Week 4 Pickem Standings
— Dave in Texas

Old and Busted: People who Actually Know Something About Football

J Cred: 35
Commando Pete: 34
Obscene: 34
3rd_Bird: 34
endruntoglory: 33
Dr Spank: 33
Pupster: 33

New Hotness: Idiots Who Can Barely Be Trusted With The Responsiblity of Picking Cheerleader Pics

DrewM 30
Gabe 25
Dave in Texas 22

Even Newer Hotness: That Guy Who Works in the Concession Stand

Russ from Winterset 21

thanks Ben and CDR M

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 07:55 AM | Comments (23)
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DrewM: This Poll Showing The Republican Leading In The West Virginia Senate Race Is So Good, I Wish Ace Was Around To Do A Creepy Wicket Joke
Morons: Yeah, So Do We
— DrewM

The Grand Cyclops' sheets must be knotted up from all the rolling over in his grave he's been doing.

A new Fox News battleground state poll on the race for the seat held by the late Sen. Robert Byrd for 51 years shows Republican businessman John Raese with a 5-point lead over Democratic Gov. Joe Manchin among likely voters -- 48 percent to 43 percent.

In what may be the year’s clearest case of Obama’s downward pull on his party’s candidates, Manchin gets high marks from voters – 66 percent approved of his job performance and 65 percent had a positive view of him personally -- but they still prefer Raese.

The survey was conducted before new reports that the head of the stateÂ’s Democratic Party, ManchinÂ’s former chief of staff and business partner Larry Puccio, is under scrutiny by federal investigators for state contracts obtained under Manchin.

ManchinÂ’s most obvious problem is ObamaÂ’s 29 percent approval rating in the state. Only 12 percent believe that ObamaÂ’s policies have helped the state economically, while 55 percent in the coal-rich state believe they have hurt. That is borne out in the slim 28 percent of respondents who supported a plan to address global warming like the one Obama favors.

Remember when Obama was reported to have said that the difference between 2010 and 1994 is that now Democrats have him? Yeah, I don't think that's what he had in mind.

And don't forget, West Virginia is a special election race as well. If Raese wins, he sits in the lame duck. Given some of the squishiness we can expect from a retiring Senator like Voinovich and a vindictive Murkowski, we need to run up the score in the specials.

With a wave this big, there's always a seat or two that nobody really thinks is in play that then goes to the winning party out of the blue. In the Senate, I can't imagine what that will be. A race like Wisconsin was a long shot but now kind of seems in the bag and even California, Washington and West Virginia won't shock anyone on election night if/when they go Republican. I guess NY would be the kind of race that will still have the power to shock.

Thanks to Brian Faughnan for the West Virginia story.

more...

Posted by: DrewM at 07:09 AM | Comments (72)
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Murky and the fondness for power
— Slublog

"I love you and hope you love me...you do, right? Right?
Murkluski as Eva Peron. A photoshop from the collection.

Behold the effects of power + entitlement:

JUNEAU, Alaska -- U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski's campaign is warning Alaska broadcasters not to air ads by a national tea party group that the campaign says are "littered with lies and intentional mischaracterizations" about her and her write-in campaign.

Attorney Timothy McKeever, in a letter to broadcasters Monday, said they are under a "legal and moral obligation" not to air the new ads from Tea Party Express, which is supporting Joe Miller, the political upstart who defeated Murkowski in the August GOP primary.

How appropriate that a senator who refuses to heed the will of the primary voters is now asking her political critics to just hush all that bad talk about her. Why, it's almost as though her increasingly desperate quest to keep the power to which she thinks she's entitled is affecting her fundamental political and personal judgment. In general, I believe that politicians who are that desperate to cling to power should be kept as far away from it as possible.

This isn't just about Lisa Murkiwscoo and her sad bid to hold onto her senate seat. It's about something more fundamental - reminding politicians of the source of their power and who has the right, and sometimes the responsibility, to take it away from them. Lisa Murkooski has forgotten, or doesn't care, that in this country the power of government is derived from the people. When she agreed to be the GOP senator from Alaska, she knew the possibility existed that primary voters had the power to choose another to represent them in an election. Murkyspkis's refusal to submit to that agreement, and the will of the voters, shows a disdain not only for the process, but ultimately for the source of her power - the voters. Such arrogance should not be rewarded and it is for that reason I hope she soundly loses on November 2.

Oh, and some stricter sore loser laws might help as well.

(h/t: Hot Air)

Posted by: Slublog at 05:28 AM | Comments (181)
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The Old "Nation of Immigrants" Trick, Eh?
— Geoff

2nd time I fell for that this week!

A silly little throwaway column appeared in the Boston Globe today. That's not unusual, nor is it unusual that I disagreed with pretty much everything in the column. What's not quite as common, though, was that I only got as far as the title of this particular piece before it had triggered one of my pet peeves.

The offending title? It is: "A nation of immigrants must include Muslims."

This is based on the old canard that because the nation was founded by immigrants and continued to welcome large influxes of immigrants through its first 130 years, we must continue to honor that same ethic today. So even though the Constitution is considered by these sorts of folk to be a "living document," our immigration policy must never change.

Well, I'm here to tell you that times do change, and that in this case they changed a long, long time ago. In fact, the notion that we are a "Nation of Immigrants" was, until relatively recently, an antiquity. A few years ago I wrote a post where I plotted up the number of foreign-born residents over the past 100 years: more...

Posted by: Geoff at 04:22 AM | Comments (86)
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Top Headline Comments 10-05-2010
— Dave in Texas

Tuesday, the Ed McMahon of weekdays.

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 04:21 AM | Comments (74)
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Overnight Open Thread
— Maetenloch

Welcome to YAMONT.

Jim Henson: The Gentle Puppet Artist

Today Jim Henson is probably the best known puppeteer in the world but here's some video of him from his unknown days in 1969 where he shows how to create puppets using very simple parts. Sesame Street wouldn't start til later that year but he had already developed many of the muppets - in fact Rowlf had already appeared on prime time television on The Jimmy Dean Show in the early 60's.

Since he was a young boy Jim had always loved puppets and he was lucky to be able to make successful and lucrative career out of doing what he loved. Sadly he died in 1990 at the young age of 53 from an untreated severe strep infection. He left behind a wife, five children, and many, many muppets.

For some reason I find this video mesmerizing and it reminds me a lot of Bob Ross's painting shows. I think it's a combination of his soothing voice, seriousness about what's he doing along with the ability to make it all seem so easy and relaxed.

more...

Posted by: Maetenloch at 05:40 PM | Comments (732)
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Christine O'Donnell: "I'm You"
— Ace

"None of us are perfect."

After a long harsh dehumanizing campaign by her opponents and critics, she needs something like this to start the ball rolling, to at least get back to zero.

Effective? Not bad. She has a useful amount of sadness in her, of whippedness, that pushes the right emotional button. She was beaten up -- hard not feel sympathetic for someone beaten up.

More at Hot Air, including, alas, the next oddball quote that's come up.

Posted by: Ace at 05:34 PM | Comments (185)
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The Homemaker & The Whoremonger: The Stupid New Parker/Spitzer Show And All Of Their Sexy-Cute Byplay
— Ace

Live-blog. At 8 on CNN. The last time we, and 90% of its watchers, will ever see it.

One last reminder: When you comment on the live blog, your comments do not post to the feed. Repeat, do not. This is not an error. This is what it does. You cannot comment to the feed; only the invited panelists can (that is, the cobloggers).

Some comments do appear up on the feed, but they are those that have been picked by a coblogger to post on the feed. Please, no more yelling "my comments aren't posting." If you definitely want a comment to post, post a comment in the main blog. The live-blog software does not feature automatically-posting comments.

We try to keep up and post a lot of your comments, but there are hundreds scrolling by every ten minutes, and there's just no way that more than 10-15% are going up.

So please, no screaming "My comments aren't posting" or "No one's posted my comments up." That really kind of slows everything down. The last thing that'll get comments posted is a limited number of eyeballs having to scroll past dozens of "My comments aren't posting" remarks.

more...

Posted by: Ace at 03:24 PM | Comments (206)
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Right-Wing Gallup Poll Now Says GOP Up Between 13 and 18, Depending on Turnout
— Ace

Gallup, it has been noted, has been very swingy. GOP up ten; then five. Then Dems up one. Parties tied.

It was thought that this was due to their continuing to post polls of registered, not likely, voters.

I think this is their first likely voter poll of the season, and it's a doozy.

Thanks to This awesome guy that I read.

Posted by: Ace at 01:40 PM | Comments (254)
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Is This Something? Mash-Up: AC/DC vs. Ghostbusters
— Ace

AC/DC's "Thunderstruck" + "Ghostbusters" = "Thunder Busters."

I like it, but it mainly just makes me want to listen to Thunderstruck. more...

Posted by: Ace at 12:55 PM | Comments (90)
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