October 23, 2010

Federal job interview techniques unlikely to succeed:
Admitting that "collecting" child porn is your "hobby" and "fun"

— Purple Avenger

I'm guessing this guy didn't get the job, since he's been arrested and charged with seven counts of possession of child pornography and his computers were seized.

...Moniedafe told U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials about the pornography during a polygraph test that all prospective employees must take...
Well, at least he didn't lie on the polygraph... more...

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 05:33 AM | Comments (55)
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October 22, 2010

Pence: GOP Must Not Compromise With Obama
— Ace

Sounds like a man who's running for President. (Or, for Palin fans, sounds like a man who's running for Vice President, or Secretary of Commerce.)

It also sounds like the right policy.

House Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence of Indiana, in a clear jab at a Wall Street Journal story that indicated the GOP would look to avoid gridlock, plans to say that “there can be no compromise that allows more borrowing, more spending, more deficits and more debt.”

“Now, the last few days there has been some talk about how Republicans could avoid the ‘mistakes’ of 1995 by seeking compromise with this administration,” according to an excerpt reported by the conservative blog Redstate. “The last Republican Congress didn’t suffer from too little compromise, it suffered from too much. Republicans lost their majority because of too much compromise on spending and deficits and debt.”

In 2009, Obama refused to work with Republicans, refused to compromise. He thought that this was a good strategy, that it would allow him to pursue his own half-baked ideas without adulteration by moderation and wisdom.

It was actually a spectacularly bad idea. Not only did his bad ideas go through Congress with no amelioration by wiser minds, but he owned the stimulus and bailouts, all to himself. By refusing to compromise one whit, he also set himself up to take all the credit when his plans succeeded wildly... but that didn't happen, of course. Instead, he took all the blame when his plans failed catastrophically. He cannot point to any Republicans (except maybe poor bewildered Cao down in Cold Cash Jefferson's old district) who signed on to his disasters.

In the next Congress, Obama will have a new mission: Get Republicans to compromise with him, not for any policy reason, but for a purely political one: He desperately needs Republicans to sign on to his train wreck in progress so that he and the Democrats are not the only one responsible.

That must be resisted at all costs. It's not just bad policy, it's horrendous politics. Obama is a failure -- why would anyone seek to twine his fate with a crashing star?

Obama can either boldly move to the right and accept the New Mandate or he can continue owning this, until we evict his lazy incompetent ass in January 2013.

Posted by: Ace at 06:13 PM | Comments (254)
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Overnight Open Thread
— Maetenloch

Happy Friday all. Genghis is busy 'de-rat-ing' his truck tonight. And unfortunately I don't think that's a euphemism for something more pleasant.

The War on FOX Continues

With a 'funny' video here from HCAN (Health Care for America Now) starring Jack Black and America Ferrer. You see if you don't like Obamacare or disagree with Obama's policies, it's really because you're just mis-informed children. Now what do good children who like Jack Black do? That's right - they vote for Democrats. Now go get me a fucking slurpee you little brats.

I'm pretty sure this video has convinced exactly zero people. It's only real purpose seems to be to make liberals feel smug.

more...

Posted by: Maetenloch at 05:25 PM | Comments (419)
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Newsweek: America's Back Again, Baby! Democrats Easily Beating Republicans in Congressional Ballot; Obama's Approval Spiking Up*
* Among Registered Voters, Who Nobody But Newsweek Is Polling Anymore

— Ace

You can't be serious.

And yet they are.

Despite doom-saying about Democrats’ chances in the midterms, the latest NEWSWEEK poll (full results) shows that they remain in a close race with Republicans 12 days before Election Day, while the president’s approval ratings have climbed sharply. The poll finds that 48 percent of registered voters would be more likely to vote for Democrats, compared to 42 percent who lean Republican (those numbers are similar to those in the last NEWSWEEK poll, which found Democrats favored 48 percent to 43 percent). President Obama’s approval ratings have jumped substantially, crossing the magic halfway threshold to 54 percent, up from 48 percent in late September, while the portion of respondents who disapprove of the president dropped to 40 percent, the lowest disapproval rating in a NEWSWEEK poll since February 2010. However, his approval rating, which is notably higher than many recent polls of the president’s popularity, may be evidence of a closing “enthusiasm gap” more than a sea change in voter attitudes, and may not substantially affect Democrats’ fortunes come Election Day.

So, Democrats should be optimistic, huh?

Well... no, not exactly. Even Newsweek must call bullshit on its own bullshit poll, right there in the first paragraph.

In 1994, NEWSWEEK polls showed a similar steep climb in President ClintonÂ’s approval between late September and late October, but Democrats still suffered a rout in the midterms.

Gee wonder why.

Let's see just how desperate Newsweek is for polling that will gladden its cocooned (and tiny) liberal audience...

The new survey also offers a morsel of evidence that DemocratsÂ’ strategy of gaining an edge among early voters might be succeeding. They hold a 10-point lead among those who have already voted, 52 points to 42, but because the sample only represents 92 voters out of the 1,005 polled, Hugick says more polling is necessary for a conclusive picture.

Um, dude? That's not even a reportable number. "More polling is necessary?" How about "first polling is necessary?" These microsamples -- well under the generally accepted minimum threshold of 400 for any kind of reliable survey -- are simply not reportable figures. Yes, pollsters will report on such statistically meaningless numbers when their clients insist on it -- he who pays the piper calls the tune, after all -- but they don't put any credence into the numbers themselves.

Newsweek is obviously pressuring the pollster to offer up good news. The pollster halfway complies, but offers a caveat -- um, "more polling is necessary" -- but Newsweek doesn't care.

Its (microscopic) liberal audience needs to know America is Back!

Oh, one more thing. How much faith does their pollster have in the silly figures he cooked up for his client, at their behest?

Pollster Larry Hugick says that while Republicans are still likely to come out on top on Nov. 2, the results of the new poll show it might not be the runaway domination some commenters have suggested.

B-b-but!!! Your poll showed Democrats ahead by five whole points! That means they win, right?!

Um, no. It's a stupid figure. No one's polling registered voters anymore. Might as well poll 10 year olds.

Thanks to DrewM.

Oh: Checking the poll's full results, I see Newsweek did also screen for likely voters. They found Dems ahead of Reps in LVs by 48-45 -- obviously a smaller margin than the 48-42 they found among registered voters.

Why report the registered voter figure if they had a likely voter figure in hand?

Only to get links and sell subscriptions, of course. Liberals want to be cocooned. Not the reality-based community, but a community-based reality.

Posted by: Ace at 04:55 PM | Comments (157)
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Bearded Stalinist: Chris Coons Sued Three Times For Firing People Based On Their Political Views
— Ace

Nice!

I'd like to amend separation of church and state doctrine to recognize Marxism and leftism as (corrupt) religions which cannot allowed to become entanged with the state.

Posted by: Ace at 04:27 PM | Comments (55)
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Sharron Angle Ad Against Obama Is Incredible Reminder Of How Things Have Changed In Two Years
— Ace

Angle's running this ad against Obama. Well, and her actual opponent, Harry Reid.

Where to begin? Hanging out with the other volunteers who joined me for GOTV last Saturday (I think), I said something like, "In your wildest dreams, back when the nation seemed to have Obama Fever and the media was fellating him on a daily basis, did your mind ever give to wander over fantasies? Fantasies of a total humiliation? Of his grandiose promises coming to haunt him? Of his own airy words being used to mock him? Did you ever imagine those dirty little fantasies would all come true?"

Those daydreams of total and complete humiliation of the False Prophet Obama, as deliciously childish as they were... have substantially come to pass.

But I don't think it's until this Sharron Angle ad, in which the O-ba-ma, O-ba-ma chants are regurgitated, with no editorializing whatsoever, as a bitter, mocking taunt, and Obama -- the God Who Walks -- is hung around Harry Reid's neck to drag even Dingy Harry down, did that dream really finally come to be.

more...

Posted by: Ace at 04:15 PM | Comments (76)
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Friday Afternoon Mock Fest Flashback: Markos Says Dems Are Heading To Huge Senate Majority By End Of 2010
— DrewM

You know how you "Break their back and crush their spirits"? You take their seats away and then you laugh at them.

Dan McLaughlin (aka Baseball Crank) dug through Kos' archive and found this from October 2008 (safe link to Dan).

Things will be much different in 2012 and 2016 when weÂ’re slated to play HUGE defense (defending our gains from 2006 and this year). Republicans can brag about the gains theyÂ’ll make those years because chances are they will. But 2010? Heck no. At this pace, weÂ’re headed toward a 65-70-seat Democratic majority in the Senate by the end of 2010.

There's more at the link.

Boy, that seems so long ago doesn't it Markos?

Yes, the Winston Wolf rule is still in effect but part of running up the score in about 10 days is us being motivated and them being, well, crushed.

With that in mind, Be the Wave.

I have like 5 people signed up for my NY-20 event (details on Monday, I hope). Still plenty of time to sign up.

Posted by: DrewM at 01:02 PM | Comments (411)
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Krauthammer Cracks Wise: Dr. Obama Has Discovered a New Psychosis, "Obama Underappreciation Syndrome"
— Ace

Very funny stuff. Not like laugh out loud funny, more like tongue in cheek nodding vigorously funny.

In an increasingly desperate attempt to develop a narrative for the coming Democratic collapse, the Democrats have indulged themselves in what for half a century they've habitually attributed to the American right -- the paranoid style in American politics. The talk is of dark conspiracies -- secret money, foreign influence, big corporations, with Karl Rove and, yes, Ed Gillespie lurking ominously behind the scenes. The only thing missing is the Halliburton-Cheney angle.

But after trotting out some of these charges with a noticeable lack of success, President Obama has come up with something new, something less common, something more befitting his stature and intellect. He's now offering a scientific, indeed neurological, explanation for his current political troubles. The electorate apparently is deranged by its anxieties and fears to the point where it can't think straight. Part of the reason "facts and science and argument does not seem to be winning the day all the time," he explained to a Massachusetts audience, "is because we're hard-wired not to always think clearly when we're scared. And the country is scared."

Opening a whole new branch of cognitive science -- liberal psychology -- Obama has discovered a new principle: The fearful brain is hard-wired to act befuddled, i.e., vote Republican.

But of course. Here Obama has spent two years bestowing upon the peasantry the "New Foundation" of a more regulated, socially engineered and therefore more humane society, and they repay him with recalcitrance and outright opposition. Here he gave them Obamacare, the stimulus, financial regulation and a shot at cap-and-trade -- and the electorate remains not just unmoved but ungrateful.

Faced with this truly puzzling conundrum, Dr. Obama diagnoses a heretofore undiscovered psychological derangement: anxiety-induced Obama Underappreciation Syndrome, wherein an entire population is so addled by its economic anxieties as to be neurologically incapable of appreciating the "facts and science" undergirding Obamacare and the other blessings their president has bestowed upon them from on high.

Then he starts getting cranky.

Posted by: Ace at 11:18 AM | Comments (241)
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Jim Moran: My Opponent Hasn't Done Any Public Service, And Has Just Taken A Government Check for 20 Years
— Ace

By which he means his opponent, Lt. Col. Patrick Murray, was just defending the nation in the military for 20 years, not doing important stuff like sitting in committee and fundraising.

He goes on to equate military service with a form of welfare -- like, hey, how dare this guy take a government check for so long and then want to shrink government spending! What an ingrate! more...

Posted by: Ace at 10:57 AM | Comments (173)
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Jim DeMint: Hey, I've Got An Idea Of How We Can Cut $4.5 Billion Over Ten Years
— Ace

No more funding for NPR and PBS (at Hot Air).

I wish he'd not included PBS -- yet. Because you know, everytime this comes up, parents get outraged that Sesame Street will be off the air. That is what keeps the funding coming -- Sesame Street.

This is one of those situations where people are, as Obama might say, irrational and fearful and even clingy about their children's safe-harbor programming, and some politics needs to be done here, to prepare/expedite some way to get Sesame Street on to another (commercial) channel.

Now, the fact of the matter is, the government doesn't need to do this -- Sesame Street is a billion dollar plus a year industry, with toys and such, and the show is their advertising for that. Sesame Street would, if necessary, pay channels to run their program to keep their billion dollar revenue stream coming.

But this has to be explained to people, and some deal should be put into the works before this sort of thing.

Am I a squish? No, I'm a guy who actually wants to cut funding for PBS, and not just talk about cutting funding for PBS. And the Sesame Street thing has to be addressed, or else people will freak.

I hope we've not become so uncompromising in our principles that we can't have a bit of politics in politics anymore.

Posted by: Ace at 09:46 AM | Comments (346)
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