I can't do it again.

I'm not all dead inside, not anymore. I'm like, just sad.

Very, very sad.

I admit I was so sad I was lured by the siren song of Sweet Meteor of Death. But it's apparent to me that most voters haven't let go of their survival instinct, and total annihilation is not a winning strategery. SMOD is a protest vote at best, and that isn't going to get the football over the goal line.

Medically Induced Coma2012?

"We Can Wait" has a certain, "perhaps things aren't all lost" appeal to me but I don't see it pulling over anybody except the politically apathetic or uninvolved. And people who eat crayons.

Three years ago I choked down my bile.. I think it was my bile. Pretty sure it was mine, anyway that's not important, I choked down some bile and voted for McCain. What the hell else was I gonna do?

Not this time. It's me time. This is for me.

I have recently been introduced to the candidate who can actually make a difference. A candidate who knows what I need in leadership. He's a fighter. For 57 seconds or longer. He will fight for me.

For me.

For 57 seconds, and maybe longer.

more...

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 06:10 AM | Comments (261)
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NOTE: As I said yesterday, The Daily Doom will now be a digest of stuff posted to Twitter the previous day. Follow @AoSHQDOOM for an all-day serving of DOOM. Today's digest is mainly a link-dump, for which I apologize, but I'm too beat for additional commentary.

Richard Epstein and John Yoo join Peter Robinson on a superb "Uncommon Knowledge". Believe me when I say that this is the best short critique of ObamaCare that I've seen yet. But it's more than that: it's an expose on the legacy of the New Deal and how it damaged the rule of law in this country. It's an absolute joy to watch these men argue, laugh, and just totally rip the legal and intellectual underpinnings out from beneath the modern welfare state. This is the closest we will ever get to Milton Friedman now that he has passed on, so don't miss the opportunity.

His Majesty proclaims a recovery throughout the land. Huzzah!

Thomas Sowell: California getting nowhere very fast.

California will run out of cash by March unless...well, there's really nothing to be done in practical terms. Boned!

This sounds more like a prayer than a threat to me.

More signs of a Chinese slowdown - holiday manufacturing didn't exactly outperform.
more...

Posted by: Monty at 04:57 AM | Comments (132)
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Happy Thursday. Of interest:

The RNC cannot force Florida to proportionately award delegates, it can only punish Florida for failing to proportionately award delegates. And the punishment is the same as for holding its primary early.

I talked to my gal at the RNC about this and she told me the same thing. Remember: just as Florida GOP gets to pick its primary date, Florida GOP gets to award its delegates how it likes. That's not something within the RNC's control. The RNC can only punish Florida GOP for not complying with the convention rules. Oh, and to change those rules (like, for instance, to apply a harsher sanction) requires a vote when the whole committee is together at the August convention. So don't count on it.

I guess it's Groundhog Day. Great movie. Stupid day.

Scientists are making great strides with flying robot swarms. Didn't they read that Michael Crichton book?

The family of slain CBP agent Brian Terry will sue the ATF and DOJ. They allege that the then-U.S. attorney in Phoenix lied to them about where the gun that killed Terry came from.

While you were sleeping, the Washington Senate passed a marriage bill 28-21. Four Republicans crossed party lines and voted with the majority. Three Democrats voted against it. The governor says she'll sign when the House passes it. A ballot referendum is planned.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 03:04 AM | Comments (171)
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The Myth of "Moderates" Can't Win & Who is the Most "Electable"?

Rusty Shackleford Ph.D over at The Jawa Report has a post up that makes a lot of good points - points that I've felt in my gut for quite a while.

The biggest one of which is this: The 'independent' voters who decide national elections are not at all like us.

Because the truth is that we're the freaks and oddballs and abby normals for caring so much about politics and hanging out daily at a politically-oriented blog like this one - much less actually commenting at one (you know - the 1%ers of the political geeks).

The 'independents' - God bless their blissfully politically ignorant souls - could care less about the issues and all the details we obsess on.

Let's face it, no matter how much I disdain Romney's moderate stance on a number of issues or Gingrich's ego I'm not the average voter. The average voter hasn't read Barber's The Presidential Character and no longer seems to worry about things like executive vs. legislative leadership abilities.

The average voter worries more about hair style. And about a candidates voice.

No, seriously. My wife, who I consider more of a typical voter than myself, tells me that she can't vote for Sarah Palin because of ... her accent.

And, to be honest, it's why I didn't support Rick Perry. He sounded too much like George W. Bush, and I think the nation still isn't ready for another Texas governor who sounds like, well, a Texan.

Yeah, it's superficial. But what you don't get is that the people who matter in an election -- the independents -- vote on some very superficial things.

That is, when they're not voting on macro issues that are beyond a candidates control.

One of the great blessings of the United States is that in the large politics really doesn't matter all that much. Sure we care - a lot- and have plenty of strong opinions about national politics. But the reality is that for most people whoever controls the White House has little discernible effect on their daily lives and that of their friends and families.

But in other countries politics matters: who has political power determines whether you keep your job, can get enough food, whether your family can stay in the country, or even whether you live or die. By contrast we have the luxury of not having to care about politics and still leading a happy, pleasant life. And that's no small thing.

So before you condemn the independents for their general lack of interest in the ins and out of politics, consider that maybe that's really just a sign of how robust and generally self-running the US system is. And when non-political geeks really do start caring about and following politics, well then start worrying. more...

Posted by: Maetenloch at 06:37 PM | Comments (923)
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I guess we're supposed to say How stupid of him.

But...

Does this make sense? Does anyone pay detectives to track down a hacker one knows for certain doesn't exist, as there was no hacking?

I have trouble imaging how on earth someone would pay $13,000 to gather evidence of his own wrongdoing.

I suppose it's possible the Wife was listening to the phone call so he hired them for her benefit.

And yet...

When guilty men hire detectives, it's usually for unsavory purposes.

Posted by: Ace at 03:44 PM | Comments (420)
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He'll be making an announcement.

An advisor to Donald Trump says he will make a major announcement in Las Vegas tomorrow. Sources tell the 8 News NOW I-Team Trump will endorse Newt Gingrich.

Posted by: Ace at 03:08 PM | Comments (170)
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And thus, the delegates should be apportioned proportionately with the actual vote share.

Fox News has learned exclusively that on Thursday, a Florida Gingrich campaign official will begin the process of trying to have the RNC rules enforced so that the Sunshine State delegates are distributed based on the percentage of the vote each candidate got.

RNC Chairman Reince Priebus warned Florida Republican Party Chairman Lenny Curry of the violation in a December letter quoting the rule, "...'winner-take-all' states cannot hold a primary or caucus before April 1, 2012."

However, it appears Florida was already docked delegates for holding an early primary, so I guess that delegate-docking was supposed to override this general missive. That is, Florida already paid the penalty for violating the rule.

Posted by: Ace at 02:55 PM | Comments (79)
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Covering himself with glory.

epublican presidential contender Mitt Romney renewed his support Wednesday for automatic increases in the federal minimum wage to keep pace with inflation, a position sharply at odds with traditional GOP business allies, conservatives and the party's senior lawmakers.

"I haven't changed my thoughts on that," the former Massachusetts governor told reporters aboard his chartered campaign plane, referring to a stand he has held for a decade.

He did not say if he would ask Congress to approve the change if he wins the White House this fall.

This is actually the problem with the gaffe, isn't it? The defensive reaction. Veering left on policy to make up for his word-stumble.

Thanks to Brennan.

Posted by: Ace at 01:39 PM | Comments (400)
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So adorable.

It's just ridiculous. more...

Posted by: Ace at 01:22 PM | Comments (66)
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steve_in_hb watched some of MI5 (or Spooks, as it's called in England) on Netflix. He called it "comical" and invited me to guess at the series' villains thusfar.

I guessed "Rightwing terrorist" for Episode one. He said no, that's episode two. Actually, though, I'm right. And anyway I got it in my second guess...

Episode one is apparently about an arch-Christian American fundamentalist who smuggles twenty bombs into England to blow up "family planning" offices.

This one has an awesome title which someone really s t r e t c h e d his writerly craft for-- Thou Shalt Not Kill.

This is where someone at the writer's table is supposed to say "Bit on the nose, isn't it?" but didn't.

Brilliant parody, except it's not a parody. That actually happened. Someone wrote this, and then real people actually scouted locations and filmed and acted in it.

Episode two is about MI5's efforts to stop a right-wing racist Minister of Parliament, who is attempting to start a race war in England by (if I have this right) framing Muslims for bombings.

Episode three is about Middle Eastern terrorists. Finally! But wait, oh, it's the Kurds, the only Middle Eastern cohort that seems to kinda-sorta like the West.

The BBC is just a joke.

"State media" is not media. It's propaganda.

Fake Episode Pitch: Pitch me a parody plot description for MI5!

Posted by: Ace at 12:53 PM | Comments (230)
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