[UPDATED] Giant mutual-fund firm Vanguard endorses the party of wealth, priviliege, and disregard for the common man. That's right: they endorse the Democrats (Via CDR M in the comments.).

Doomed! Doooomed! DOOOOOOOOMED!

I always say this about deflation and inflation: first one, then t'other. Well, guess what? "T'other" is drawing nigh.

Which leads to....

Treasury Inflation Protected Securities (TIPS) sell at a negative yield for the first time since the dark days of 2008. Lots of people see inflation looming, and are willing to actually *pay* Uncle Sam to issue them inflation-protected paper. Me? I'll stick to gold, thankyouverymuch. (Or I would, if I could afford to buy any more of it. So silver it is, for the time being.)

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Posted by: Monty at 03:41 AM | Comments (58)
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Not a great day for equal treatment under the law:

Not long now...

Update: And here's a list of the candidates we've been talking about.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 03:04 AM | Comments (50)
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Welcome to the Monday.

So What Did Shakespeare's Plays Really Sound Like?

When people think of Shakespeare's plays, they tend to think of it in the voices of say Kenneth Branagh or Laurence Olivier but that's almost certainly not how theater-goers of the time would have heard it. English pronunciation has changed a lot in the intervening 400 years and in particular British English went through the Great Vowel Shift in the 18th century while American English mostly missed out on it. And generally languages tend to be more conservative in colonies than they are in the Mother country.

“American audiences will hear an accent and style surprisingly like their own in its informality and strong r-colored vowels,” Meier said. “The original pronunciation performance strongly contrasts with the notions of precise and polished delivery created by John Gielgud, Laurence Olivier and their colleagues from the 20th century British theater.”

Meier said audiences will hear word play and rhymes that “haven’t worked for several hundred years (love/prove, eyes/qualities, etc.) magically restored, as Bottom, Puck and company wind the language clock back to 1595.”

Posted by: Maetenloch at 05:50 PM | Comments (715)
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The company he keeps.

[gender update, Dave]

Posted by: Ace at 03:23 PM | Comments (204)
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The final week is here.

If you want to organize an event, please do -- I'll promote it on the site so people know it's going on. It's pretty easy, I've learned-- basically you just have to call the candidate and/or local GOP offices and they'll tell you their needs.

Phonebanking is easy. It's a simple five to seven question script. Takes three minutes a call (or ten minutes for an interesting one, where you get to do some selling).

Doorknocking's even easier. They give you a map and a list of addresses and names (grouped in proximity, like all on the same street or cul de sac) and then you knock on the door and ask two questions: Are you voting November 2nd, can (Candidate's name) count on your vote? You mark the answer and if they'r undecided you give them some literature and a few key bits of info about the candidate (bio, positions). These addresses have been determined by marketing-types to belong to likely Republican voters -- soft voters, really -- so it's not like you're venturing into hostile territory too often.

The only dick I got was a guy wearing a New York Giants sweatshirt. I said I was canvassing for Jon Runyan, and he walked away from the door shaking his muscle-head in annoyance. As I left I turned to my partner and said, "I think he's not voting for Runyan because he was an Eagle."

The guy then called me back. I turned, and the idiot pointed out his sweatshirt (which I'd already noticed) and underscored the words "NEW YORK GIANTS."

And gave me a look that said, "Respect the sweatshirt, dude."

Now, that was the worst reaction I got and it wasn't even that bad. It's even a halfway-okay anecdote.

Anyway, it's super-easy. And it's kinda fun. You get to kibbitz in the office if you're working the phones, and you get to kibbitz with your partner if you're walking the streets.

It's not hard work.

Anyway, if anyone's interested, please put up your events, and I'll make sure people see them.

Posted by: Ace at 02:47 PM | Comments (107)
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Michael Grimm, Superhero. Check this bio out:

UNITED STATES MARINE

Michael Grimm's service to our nation began at the age of nineteen, when he left college after his freshman year and enlisted in the United States Marine Corps to serve the country that he loves and respects. After serving in the Persian Gulf War and being awarded a Combat Meritorious Promotion to Non-Commissioned Officer, Grimm returned as a combat veteran to an active reserve status and continued his education.

FBI OFFICER/U.S. DEPUTY MARSHAL

While attending college full time during the day, Grimm went to work as a clerk for the FBI on the midnight shift. After a short time, Grimm was chosen to attend the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center where he completed the Federal Police Officer Training Program graduating with the honor of both the Academic and Physical Fitness awards for his class. Upon returning from training, Grimm was deputized as a U.S. Marshal and entrusted with full arrest authority as a Uniformed Police Officer for the FBI.

FBI SPECIAL AGENT TAKING ON WALL STREET CORRUPTION & ORGANIZED CRIME

With a desire to diversify his background, Grimm left the FBI for a Research Analyst position on Wall Street working for Harmonic Research and, later, the firm of Robb, Peck, McCooey. In a short time, Grimm attained several securities industry licenses and traded small cap stocks. During this period, Grimm attended Bernard M. Baruch College at night to further his education. Upon graduating with his BBA in Accountancy with a concentration in Finance, Grimm felt the pull of public service and returned to the FBI where he was appointed a Special Agent and assigned to the New York Office. Although he was assigned to investigate the Gambino Crime Family in the prestigious Organized Crime Branch, Grimm eventually found his niche fighting corruption on Wall Street as a member of the Financial Fraud Squad. While serving on the Fraud squad, Grimm was recognized for excellence and awarded a "QSI" for his untiring work ethic and dedication to serving justice.

ACCOUNTANT & LAWYER

During his service in the FBI, Grimm wanted to compliment his accounting degree with a law degree and attended New York Law School at night, eventually graduating in the top 10 of his class with honors (Magna Cum Laude). Special Agent Grimm was then admitted to practice law in New York and Connecticut.

UNDERCOVER FBI AGENT TACKLING CORRUPTION IN POLITICS & BEYOND

It was during his tenure with the Fraud Squad that Grimm started his undercover career, resulting in him being the first FBI Agent to successfully infiltrate Wall Street Operation Wooden Nickel was arguably one of the most successful White Collar undercover investigations in the history of the FBI. As part of the investigation, Grimm maintained a deep undercover role as a hedge fund manager for almost two years while obtaining evidence against more than 50 individuals committing frauds spanning the spectrum from stock manipulation and currency scams to money laundering. Grimm was once again honored by being awarded his second "QSI".

After establishing a reputation as a reliable, "go-to" undercover agent, Grimm was enlisted to investigate corrupt politicians in New Jersey, corrupt police officers in Florida, and various other cases often as the lead undercover agent. Living the lives of a "made" member of La Cosa Nostra, a nefarious land developer, a struggling actor/model, a corrupt Wall Street financier, an international money launderer and other personas, Grimm relentlessly fought corruption and served our country proudly.

Oh and then he went on to become a small business owner, opening a health food restaurant, which I would usually say sounds kinda stupid, but I'm not going to say that now because this guy would bend me up and transform me like Megatron.

Are you fucking kidding me?!! He's a Marine and an undercover agent? This guy makes Batman look like Niles Crane.

And he's running in Staten Island, which is conservative leaning. So this is eminently doable. His donation goal, up on his site, is a mere $50,000. Fifty thousand dollars! In the most expensive advertising market outside of Tokyo!

He's endorsed by the Conservative Party of NY, too, which is pretty bright red for NY. So he's not screwing around.

This is from the Daily News:

What makes the race in the 13th so compelling, and such a bellwether for the nation, are its unique qualities. The district is composed of Staten Island and the Bay Ridge, Bensonhurst, Dyker Heights and Gravesend sections of Brooklyn. It’s solidly Republican, a minority in this overwhelmingly blue state, deeply religious and conservative — Planned Parenthood just opened its first office on Staten Island last month.

The seat Michael McMahon holds has historically belonged to a Republican, but the twin boons of Obama fever and predecessor Vito FossellaÂ’s spectacular flame-out contributed to a landslide victory in 2008 (he won with 61% of the vote)...

[Grimm] challenger is a 40-year-old novice who won his primary without party backing.

Damn I was planning to do GOTV for Murray in VA-8 but I might have to try to get this guy in there too.

New York City Morons! Hey, I'm thinking of maybe trying to arrange a Wednesday night GOTV thing, maybe Thursday night, with bar after... let me know if you're interested or available those days.

Oh, Bonus: This McMahon guy? Not a fan of the Jews and their dirty Jew-shekels.

But in an effort to show that Grimm lacks support among voters in the district, which covers Staten Island and parts of Brooklyn, the McMahon campaign compiled a list of Jewish donors to Grimm and provided it to The Politicker.

The file, labeled "Grimm Jewish Money Q2," for the second quarter fundraising period, shows a list of over 80 names, a half-dozen of which in fact do hail from Staten Island, and a handful of others that list Brooklyn as home.

"Where is Grimm's money coming from," said Jennifer Nelson, McMahon's campaign spokesman. "There is a lot of Jewish money, a lot of money from people in Florida and Manhattan, retirees."

PS, the guy's begging for $50,000 a week before the election. From what I've heard of this "Jewish Money" Ms. Nelson speaks of, that's not "a lot" of it. That's not even what they spend on phylacteries and dreidls in a given week.

Added the EventBrite Notice: Right now it's just all TBD but sign up if interested. I'll call Grimm's people soon to find out what they need and where.

Posted by: Ace at 01:57 PM | Comments (114)
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Via alexthechick in the comments, honest to goodness rocket scientist Ruth McClung wants to raise a fairly modest $100,000 today. A small price to pay to get rid of a guy who supported illegal immigrants over actual citizens by calling for a boycott of his own state of Arizona.

Update: McClung is a little more than halfway there.

Here are the other races we've been following. Still time to get out and help.

Chris Gibson, NY-20 (Be the Wave event this Saturday, details coming shortly.)

Jesse Kelly, AZ-8

Matt Doheny, NY-23

Francisco Canseco, TX-23

Bill Flores, TX-17

Jacob Turk, MO-5

Andy Harris, MD-1

Ruth McClung, AZ-7

Sean Bielat, MA-4

Chip Cravaack, MN-8

Sean Duffy, WI-7

Sam Caligiuri, CT-5

Jason Levesque, ME-2

Karen Harrington, FL-20

Renee Elmers, NC-2

A catchall post with 3 NY House races.

Dean Scontras, ME-02

Rob Steele, MI-15 (thanks to ya2daup for the reminder)

Charles Djor, HI-1

As always, Be the Wave.

Commenters have left some of their favorite races in the comments, feel free to pimp your people.

Posted by: DrewM at 01:54 PM | Comments (49)
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Drew did, as he linked it. I've been worried about this for two weeks.

No, Quenchy is meant non-ironically --
if this is what Leesza Machiunski has,
Leesza Machiunski's done

Is this it?

Rostad said he received the phone call from Miller's father after Kodiak Republicans asked him to find out what happened at the Fairbanks borough. Rostad forwarded the results of the conversation to a number of Republicans in an e-mail sent Thursday night.

Rostad wrote in the e-mail that Rex Miller told him there was a poll being conducted as part of the effort to oust Ruedrich as state Republican Party chairman.

Here's how Rex Miller described what happened, according to Rostad's e-mail:

"One noon hour, on his own time at the borough, Joe participated in an online poll voting against Randy. He used four office computers in the office to do it, thinking this was his chance to boost numbers to get rid of Randy. He emptied the cache files on the computers so the users wouldn't know what he had done. When the users asked what had happened to their caches, (Miller) admitted to what he did. He was reprimanded and docked in pay for several days, but was not suspended or fired."

"Rex told me that his son called him that same day and admitted that he did a stupid thing. He said he was sorry. Joe was 'never in danger of being fired at any time,' Rex said," Rostad wrote in the e-mail.

He tried to Freep an online poll, at work.

Drew says "let's not pretend this isn't a bad thing," but it's just not. Miller was an employee (part-time) and it was the employer's policy that computers not be used for political purposes. Okay -- he violated the employer's rules... but what he did can barely even be termed "for political processes." He went to four machines because they had different IPs and voted on them all to Freep a meaningless online poll.

This is what Murcszinski has her hopes pinned on?

I'm sure most of you are probably not supposed to comment on websites at work. Yeah, okay. Well, fine. If you get caught, you get a slap on your wrist. You wouldn't expect this to disqualify you for higher office.

Oh, and completely irrelevant and utterly non sequitor and apropros of nothing:
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Posted by: Ace at 12:07 PM | Comments (704)
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It seems when she got done stalking a blogger she started stalking other people, including judges. Now she's in the slammer.

Here are some of her pro se (on her own behalf) legal filings. She heavily cites the precedent of "frocked cowfuckers." (No, really.)

Thanks to Gabe.

Posted by: Ace at 11:47 AM | Comments (129)
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Oh no she didn't. Oh yes, she really, really did.

"Scott is not ready to lead. Joe is not fit to lead," Murkowski said to groans and jeers from the audience.

"I have been leading this state for eight years and I will continue to do so, bringing the seniority I have built, the work ethic that I have built, and the passion for a state that I love," she continued.

Miller has been hit by some ethics questions recently. Of course allegations of misconduct are serious and should be considered but so should the charges against Murkowskivitz. Some of which are spretty serious and far worse than perhaps using a government computer for political purposes (though let's not pretend that's a good thing either.). (Update-Ace read what I linked to more carefully. It's a nothing burger.)

Murcozski's attack on Miller's ethics might have gained some traction but I think her ham handed sanctimony here is going to hurt her more.

I'm pretty sick and tired of politicians who think cutting deals with other politicians to divvy up other people's money and then giving some of it back to the chosen ones is the height of leadership. The only group of people who suffer from such a gulf between how well they think of themselves and reality is entertainment types. At least politicians don't hold big parties and hand out awards to each other. Yet.

Posted by: DrewM at 11:37 AM | Comments (88)
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