Brand Democrat™ from Slublog.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 05:13 AM | Comments (262)
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Above the Post Recap & Review:

That went pretty well. Fiorina made a good introduction to the people of California. Unfortunately, this won't make a big dent in the polls; there was no knock-out punch from either candidate. Mostly because Fiorina didn't try and because Boxer, though she was picking at Fiorina's HP days like mad, couldn't land a solid hit.

Things I didn't know about Fiorina before the debate: She supports the DREAM Act, but not "amnesty." She wants to repeal Roe v. Wade and return to a state-by-state, "let the voters decide" approach to abortion. She wants to repeal DADT. She refused to take a stand on Prop 23, which would overturn California's greenhouse gas emissions scheme.

As I wrote on twitter, she will have made progress with Latinos and independents. But she will lose ground with women. Boxer is going to exploit the heck out of that with paid media in the next two months. Boxer is going to need somebody to turn out to vote, since Democratic voters are generally going to be demoralized, and it's going to be the feminist dog whistle all the way.

I'm disappointed that Fiorina let so many opportunities to hit back on jobs go by. She had a tendency to get caught up in the weeds, drifting around the general area of the issue and spitting out plenty of factoids, but never just spelling it out. Well, okay, she spelled it out once when she said "cut the regulations, cut the taxes and jobs will come." But then she got tangled in talk about "TARP Jr." and "TARP Sr." that probably lost a lot of viewers. And she never came back to that simple message: "you want jobs to come back to California? Cut taxes, cut regulation." My impression was that she was over-prepared on this and thought she had to regurgitate every last factoid she'd memorized. It was the wrong approach.

On the other hand, Boxer certainly said nothing to recommend herself for another six years. She said what Democrats have always said: raise taxes, ban guns, bailouts for teachers, and money for green jobs. Nothing that would really give the idea that she has a plan to salvage the California economy. When it came to economics, she only attacked Fiorina for her time at HP and reminisced about the "good old days" when President Clinton ran a surplus. (Unmentioned by Boxer, of course, is that during those good old days, there was a Republican Congress.)

Also Boxer might have hurt herself with some independents because she lectured patronizingly that sometimes it's right for judges to overturn the will of the people. It did not make for pleasant television.

Finally, though she probably hoped to lay the "Ma'am" fiasco to rest, I doubt her answer will satisfy everyone. Boxer said it was a formal hearing and she wanted the general to call her by her formal title. Fiorina did the classy thing and let it go.

All in all, a wash, I think. But it's the opening gambit for the next series of paid media attacks. Boxer has hardly begun on that front. Fiorina now has to shift from her primary election strategy to the general election.

Original Post is Tucked Below: more...

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 07:58 PM | Comments (417)
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Despite the best efforts of e. coli I'm back with another semi-half-assed ONT.

Whisky Made From Urine!

Well not just any old urine - the urine from elderly type II diabetics with excess sugar. There's gold in them thar Depends!

James Gilpin uses the sugar rich urine of elderly diabetics to make his high-end single malt whisky. From the article: "The source material is acquired from elderly volunteers, including Gilpin's own grandmother, Patricia. The urine is purified in the same way as mains water is purified, with the sugar molecules removed and added to the mash stock to accelerate the whisky's fermentation process. Traditionally, that sugar would be made from the starches in the mash."

Now I'm looking forward to Plasma vodka and Orphan Blood rum.

Meanwhile in other whisky news....
Scottish Scientists Develop Whisky Biofuel
Glenfiddish 64 Year-old Whisky now available. For just $30K a bottle.
Taiwanese Whisky beats Scottish in blind taste test.

And how did Margaret Thatcher lose 20lbs in 2 weeks before her first official photo set at No.10 Downing St? She used her whisky, spinach, and steak and eggs diet. more...

Posted by: Maetenloch at 05:05 PM | Comments (749)
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Well, it is true.

Do I believe Obama was born anywhere but Hawaii? No.

Do I believe he has some secret right to conceal documents establishing his legal capacity to hold high office? No, and an even stronger no.

]t is my opinion that LTC Lakin's request for discovery relating to the President's birth records in Hawaii is absolutely essential to determining not merely his guilt or innocence but to reassuring all military personnel once and for all for this President whether his service as Commander in Chief is Constitutionally proper. He is the one single person in the Chain of Command that the Constitution demands proof of natural born citizenship. This determination is fundamental to our Republic, where civilian control over the military is the rule. According to our Constitution, the Commander in Chief must now, in the face of serious-- and widely held-- concerns that he is ineligible, either voluntarily establish his eligibility by authorizing release of his birth records or this court must authorize their discovery. The invasion of his privacy in these records is utterly trivial compared to the issues at stake here.

Invasion of privacy? There is no "invasion of privacy" concern, just the same as there is no invasion of privacy when I take a job and must show my Social Security card to Human Resources on day one.

I'm getting sort of tired of telling other people they're crazy to want to see this.

They're not crazy. They want to cross the t's and dot the i's.

Why the hell is Obama playing games? You wanted the job, dickhead, so go down to Human Resources and put your friggin' Social Security card on the copying machine like every other person.

And frankly -- why is the MFM carrying the water on him? Precisely when did it become "outrageous" for people to ask for a friggin' birth certificate?

What exactly is the hold-up here, Champ? You're starting to make me worry a little here. I vouched for you on this, Sporto, you know? You gonna embarrass me in front of my friends, or are you going to make a ten minute trip to Kinko's?

Via Dan Riehl's twitter feed.

Posted by: Ace at 03:09 PM | Comments (420)
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This isn't unprecedented, but Rasmussen hasn't found it this close since 2005, which was, I guess, the peak of post-9/11 Republican affiliation before the steep drop off which followed.

It's good. It's good.

In August, 35.0% of American Adults identified themselves as Democrats. ThatÂ’s down nearly half a percentage point from a month ago and is the smallest percentage of Democrats ever recorded in nearly eight years of monthly tracking.

At the same time, the number of Republicans grew in August to 33.8%. ThatÂ’s up two full percentage points from the month before and the largest number of Republicans recorded in 2010.

As has been the case in every month over the past eight years of tracking, there are more Democrats than Republicans in the nation. The gap is currently 1.2 percentage points. ThatÂ’s the closest the Republicans have been to parity in more than five years, since July 2005.

ItÂ’s also the smallest gap between the parties heading into any of the recent campaign seasons....

The biggest advantage ever measured for Democrats was 10.1 percentage points in May 2008. In December 2008, the final full month of the Bush administration, the Democrats held an 8.8-percentage-point advantage.

Even with that 8.8% advantage, in a huge-turnout-for-energized-Democrats year, they could only parlay that to a 4% or 5% advantage in actual votes.

What happens when it's at parity? Wonderful things, wonderful things.

From Captain Ed, who notes that this gets at one of his pet peeves -- the seven, eight, ten, eleven point Democrat advantage "mainstream" media pollsters tend to build into their "forecasts." (Actually -- wishcasts.)

Random Rassmussen Good News: Pennsylvania Governor's contest moves to "Solid GOP," even though currently held by D.

Posted by: Ace at 02:08 PM | Comments (104)
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I'm not a long-shot, Eric Wargotz says. I'm just behind. He points out that Scott Brown was down 19 to Martha Coakley, where as he's only down 16.

He'll need a little luck... but then again, he's going to get a little luck. The only question really is whether he gets an unexpectedly high 48% of the vote and loses, or a more unexpectedly high 51% and wins.

Birther? Eh, well: what the hell.

We can have one Senator who thinks Obama was born overseas. We've currently got 59 who think he was born beside his brother Jesus in Heaven.

Posted by: Ace at 01:30 PM | Comments (81)
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Wow, that was so hard to predict that I didn't predict. Oh wait, yes I did.

Focusing exclusively on Point 4 of 12 demands, ThinkProgress turns the Asian Canadian into a White All-American Racist Avenger.

Note, by the way, he's only a "purported" eco-terrorist. His "anger" about immigrants and anchor babies is, however, quite established.

SUSPECT SHOT. And in custody. One of the explosives may have gone off.

By the way, Media Matters For America tweeted this statement:

Discovery Channel hostage-taker is the perpetrator of a crime-not liberal, conservative or a chance to score points

That's funny, because I heard when he walked in to the lobby with his gun drawn he asked the building, "Are you a Muslim?"

Update: NBC saying he's dead?

Too bad. I wanted him to give a whole bunch o' interviews.

More: Lee regretted not thinking to invite Al Gore to one of his protests.

Probably better that he didn't. It would have snowed.

In Honorarim... James Lee's condition is reportedly stable, but dead.

more...

Posted by: Ace at 12:49 PM | Comments (340)
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Hi there, Morons and Moronettes...

In the midst of all our revelry, there is a new little bit that needs to kind of get front and center into the minds of our East Coast folks, and that's Hurricane Earl.

A couple of the hurricane forecast models continue to trend Earl west of where it was projected to go even yesterday. One of those models, ominously, has it going ashore on Long Island.

Below the fold, we're going to have some reminders about hurricane preparedness, as well as a bit of info from Mrs. tmi3rd (a meteorologist and hurricane specialist with the National Weather Service) on hurricanes in general... more...

Posted by: Open Blogger at 12:36 PM | Comments (109)
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An "Awakening"... after reading Quinn's book "Ishmael" and then watching Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth.

OMG: CBS begins spinning. Think a rightwinger would be described as merely having a "passionate cause"? Geraghty:

Local CBS talks about gunman's "passionate cause leading to this behavior." Guys, this guy's cause is stopping "disgusting human babies."

Update: MySpace page and picture, thanks to Allen.

Another Update: Another manifesto, this one I think when he was content to merely protest.

Update: Via DC channel 9, here are his demands.

Note: I do not understand how they know this. Fresh Update: This appears well-confirmed by now.

The Discovery Channel MUST broadcast to the world their commitment to save the planet and to do the following IMMEDIATELY:

1. The Discovery Channel and it's affiliate channels MUST have daily television programs at prime time slots based on Daniel Quinn's "My Ishmael" pages 207-212 where solutions to save the planet would be done in the same way as the Industrial Revolution was done, by people building on each other's inventive ideas. Focus must be given on how people can live WITHOUT giving birth to more filthy human children since those new additions continue pollution and are pollution. A game show format contest would be in order. Perhaps also forums of leading scientists who understand and agree with the Malthus-Darwin science and the problem of human overpopulation. Do both. Do all until something WORKS and the natural world starts improving and human civilization building STOPS and is reversed! MAKE IT INTERESTING SO PEOPLE WATCH AND APPLY SOLUTIONS!!!!

2. All programs on Discovery Health-TLC must stop encouraging the birth of any more parasitic human infants and the false heroics behind those actions. In those programs' places, programs encouraging human sterilization and infertility must be pushed. All former pro-birth programs must now push in the direction of stopping human birth, not encouraging it.

3. All programs promoting War and the technology behind those must cease. There is no sense in advertising weapons of mass-destruction anymore. Instead, talk about ways to disassemble civilization and concentrate the message in finding SOLUTIONS to solving global military mechanized conflict. Again, solutions solutions instead of just repeating the same old wars with newer weapons. Also, keep out the fraudulent peace movements. They are liars and fakes and had no real intention of ending the wars. ALL OF THEM ARE FAKE! On one hand, they claim they want the wars to end, on the other, they are demanding the human population increase. World War II had 2 Billion humans and after that war, the people decided that tripling the population would assure peace. WTF??? STUPIDITY! MORE HUMANS EQUALS MORE WAR!

4. Civilization must be exposed for the filth it is. That, and all its disgusting religious-cultural roots and greed. Broadcast this message until the pollution in the planet is reversed and the human population goes down! This is your obligation. If you think it isn't, then get hell off the planet! Breathe Oil! It is the moral obligation of everyone living otherwise what good are they??

5. Immigration: Programs must be developed to find solutions to stopping ALL immigration pollution and the anchor baby filth that follows that. Find solutions to stopping it. Call for people in the world to develop solutions to stop it completely and permanently. Find solutions FOR these countries so they stop sending their breeding populations to the US and the world to seek jobs and therefore breed more unwanted pollution babies. FIND SOLUTIONS FOR THEM TO STOP THEIR HUMAN GROWTH AND THE EXPORTATION OF THAT DISGUSTING FILTH! (The first world is feeding the population growth of the Third World and those human families are going to where the food is! They must stop procreating new humans looking for nonexistant jobs!)

6. Find solutions for Global Warming, Automotive pollution, International Trade, factory pollution, and the whole blasted human economy. Find ways so that people don't build more housing pollution which destroys the environment to make way for more human filth! Find solutions so that people stop breeding as well as stopping using Oil in order to REVERSE Global warming and the destruction of the planet!

7. Develop shows that mention the Malthusian sciences about how food production leads to the overpopulation of the Human race. Talk about Evolution. Talk about Malthus and Darwin until it sinks into the stupid people's brains until they get it!!

8. Saving the Planet means saving what's left of the non-human Wildlife by decreasing the Human population. That means stopping the human race from breeding any more disgusting human babies! You're the media, you can reach enough people. It's your resposibility because you reach so many minds!!!

9. Develop shows that will correct and dismantle the dangerous US world economy. Find solutions for their disasterous Ponzi-Casino economy before they take the world to another nuclear war.

10. Stop all shows glorifying human birthing on all your channels and on TLC. Stop Future Weapons shows or replace the dialogue condemning the people behind these developments so that the shows become exposes rather than advertisements of Arms sales and development!

11. You're also going to find solutions for unemployment and housing. All these unemployed people makes me think the US is headed toward more war.

Humans are the most destructive, filthy, pollutive creatures around and are wrecking what's left of the planet with their false morals and breeding culture.

For every human born, ACRES of wildlife forests must be turned into farmland in order to feed that new addition over the course of 60 to 100 YEARS of that new human's lifespan! THIS IS AT THE EXPENSE OF THE FOREST CREATURES!!!! All human procreation and farming must cease!

It is the responsiblity of everyone to preserve the planet they live on by not breeding any more children who will continue their filthy practices. Children represent FUTURE catastrophic pollution whereas their parents are current pollution. NO MORE BABIES! Population growth is a real crisis. Even one child born in the US will use 30 to a thousand times more resources than a Third World child. It's like a couple are having 30 babies even though it's just one! If the US goes in this direction maybe other countries will too!

You know how the media will report this, right?

That's right: Anti-immigration extremist.

Picture: A twitterer says this pic was sent to him by a colleague at Discovery:

I hope they got him before anyone was hurt.

My gut is that it's not terrorism per se, but a disgruntled former employee, or the jilted spouse of one.

"Issues?" I heard from someone watching the news police suspect he has "issues" with the Discovery Channel. I guess so.

But FoxNews is saying that police don't know who he is, and so they have no idea about motive.

"Asian Male." Asian? You know, Pakistan is an Asian country.

I am starting to wonder about my initial guess -- if he's an ex-employee or the spouse of an employee, well, they should have figured that out by now, I would think. He's been in there an hour.

He may be a stranger.

Posted by: Ace at 09:51 AM | Comments (1230)
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At Hot Air, Vanity Fair is now just making things up and "reporting" on them.

Ben Smith at Politico noted this about Vanity Fair earlier -- apparently the leftist press thinks that if it's about Palin, any rumor or speculation will count as news.

Moore, a green-eyed blonde who, like Palin, was once an Alaska beauty queen, albeit a few stripes more self-aware, drives her Subaru through downtown Anchorage, steering with one hand, holding a cigarette and her smartphone in the other. When Devon calls to tell her that Glenn Beck has booked the Dena’ina Center, the largest venue in Anchorage, for a speech on September 11, 2010, she sits bolt upright and yells. Immediately, they start trying to figure out what the news might mean. “Listen, listen, listen: Why in the world do you imagine Glenn Beck would come to Anchorage on 9/11? You think he might have a special guest? With a special announcement? Oh,” she says, her whole face falling as the implications of a Palin campaign kickoff hit her, “Jesus Christ.”

Apparently the facts are that Beck will be there in Alaska to speak, as will Palin, and so we're invited to speculate about why.

Like, why were they both in DC on 8/28? That was awfully suspicious, wasn't it? Two politically-oriented people at a big political event?

Posted by: Ace at 09:17 AM | Comments (173)
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