Seriously? You people are ninnies.

Video from The Revolution Pac. via Iowahawk (he only gets one caucus.. vote thing.. whatever the hell it is they do).

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Posted by: Dave in Texas at 04:01 PM | Comments (152)
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This link supposedly contains his filing, but I can't see it, as the website is getting overwhlemed.

Possible argument? Director Blue says Virigina employed the wrong standard for signatures, requiring them to have addressed attached, when the actual standard for presidential elections does not include this requirement.

Virginia AG Ken Cuccinelli himself calls for ballot reform, and suggests dropping the requirement from 400 signatures per district down to 100.

I'm on Team Perry, so I of course have to give this a good spin (which I a do believe): I'm glad he's fighting it.

Posted by: Ace at 02:28 PM | Comments (278)
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If you remember, cops and college administrators got on a professor who hung a small poster quoting Mal Reynolds from Firefly stating, "If I kill you, you will be awake, you will be facing me, and you will be armed."

The PC Police (literally) freaked out and claimed it was, legally, a criminal "threat" and thus had no First Amendment protection. So then he hung a "Caution: Fascism" poster, showing a goon beating down a citizen with a nightstick, and they claimed that was a threat, too.

Well, FIRE won.

The video below features Neil Gaiman, who's supposedly a great comic book writer. (I don't know his work so I don't know either way. He wrote a Doctor Who -- "The Doctor's Wife" -- which I never watched because it seemed silly in premise.)
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Posted by: Ace at 02:01 PM | Comments (89)
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I discussed this with Domenech and Ben Howe on the podcast. I said I was actually trying to prepare myself for this eventuality. I tried to psych myself up with the bumper sticker:

Mitt Romney 2012

It's time to settle.

Even if this is an accurate message, I hope Romney supporters understand it is not an attractive one.

Now I don't think this is really a foul on Rubin's part, really -- she's been much more annoying in the past -- but others do, so here is her precis.

As a preliminary matter, it will be incumbent on Romney antagonists, should he win the nomination, to give up the fiction that the “elites” or “insiders” or “establishment” foisted Romney on the party. The notion that any clique could exercise such power was always a red herring, but if Romney wins a majority of delegates it will be confirmation that he, and not his antagonists, have the confidence of the Republican electorate. Whether the pundits who railed against him might then consider how little they understand the actual electorate (as opposed to their limited readership) would be an open question.

Our limited readership? As opposed to Jen Rubin's blog-column at the WaPo?

I agree that Romney has not been "foisted" on us by an "Establishment clique," though. Romney is winning because opposition to him is fragmented. Just as opposition to John McCain was fragmented between Romney and Mike Huckabee.

And, by the way, for those who continue to insist "RINOs like me" forced John McCain on the party: No I didn't. I endorsed three people ahead of McCain, and finally Romney, as the only guy who could plausibly stop McCain's nomination.

The man who foisted McCain on you last time was Mike Huckabee, and his voters. And I think Huckabee did that out of spite, because he didn't like Romney. Or Mormons.

At that point there would be no knight in shining armor whom some may look to for salvation. If New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie or Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) had wanted to run they would have. The recognition that “ideal” candidates are candidates who would have had to muster the gumption to run should dawn on disgruntled Republicans.

True. But there are other people in the race right now too, Jen.

In short, it will be time for anti-Romney forces, who flourish most visibly in the punditocracy and among activists and select organizations, to get real and get with the Romney election effort unless they want four more years of Obama. (And frankly some do, for being out of power allows them to foment continual discontent in the base and posit themselves as the guardians of political purity.)

And being so big on Team Romney, and being a "real journalist" and not a blogger (despite having a Twitter handle of "@jrubinblogger"), might just get you a job in President Romney's communications department. It's easy to play this game, which is why I do it myself. Because it's easy.

One question I asked during the podcast, which I Twittered to Jen Rubin, is what argument shall we who campaigned hard against ObamaCare and specifically against its most politically and constitutionally infirm strut -- the individual mandate -- take into the general election, should Romney be our candidate? What argument do we make that indicts Obama and yet spares Romney?

Romney's big argument seems to be that it's okay for states to impose nanny-state laws on its citizens but not for the government, which may or may not be true (the states are not invested with all powers over their citizens).

Whether or not it's true or not is highly debatable; what is beyond debate is that it it is unsatisfying as it slices the baloney slices so thin they are well-nigh invisible.

Is Romney really planning to challenge Obama merely on whether one government in the country's 50+ government is not permitted to boss its citizens around in order to foist a managed, socialized health care plan on us?

Given that Romney has as of yet come up with any argument himself that we could deploy -- he endlessly tells us he wished Obama had called him to find out what didn't work in Massachusetts, while not really telling us what didn't work in Massachusetts --- I don't think Jen Rubin is going to be able to craft a satisfying, effective argument either.

Posted by: Ace at 12:52 PM | Comments (447)
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5. I got 5 right this week.

What is this game they play anyhow?

One more week to go, here's the results compiled by Ben and CDR M (who's been feelin a little under the weather lately so wish him well).

The Bilderbergers

MuleTrain2016: 135
CountryBlumkins: 133
Aristomenes from da 54301: 132
scott: 132
SaintsForever: 130
Honeybadger: 129
The Plague: 129
FMG: 129
Moochelle's Large Butt: 128

The Illuminati

rd brewer: 124
Russ from Winterset: 119
DrewM: 122
Gabe Malor: 118
Ben: 114
Andy: 112
DiT: 106 and loving it!

Incidentally, our leaderboard on the College Bowl Game Pickem Set is:

1 waelse1 6 of 8 147pts 196 possible
1 misterdregs 6 of 8 147pts 589 possible
3 Unicorns 5 of 8 141pts 611 possible
4 I R A Darth Aggie 6 of 8 136pts 614 possible
5 Governor of the 57th state 6 of 8 135pts 606 possible

Hope all you goofballs had a great Christmas.

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 12:33 PM | Comments (23)
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It features him at a debate, which is smart, as he's running on that, and opens up cleverly in a four-man shot of Romney, Perry, and Paul nodding as he speaks.

Pretty good.

Sorry about the hour away; I was doing the podcast thing.

Posted by: Ace at 12:19 PM | Comments (78)
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Gold? Oil? Probably both.

Couple of points: This is from his own mouth, first of all. Lew Rockwell did not brainjack him and telepathically force him to say these things.

He knows how crazy his conspiracy theories about The Illuminatus are, so he initially deflects the question ("What do you think the Bildersbergers are doing?") with an empty demurral. Then the questioner asks it a second and third time, and he can no longer counterfeit his beliefs; he offers up the Illuminatus conspiracy.

Remember, we're fighting a "phony war" against Al Qaeda, and it's all ginned-up neocon nonsense that Iran is cooking up a nuclear bomb, and Hamas was created by Israel.

But the thing we've got to really keep our eyes on is the Bildersbergers and Trilateral Commissioners.

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Posted by: Ace at 10:54 AM | Comments (258)
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From Gabe, a heartwarming Christmas tale.

Also at Wizbang, and Bookworm, who seizes on the clerk's quote:

"If he wants money, get a job. Work, like everyone else in the world."

He also delivered a series of lines from Batman.

The punch knocked out the would-be thief. Mothershead was able to grab the man's weapon and realized it was a pellet gun.

“When I pulled it out of his waistband I started laughing,” said Mothershead. “I said, 'Man, you came in here with a fake gun?'"

Mothershead said he dragged the man over to a desk and held him down with one hand and called 911 with the other.

The man, later identified as Mostafa Hendi, eventually regained consciousness.
“He kind of begged me, begged me to let him go,” Mothershead said. “I said, 'You came in and tried to rob us. You’re going to jail.'”

While they waited for police and paramedics, Mothershead gave the man a roll of power towels, sprayed the floor with cleaner and told him to clean up his own blood.

Time Magazine immediately made the inept robber its Person of the Year for 2012. more...

Posted by: Ace at 09:54 AM | Comments (177)
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This isn't as big of a deal as it seems -- he was doomed anyway, pretty much. He's just recognizing the inevitable.

He can either go through an arduous and expensive campaign and then not be senator in 2013 or he can not go through that process and then not be senator. Either way, he's not going to be senator.

Politico spins this a "major blow" to Democrats' chances to hold the Senate. Still, the Democrats did want him to run:

The White House and top Senate Democrats, including Majority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) and Sen. Chuck Schumer (N.Y.), had quietly mounted a pressure campaign to keep Nelson from retiring. Nelson has more than $3 million in his campaign war chest, and his approval rating solidified after falling over the last several years.

But with Nelson stepping down, the DemocratsÂ’ hold on the Senate is in serious doubt, although Democratic leaders believe they can still do so. Republicans are expected to pick up control of the Cornhusker State seat, although popular former Sen. Bob Kerrey (D) has been talking to top Democrats about possibly running again.

Posted by: Ace at 09:44 AM | Comments (53)
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When I saw the headline, I thought, How fun, and how right up my alley, because I'm an Intelligent, Creative Person who is Quick-Witted and can easily answer such questions and make millions of dollars. So everything's looking up for ol' Ace.

But they all left me stumped. In a real interview, I would have babbled.

Question 5, which should, according to my own self-conception, play right into my self-perceived strengths, leaves me with my mouth hanging open in stupidity.

I'm just never going to get a real job, am I?

More at the WSJ, and answers (whether real "this is correct" answers or interesting answers for a question without a real answer) here.

A friend went through these questions when he was seeking work as a consultant. Apparently these questions have been standard in that business for a while. Among the questions I remember him mentioning was the now-infamous Monty Hall question, and "Estimate the mass of an empty 747."

My only insight into that one is that a 747 floats, and I can guess that it would sink approximately one third of the way down, and then I guess you could estimate its gross volume and then multiply by the mass of water, x 1/3. I don't know if that's the right answer. (He wasn't sure about his own answer -- he just guessed and babbled -- and no one ever told him the right answer.)

Posted by: Ace at 09:18 AM | Comments (137)
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