Ah, Old Friend, layered chocolate and vanilla Jello Pudding...
How I have missed your cold and squooshy embrace.
[PuddingSkull via The MegaIndependent]

ADN reports:

Murkowski: "Based on where we are right now, I don’t see a scenario where the primary will turn out in my favor.”

Also: "For the good of the state of Alaska, I am conceding the race for senator."

...

Oh Dear: Joe Miller's camp just tweeted mention of us and pudding, before a sane hand deleted it.

But DrewM. screencapped it.

By the way, that's Joe Miller not saying that himself, but retweeting (reposting) Stace McCain saying it. Still -- score.
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Posted by: Ace at 06:59 PM | Comments (1168)
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ItÂ’s Maetless Tuesday.

He had to take the night off so it looks like youÂ’re stuck with me. Please try to keep the cheering to a reasonable level. By which I mean it'd be reasonable if there was some actual cheering rather than the sound of crickets chirping. Hello? Anyone here?

Love hurts. And sometimes it's fatal:

First we had astronaut in diapers and now we get doctor in chimney. This time obsession didn't have such a humorous ending:

"BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (AP) - A doctor involved in an "on-again, off-again" relationship apparently tried to force her way into her boyfriend's home by sliding down the chimney, police said Tuesday. Her decomposing body was found there three days later."

"Dr. Jacquelyn Kotarac, 49, first tried to get into the house with a shovel, then climbed a ladder to the roof last Wednesday night, removed the chimney cap and slid feet first down the flue, Bakersfield police Sgt. Mary DeGeare said."

"While she was trying to break in, the man she was pursuing escaped unnoticed from another exit "to avoid a confrontation," authorities said."

Sad, yet weird on many levels. The article comes with a photo of the scene. About four feet away from the chimney she tried to climb down is a flimsy looking door with a large glass pane and on the other side is a rather large window. Neither of those paths of entry would've worked for the good doctor? Seems like she was working her way down the list of ways to break in, but in reverse: hardest to easiest. I'm guessing she had to abandon the shovel approach because she was trying to dig her way in under the foundation.

Origins of "The Bunk:"

As AoSHQ continues to grow in readership, in its attempt to conquer the known universe, new and confused readers make the mistake of being assimilated here and are transformed into morons (and if you hang around the ONT, you aren't even worthy of that designation: you become "sub-moron." And there is no hope for you.)

Often, however, some ask about long-standing inside jokes while they still can, knowing that their last few remaining active brain cells are quicky passing into darkness and oblivion. I've been pestering Ace for awhile to post some kinda' FAQ 'splaining some of these things but he's too bizzy hanging out on his new motor yacht/face down in a gutter somewhere. It's like he thinks he owns the place or something.

So here's about all I could find on YouTube concerning "bunk." I hope it helps.

If you can find a better version, post it in the comments and I'll replace it. If not, maybe some of you old-timers can monkey-type explanations of other AoS traditions/outrages for some of the newcomers/lurkers so they can feel right at home. And so they can feel despair.

There are no kittehs below the fold tonight. At least none in the domestic pet sense. more...

Posted by: Genghis at 06:25 PM | Comments (699)
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We already know what he'll say: You're welcome.

The I's will have it.

We know he'll say:

This is a promise I made, which has been kept, even though the promise was to get all troops out of Iraq.

I did this. Even if it was Bush's timetable.

The surge? Never heard of it.

The troops...? They, maybe, had something to do with this. But mostly, you know, it was me.

"Need to rebuild our nation here at home." Standard McGovern/Mondale/Jesse Jackson paradigm.

"Our unity at home was tested." Ah, you mean Democrats made political points off dead soldiers' bodies? Yes, I suppose our unity was tested, if that's what you mean.

Throwing the troops some credit.

Actually, being honest, nothing through this part was particularly objectionable, or, even, nit-pickingly objectionable.

Ah, here we go. Back to the Jesse Jackson paradigm. $12 trillion spent on war (???), need to shore up the middle class with all this War Money we've been spending.

Basically blaming his current economic mismanagement on Bush's decisions on war seven and a half years ago.

Is this dirtbag really using an opportunity to thank the troops as a campaign commercial for his failed economic policies? I think he is.

Posted by: Ace at 03:58 PM | Comments (484)
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Stay tuned...

Posted by: Ace at 03:11 PM | Comments (331)
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Murky is outperforming her election-day performance, which becomes a problem when she starts getting above 50%... below that, and she continues losing votes, above that, she eats into Miller's lead.

It looks like in most areas she will be above 50%. But how far above?

Counting from Miller's own stronghold of the Mat-Su valley (Palin's area) got him about +150 votes, which is okay, but not as many as Murky got from hers. He still has Fairbanks; but she still has "the bush," which, the thinking goes, will support her because they like her style of Big Daddy federal dollar subsidies.

5000+ votes have been counted, I think, leaving maybe 6000 to go, and Miller still has a 1400 vote edge.

4:29pm: The Anchorage Daily News reports that the latest batch of absentees came from the Mat-Su valley, specifically House Districts 13 through 16. Crunching the numbers myself, on election day, Murkowski won 38% of the vote in those districts. Among the absentees, she's picking up nearly 48% of the vote -- a much bigger improvement than among the Anchorage absentees, but she still has a long way to go.

Districts 13-16 The Anchorage Daily News reports this latest batch of new ballots was from Districts 13-16 -- the Mat-Su Valley (Palinland). Miller won 62.12% of the vote in those districts on Election Day, but he only won 52.33% of the new ballots from those districts. With all of today's ballots, Murkowski is now out-performing her Election Day numbers in all districts that have been counted today by 5.9%. If that were to continue in all districts across the state, she would need a total of 16,690 new ballots to be counted to pass Miller.

I don't know whose blog that's from -- if you know, please tell me.

Bear in mind Murky's overperformance, and Miller's underperformance, aren't really unexpected -- I always thought that these ballots would skew Murky due to the fact that many were cast long before Miller appeared viable (and before anyone really heard of him).

The ADN is also liveblogging the counting.

So is The Other McCain.

Hey, Guys! I Just Found A Stack of Ballots! But of course you did, darling.

Posted by: Ace at 12:54 PM | Comments (432)
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Update: Oh, God.

Murkowski netted 343 votes in first 2,391 absentees. 57%.

At that rate, she will net just enough votes to overtake Miller.

Update: cinyc writes:

The Alaska Daily News reports the first batch came from HDs 17-26 in Anchorage, which went 53-47 Murkowski on election night. So she ran about 4 points ahead of her election night tally in those votes. That alone probably wouldn't put her over the top. But we need to see how the Miller strongholds voted before concluding anything.

Is That The Strongest Punch You've Got? The Miller camp says it reads this as a positive thing -- if those numbers come from a Murky stronghold and that's all she could eke out, maybe he'll be okay.

They've begun counting the 15,000 (or more) uncounted ballots in Alaska.

The Alaska Division of Elections said it expects to count 15,272 absentee, questioned and early ballots Tuesday. They're part of at least 25,500 outstanding ballots that remain to be counted one week after Miller stunned political watchers by nearly upsetting Murkowski.

The delay in vote counting is not unprecedented.

Alaskans two years ago also were kept in suspense waiting to find out who would capture the state's other U.S. Senate seat.

A week after Election Day in November 2008, roughly 30 percent of the vote -- about 90,000 ballots -- had not been counted in the race between incumbent Republican Ted Stevens and his challenger, Democrat Mark Begich.

Stevens, who died earlier this month in an airplane crash, led Begich, the mayor of Anchorage, by 3,257 votes. Begich prevailed when the early, absentee ballots and questioned ballots were tallied.

Votes trickle in slowly from "the bush."

And Mike Pence has a guy helping Miller out:

Hm. . RT @mattklewis: RT @RickKlein: Intriguing 2010/2012 tidbit: @RepMikePence has a press staffer up in Alaska helping @JoeWMiller #AKSEN

Yeah he's running.

Posted by: Ace at 11:09 AM | Comments (396)
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Slate? Slate? The amateur online webzine staffed by people who couldn't get hired by TNR?

Apparently so.

Not So Easy, Is It?

How Obama's struggles with disaster and war may be casting Bush's presidency in a more favorable light.

By John Dickerson
Posted Monday, Aug. 30, 2010, at 7:51 PM ET

In November, George W. Bush will publish a memoir, Decision Points, in which he will try to put the tough moments of his presidency into perspective. His successor is already helping. On Sunday, President Obama spoke in New Orleans to commemorate the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. On Tuesday, he will speak to the nation about the final stage of the Iraq war. The back-to-back events could be called the Cleaning Up Bush's Messes Tour—what many Democrats would call the entire Obama presidency so far—and yet both events highlight Obama's struggles with disaster and war, potentially putting his predecessor in a more favorable light.

...

The relevant similarity between the federal response to Katrina and the BP oil spill (other than geography) is that both show the limits of the presidency and the federal government....

...

Sen. Obama not only expected the surge to fail; he saw it, incorrectly, as yet another example of Bush's inability to adapt to reality. President Obama, at least, does not face that criticism. He has based his strategy in Afghanistan on the same counterinsurgency strategy that was central to Bush's surge. He's done more than borrow his predecessor's strategy—he's also borrowing his language. Of these two quotes, which is Obama and which is Bush?

A) "If I didn't think that it was important for our national security to finish the job Â… then I would pull them out today, because I have to sign letters to these families who have lost loved ones."

B) "If we can't win, I'll pull us out. Â… I'm not going to keep those kids in there and have to deal with their loved ones."

DrewM. mentions that in a recent PPP poll, independents (and all voters as a group) in Ohio prefer Bush over Obama.

We'll start rolling out our Ohio poll results tomorrow but there's one finding on the poll that pretty much sums it up: by a 50-42 margin voters there say they'd rather have George W. Bush in the White House right now than Barack Obama.

Independents hold that view by a 44-37 margin and there are more Democrats who would take Bush back (11%) than there are Republicans who think Obama's preferable (3%.)

Answer to the quote question, BTW: A was Obama and B was Bush.

Posted by: Ace at 11:00 AM | Comments (67)
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Very good piece, read the whole thing.

The left is furiously blasting Washington Post TV Critic Tom Shales for stating what was obvious to everyone, that Amanpour is out of place, completely clueless about US politics and insists on internationalizing domestic issues. But shooting the messenger won't save Amanpour. Her hiring is only the latest manifestation of a media that is too radicalized to save itself. Bringing in a personality from the sinking ship that is CNN was obviously a bad idea on commercial grounds alone. Amanpour left CNN, for the same reason that Campbell Brown did. And ABC News taking Amanpour in, demonstrates that they share CNN's bad judgment.

Unlike ABC producers, Americans are not interested in an "outsider's perspective" on American politics. They can get that from the White House. Threatening to stab Tom Shales with a knife won't change that either.

Amanpour's promise to "open a window on the world" for what she imagines are parochial American viewers is condescending even to those who agree with her. It's grating to those who don't. Because Amanpour's window is the parochial European left-wing window from which you can see Brussels, but not Iowa, a stifling world that is upper class in its arrogance, and low class in its empathy for terrorists. ABC News producers may be determined to bring that tiny dollhouse of a world to Americans, but who exactly is supposed to underwrite this project? The BBC and its outrageous salaries are funded by taxpayers. ABC has to pay its own way.

...

Lenin called on Communists to seize the telegraph offices, telephone stations and post offices in order to control the means of communication. The American left has seized the means of cultural communication, hijacking the media, the educational system and entertainment, and turning them into vehicles for their brand of political indoctrination. And they've managed to badly devalue all three. The American educational system is a shell of what it used to be, the media is imploding and the entertainment industry keeps hitting new lows. Just as in the USSR and Venezuela and everywhere else, what the radical left controls, it also destroys.

Thanks to Pocono Joe.

Posted by: Ace at 10:29 AM | Comments (130)
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Link here.

Here's a funny, unrelated thing. Jon Stewart was talking about the bedbug epidemic, which, by the way, seems to be an EPA-engineered pestilence, because they no longer permit pesticides that actually work. So you'll just have to live with them, okay?

Anyway, Isabella Rossellini had recently done some bizarre documentary called "Green Porn" about animal mating rituals and techniques. Her bit on bedbugs was particularly creepy:
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Posted by: Ace at 09:19 AM | Comments (133)
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Oh my. My, my, my.

Obama's State Department referred to Arizona's immigration law in a report to the UN Human Rights Commissioner. This law remains overwhelmingly popular with the American people. So popular that it is being used as a model by other states' legislatures.

So naturally it has been presented to the UN as an example of something we are doing wrong.

Most politically savvy president ever!

Outrageous. Absolutely outrageous.

By doing so, Obama officials undoubtedly hope to stir up international condemnation of the Arizona policy in advance of the UN General Assembly meetings in September, which they believe will increase pressure on Arizona to back down. It is a highly cynical move that speaks volumes about the Obama teamÂ’s willingness to undercut American sovereignty and popular will on the world stage.

This approach has rightly been strongly condemned by Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, who described the Arizona reference in the government report as “downright offensive”, and called on it to be removed. The State Department has just announced that it will stand by its decision to include Arizona in its UN submission, with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton strongly in favour of it.

Here's some more advice for Lefties that I know is going to go completely ignored.

Dear Lefties,

You cannot prove how much you love the United States by constantly looking for ways to debase and embarrass her for the amusement of international thugs and scumbags. This behavior undermines your claims of fidelity and admiration very gravely.

When you insist on doing these things, this is what most other American citizens think to themselves:

* Our President and our State Department are pathetic sniveling poodles to repugnant regimes that do not share our values and who hate us.

* Our President's administration does not serve their fellow citizens, but disdains them, and do not seem particularly moved by commonsense demands for safety and rule of law.

Thank you, lefties. Another stick to beat you with in November, you America-hating idiots.

Related: Gabe tips that the nonpartisan, nonpolitical, and completely objective DOJ continues to harass Arizona over illegal immigration issues.

Posted by: LauraW at 08:35 AM | Comments (256)
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