Time once again for the monthly straw poll. This is the first time that the same list of GOP candidates appears two months in a row with no changes. (Aren't you glad I didn't bother to put Thad McCotter on it last month?)

Prior AOSHQ straw polls: August, July, June, May.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 03:23 AM | Comments (287)
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If Scooby Doo has taught me anything, it's that there's nothing to be afraid of except crooked real estate developers.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 02:40 AM | Comments (78)
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Evenin' morons (I denounce myself for droppin' my g's)! I'm fillin' in for Maet since he's "workin'" in Germany for the next week or so. Like he's foolin' us. We all know it's Oktoberfest. Tune in tomorrow night for Maet's latest pic from Germany!

So does anyone actually believe this? White House Now Clearly Against Deeper Defense Cuts. Ha, yeah right. This is clearly a ploy by Obama to say he's really supporting the military while his minions do the dirty work of making those huge cuts. And if he really wanted this, I doubt Reid and Pelosi will listen to him. They've got their own agenda. It's not like they jumped on the jobs bill. more...

Posted by: Open Blogger at 06:10 PM | Comments (685)
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He's already ten minutes in. But you can watch the rest of it here.

Posted by: Ace at 05:21 PM | Comments (230)
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No Broken Ribs Division

Muletrain2016 29
Pastafarian 28
FMG 27
Scott 27

Special Needs Division:

DrewM 26
CDR M 21
Ben 20
rdbrewer 20
Russ from Winterset 20
Andy 20
Gabe 19
DiT 18
Ace 8
Ron Paul 1900/oz.

Also ace, Bev Purdue just emailed me to say it's ok if we don't make our picks anymore. Less pressure that way.

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 04:04 PM | Comments (81)
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Now they tell us.

Of course we all said as much three years ago, but our opinions don't count, as NC Governor Bev Perdue can tell you.

Posted by: Ace at 01:56 PM | Comments (443)
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Suspend democracy?!

I've been waiting for some sensible talk about politics, and finally, here it is!

“I think we ought to suspend, perhaps, elections for Congress for two years and just tell them we won’t hold it against them, whatever decisions they make, to just let them help this country recover,” Perdue said at a rotary club event in Cary, North Carolina, according to the Raleigh News and Observer. “I really hope that someone can agree with me on that.”

Perdue said she thinks that temporarily halting elections would allow members of Congress to focus on the economy. “You have to have more ability from Congress, I think, to work together and to get over the partisan bickering and focus on fixing things,” Perdue said.

Why? Why would she say that?

Because she is a prisoner of the liberal -- or leftist -- idea that the people are incapable of making sound decisions about politics, and require a "vanguard" of the enlightened to make decisions on their behalf.

The problem is (from her perspective) is that democracy doesn't permit the vanguard to do "good;" when the vanguard ignores the (stupid, ignorant) mumblings from the citizen-morons of the republic, the citizen-morons rise up and vote them out of office.

That won't do. How can you have a revolution against the (moronic) wishes of the people if god-damned elections keep getting in the way?

So, suspend democracy. And wink-wink on that "suspend" part. Because you know there's a lengthy list of countries which suspended democracy in favor of autocracy -- tyranny -- and those empowered autocrats, finally free of the burdens of standing for re-election, were only too eager to give democratic power back.

Posted by: Ace at 12:26 PM | Comments (494)
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He's definitely not running, says his brother, Todd Christie, who says he'd be "stunned" if his brother were "lying" on this point.

But a "source" says "Don't listen to that guy.

[T]his source tells ABC News Todd Christie’s comments “were a little out of turn.”

When it comes to ChristieÂ’s thinking on a presidential run, instead of listening to ChristieÂ’s brother, the source says we should look at what former New Jersey Governor Tom Kean had to say yesterday,

...

“As of this time, his public statements that he is not running still stand,” the source tells ABC News. “It is also accurate that he is thinking about it and reconsidering it.”

So there you go. A guy may, or may not be, considering, or not considering, running, or not running, for President, or governor.

Posted by: Ace at 12:04 PM | Comments (119)
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A follow-up to the earlier post. Ryan calls for "provocative" speech, informing the public of the true choices before them.

Rep. Paul Ryan (R., Wis.) tells National Review Online that Republicans, especially presidential contenders, need become more “provocative” when speaking about health-care reform. “We need to be provocative,” he says. “We owe the country a referendum election. We owe them a policy alternative.”

Specifically, Ryan urges the field to focus on Medicare. “It is the issue, pure and simple,” he says, noting that it encompasses the “debt issue, the deficit issue, and the economy issue.” To help them along this afternoon, Ryan, the Budget Committee chairman, outlined his health-care ideas at the Hoover Institution in Palo Alto, Calif.

...

“We can do a lot from the House to help bring the party, and therefore the presidential candidates, into the mode of offering a very clear and specific alternative to President Obama’s vision for the country,” he says. As Ryan told me in August, he wants to play a “Jack Kemp–like role” this cycle.

“He taught me that big ideas are the best politics,” Ryan said then.

“They will always be challenged, and they will sometimes be controversial, but you have to do what you think is right, what you’re passionate about, and be a strong advocate for it. If you do that, you can shift the debate in major ways. He showed me how you can do that.”

Posted by: Ace at 11:56 AM | Comments (46)
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From ABC News:

U.S. officials had once thought there was little chance that terrorists could get their hands on many of the portable surface-to-air missiles that can bring down a commercial jet liner.

But now that calculation is out the window, with officials at a recent secret White House meeting reporting that thousands of them have gone missing in Libya.

. . .

The nightmare has been made real with the discovery in Libya that an estimated 20,000 portable, heat-seeking missiles have gone missing from unguarded Army weapons warehouses.

The missiles, four to six-feet long and Russian-made, can weigh just 55 pounds with launcher. They lock on to the heat generated by the engines of aircraft, can be fired from a vehicle or from a combatant's shoulder, and are accurate and deadly at a range of more than two miles.

Interesting ABC would call this an exclusive report, since CNN had this story three weeks ago and with more detail:

They are Grinch SA-24 shoulder-launched missiles, also known as Igla-S missiles, the equivalent of U.S.-made Stinger missiles.

A CNN team and Human Rights Watch found dozens of empty crates marked with packing lists and inventory numbers that identified the items as Igla-S surface-to-air missiles.

. . .

Grinch SA-24s are designed to target front-line aircraft, helicopters, cruise missiles and drones. They can shoot down a plane flying as high as 11,000 feet and can travel 19,000 feet straight out.

Fighters aligned with the National Transitional Council and others swiped armaments from the storage facility, witnesses told Human Rights Watch.

. . .

Peter Bouckaert, Human Rights Watch emergencies director, told CNN he has seen the same pattern in armories looted elsewhere in Libya, noting that "in every city we arrive, the first thing to disappear are the surface-to-air missiles."

He said such missiles can fetch many thousands of dollars on the black market.

"We are talking about some 20,000 surface-to-air missiles in all of Libya, and I've seen cars packed with them." he said. "They could turn all of North Africa into a no-fly zone."

So now raving lunatics have 20,000 surface-to-air missiles. Second look at boots on the ground, anyone? Second look at waterboarding, Obama? Thanks to commenter "Jane D'oh."

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Posted by: rdbrewer at 10:23 AM | Comments (363)
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