "you lose" for an answer -- at a national convention likely to be hip deep in guns.

This could get interesting. (Salon)


-Cartoon time with Mark Fiore-
Hey kids, you know Barack Obama gave the order to take out Osama Bin Laden? Well, that was the worst thing ever!


Click for animation

Presidents shouldn't take credit for things they do. That's just wrong. (MarkFiore.com)


-Bonus HotD-
"Donald Rumsfeld is Still an Insufferable Twit."

It's just a fact. (Mother Jones)

News Roundup for 2/29/12

Rick Santorum

-Headline of the Day-
"Does Rick Santorum Have a Problem With the Ladies?"

I know it's hard to believe, because he's got all the moves of a white Smoove B, but Rick Santorum may not be connecting with the fairer sex. And by "may not be," I mean "isn't."

You'd think they'd like all that stuff about how they should stay at home and have emotions and have babies and never have birth control or college educations, but they don't. It's a puzzler. According to the report, "A Michigan exit poll showed former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney garnered support from 43 percent of women voters compared to 38 percent for Santorum. With Romney notching such a narrow victory there, the margin among women is enough to be the difference. A poll taken a week before the Arizona contest showed women picking Romney over Santorum by a 2-to-1 margin."

Rick's plan so far is to talk about his wife and his mom a lot -- I guess to prove that there are women out their who can stomach love him. If that doesn't work, expect campaign ads with soft music and candlelight. "C'mon over here and let me talk some sweet, sweet capital gains tax cuts, bay-bee. Boom chaka wow-wow..." (US News)


-Speaking of Rick-


Click for full strip

Santorum 2012; because a dumber America is possible. (GoComics.com)


-Bonus HotD-
"Wall Street Bonus Drop Means Trading Aspen for Discount Cereal."

In which the Wall Street one-percenters complain they don't have enough money. "Paid a lower bonus, [Andrew Schiff, director of marketing for broker-dealer Euro Pacific Capital Inc.] said the $350,000 he earns, enough to put him in the country’s top 1 percent by income, doesn’t cover his family’s private-school tuition, a Kent, Connecticut, summer rental and the upgrade they would like from their 1,200-square- foot Brooklyn duplex," the report tells us. Sounds awful.

But this is the fun part:

“People who don’t have money don’t understand the stress,” said Alan Dlugash, a partner at accounting firm Marks Paneth & Shron LLP in New York who specializes in financial planning for the wealthy. “Could you imagine what it’s like to say I got three kids in private school, I have to think about pulling them out? How do you do that?”

Maybe you can cut back on Lear jet polish? Then again, I probably don't understand the stress of having money.(Bloomberg)


-The Rare Bonus Bonus HotD-
"The Five Best Quotes in Bloomberg’s Outrageous Banker Bonuses Story."

In case you just want the good parts and a really funny stressed Wall-Streeter photo. (Gawker)

Stories to Watch: 2/18/12

I think I'll make chili tonight. And corn bread. That sounds awesome right now. I'll make the chili, put it in a baking dish, spoon the corn bread batter over the top with some cheese, onions, and pepper rings, and bake it. Dang, I've made myself hungry and lunch is the pressing problem. Now here's the news...


Hey, remember the guy the John McCain's "build the danged fence" ad? He seems to be guilty of all different kinds of hypocrisy. Not to mention at least one actual crime. According to the report, "Rising Republican star and well-known border hawk Sheriff Paul Babeu, who’s now running for Congress in Arizona, was hit Friday night with bombshell accusations from a Mexican immigrant who said he dated the sheriff for years and was threatened with deportation if he ever told anyone about their romance."


Santorum's newly released tax records show that, despite being a multi-millionaire, he gives almost nothing to charity.


GOP panic over their presidential field deepens.


This goes a long way toward explaining the GOP's problem here; "There is no other way to put this without resorting to demographic bluntness: the small fraction of Americans who are trying to pick the Republican nominee are old, white, uniformly Christian and unrepresentative of the nation at large."


How far outside the mainstream is the GOP voter? Their frontrunner is getting wild applause for praising income inequality.


***
Wingnut bloggers are super-excited about a recent poll giving Scott Brown a big lead over Elizabeth Warren in the Massachusetts Senate race. Here's the thing though; not even Republicans believe it.


And why should they? Think about it. All the polling before this either had them pretty much tied or Warren leading. Now, all of a sudden, Brown opens up a big lead. And this is because...?

Yeah, it's because nothing. Nothing has changed. No one has switched strategies, no one's launched a big ad campaign or switched to a new message. No one got involved in a big scandal or saved a bunch of orphans from a burning building. The numbers lack any underlying explanation -- which is why even GOP insiders think they're inaccurate.


***
Finally, saying that Super PACs represent the 1% is severely understating the problem. Super PACs represent the .0000063%.

Related articles

• Poll: Scott Brown opens up 9-point lead over Elizabeth Warren (thehill.com)
• An Attack on All of Us By Elizabeth Warren, Reader Supported News (jhaines6.wordpress.com)
• Fight For GOP Soul, SuperPACs Spur Negative Political Ad Explosion (npr.org)
• Feingold: Obama super-PAC decision is 'dancing with the devil' (thehill.com)

News Roundup for 2/16/12

About to unleash a shitstorm of biblical proportions

-Headline of the Day-
"Multiple New Polls Find Santorum Leading in Michigan."

One of the things that kind of freaks me out about Mitt Romney is that he seems to be from pretty much everywhere. He's from Mexico and Massachusetts and France and Utah and Rhode Island and, of course, Michigan. So what this means is that Mittens has a lot of "home states" to defend and, in the case of Michigan, that's not going very well.

According to the report, "Rick Santorum currently holds a solid lead in the upcoming Michigan primary according to four recent polls of the state. In the polls, the Santorum lead over Mitt Romney ranges from 3-10 points."

This is not good. Losing Michigan would be a huge embarrassment for Romney and some people are saying it's something he may not be able to recover from.

But the primary is not today. And that means that Romney's going to pull out his not-so secret weapon -- money in denominations you've never even heard of before. He's going to buy ads upon ads and ads about ads and ads announcing ads. Michiganders are in for an unprecedented fountain of bullshit.

In the end, I think Mittens probably will win Michigan, because it's not the most difficult job in the world to convince people that Santorum sucks -- especially if you put a big bazillion dollar bow on the argument. Still, Rick's getting a lot of money now too, so he just might be able to pull this off.

Regardless, if I were in Michigan, I'd board up my teevee. It's gonna be awful. (Firedoglake)


-The stuff that really matters-




She totally looks like she's going to vote GOP, doesn't she? (Truthdig)


-Bonus HotD-
"Our prediction: Obama will win re-election with 303 electoral votes to the GOP nominee’s 235."

Yahoo News predicts a solid Obama win, using a model they claim is historically 88% accurate.

I like those odds. (Yahoo! News)

Election Night Twitter Coverage

Smart people talk about the election in Massachusetts... Along with whatever else might be fascinating.



UPDATE: If you'd rather use your own twitter client to follow this, you can do so here.

Jon Stewart Rips the Dems a New One

At about 6:30 here, Jon Stewart digs into my brain and manages to express everything I've been thinking.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Mass Backwards
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

"See, it's not that the Democrats are playing checkers and the Republicans are playing chess. It's that the Republicans are playing chess and the Democrats are in the nurse's office because, once again, they've glued their balls to their thighs."

Filibustering Everything isn't Governance

Ezra Klein offers a little perspective on today's special election in Massachusetts.

If Scott Brown wins today, Democrats go from having the largest Senate majority since the 1970s to...the second largest Senate majority since the 1970s. They go from 60 votes for health-care reform to 59. Republicans haven't had a majority this large in generations.

"It's evidence of how thoroughly we've internalized rule-by-filibuster that this is even a big deal in terms of short-term legislating," he writes.

Damned straight. Why is 60 such a big deal? Because Republicans have been filibustering everything and, in the process, have made the Senate a hopeless mess of partisan sniping and idiocy. Almost nothing passes on a simple majority vote. Democrats really need to talk about this more... scratch that, they should talk about it all the damned time. They should make Republicans do it the old-fashioned way and, when the filibuster starts, bust out the cots and make them talk all night. If that's political theater, so be it -- it's a play everyone should see, every time a Republican filibuster comes up.

If the average person realized just how obstructionist and dickish Republicans have become, they'd find themselves about as popular as the measles.