So....apparently Ace posted this yesterday. We have a minimum number of double posts we have to provide. I'm just doing my bit for the cause.

Also, it's inevitable that in a post where you call someone an idiot, you make a dumb mistake. You can't argue with it, it's just science.

Open thread!

Original Post:
A little late to it but still fun.

Matthews made a big deal of how stupid Palin was/is and how she should have to go on Jeopardy! to prove herself or something.

Well, Crazy Uncle Chris did go on the show and didn't fare too well. See for yourself below the fold.

How badly did he do? He lost to Robert "You Know I'm Lying Because My Lips Are Moving" Gibbs. Ouch. more...

Posted by: DrewM at 07:21 AM | Comments (102)
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Remember how the prosecutors conveniently and according to some, unethically, left out any mention of Zimmerman's injuries in their affidavit?

Well, the details are out now.

Court records show George Zimmerman had a pair of black eyes, a nose fracture and two cuts to the back of his head after the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin.

The medical records were part of evidence released Tuesday that prosecutors have in the second-degree murder case against Zimmerman. He has entered a plea of not guilty and claims self-defense in the Feb. 26 shooting. A message left Tuesday evening with Zimmerman's attorney was not immediately returned.

Now it turns out Martin had injuries consistent with hitting Zimmerman.

WFTV has learned that the medical examiner found two injuries on MartinÂ’s body: The fatal gunshot wound and broken skin on his knuckles.

This shows that the state's charging document was woefully incomplete and how far beyond reality a second degree murder charge is. No wonder the Smiling Prosecutor didn't go to a grand jury.

No doubt the state will argue that those wounds are consistent with Martin acting in self-defense and that will be for a jury to decide, if the case makes it that far or if the judge tosses that case entirely.

Posted by: DrewM at 06:20 AM | Comments (321)
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Yeah, it's old news but this most recent example makes it clear how in the bag they are for Team Savior.

Yesterday morning the Romney campaign released an online video entitled "A Few of the 23 Million" highlighting the stories of people out of work or underemployed (video below the fold). It focused on Iowa residents and was released to coincide with Romney's stop in the state yesterday.

By a little before 6 eastern yesterday Politico "reporter" Maggie Habberman had herself a little scoop...one of the people profiled in the video has a criminal record.

According to public records, a Jason Clausen with his birthdate was found guilty of "assault on peace officers and others" on Feb. 28, 2005. He was sentenced to 120 days in jail, with 110 of those days suspended. He was given 730 days of probation and paid $845 in fines, records show. Iowa Department of Corrections records show he was on probation for "a serious misdemeanor" until April 3, 2006.

The records show Clausen had nearly 20 busts, tickets or fines, a number of them traffic infractions related to things like driving while intoxicated, or with a suspended license. Some were related to accidents, others to driving without seat belts.

Now first of all...terrible job by Team Mitt. This is basic stuff, vet the people you put out there. More worrying would be that they don't get they will be held to a different standard by the press than Obama. It's not fair but they better damn well be prepared for it and act accordingly.

The bigger issues is Haberman appears to have taken it upon herself to do background checks on people appearing in Romney videos. There are no links or sources in her piece so it's either original reporting or she's just running opposition research dumps for the Obama campaign.

I wonder if Haberman has done background searches on everyone who appears in an Obama ad. If not, why not?

The rules are clear, if the media isn't going to do this stuff conservatives will have to. No more playing a gentleman's game when the other side is playing for keeps. Everyone who appears in a Team Obama ad better be prepared

War. more...

Posted by: DrewM at 05:19 AM | Comments (188)
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If you're not on Twitter yet, John Nolte at the Breitbart Empire has a good piece on why you should be.

Funny video from Chris Christie and Newark Mayor Corey Booker below the fold. more...

Posted by: andy at 03:18 AM | Comments (245)
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End of the Occufarm Era

Remember the UCB farm taken over by hippies and the local Khmer Berkeley?

Well the university gave them an ultimatum to leave but they absolutely refused to cave in to the Man's demands. Oh wait...

May 9:

Mobilize tonight, May 9th-10th, for an entire night of farming .

May 10:

A bulldozer loomed on the edge of the farm for the majority of the morning.

May 10:

We continue to recieve overwhelming support from residents and community members. Gourmet pizzas, ice cream, wild mushroom quesadillas, and of course hundreds of gallons of donated water for our crops - we couldn't do this without you. We're resting up for a full day's work, and hope to see all of you again tomorrow.

May 12:

Our farm is here to stay!

May 13:

Occupy the Farm protesters agreed Saturday to end their three-week encampment...

Posted by: Maetenloch at 05:49 PM | Comments (563)
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So Sarah Palin endorsed Deb Fischer, and some polling has shown her jumping ahead of Jon Bruning, long assumed to be the winner.

This is to fill the open seat that Ben Nelson is vacating, so it is almost certainly a pickup for the Republicans.

Results here.

Pointless update #2- Did I mention NE-2 is NOT up for grabs like it was in 2008? Goodbye, Obamaha.

FISHER HAS WON, BEATING BRUNING BY 7000 VOTES AND GROWING- 90% IN

Posted by: CAC at 05:25 PM | Comments (86)
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California is just a few years ahead of the US in the financial death spiral.

As goes California, so goes America, they say.

Behold, the ultimate fate of the Blue State Model, which Obama is furiously turning into the National Blue Model.

Gov. Jerry Brown released a plan to close California's rapidly growing deficit by switching state offices to a four-day week, slashing welfare benefits and healthcare for the poor and relying on a variety of short-term fixes — all in the hopes that voters will give the state some breathing room by raising taxes in November.

The governor, who unveiled his revised budget proposal in the Capitol on Monday, is facing a nearly $16-billion budget gap, far larger than the $9.2 billion he predicted in January. He warned that the deficit could grow significantly if voters reject his proposed ballot measure to raise the state sales tax and income levies on the wealthy.

That would trigger additional cuts, including reductions in public education equivalent to lopping three weeks off the school year, he said.

"I'm linking these serious budget reductions Â… with a plea to the voters: Please increase taxes temporarily," Brown said at a morning news conference.

Here's why you can't elect Democrats to run statewide office: They are beholden to the bureaucracy, which is determined to fleece the taxpayer.

To save $400 million, he's negotiating with public labor unions to reduce the state workweek to 38 hours, worked over four days — a 5% cut in payroll costs.

He has to negotiate allowing people to work 20% fewer days per year in exchange for a 5% reduction in income?

Is this that tough a sell? I think most people would be on the fence about it -- 5% less in pay, yes, but then again, 20% less in commuting costs, less expenses during the workweek (no child care costs one day a week), and three days off every week.

This is almost something you'd just agree to without anyone pressuring you to do so.

And a 5% cut in pay is the best he can do? Why not something more reasonable, like 10%? They're overpaid as it is.

He added: "This is the best that I could do."

Oh, I guess that is the best he can do.

And then: Everyone else's taxes go up, to continue supporting government union employees.

Although Obama lies about it -- with the media his coconspirators -- this is exactly the choice America faces. You cannot close the deficit with taxes on the rich -- you will need to hit the middle class, just as California plans to do (through increased sales taxes).

You can have a government that's flush with money or you can have low taxes -- you cannot have both, and the liberals continue to prosper only because they lie about this simple fact (and too many of the public are willing to believe it).

California is two years of America. And both are just a few years ahead of Greece.

Greek depositors withdrew €700 million ($898 million) from local banks Monday, the country’s president said, as he warned that the situation facing Greece’s lenders was very difficult.

Posted by: Ace at 02:03 PM | Comments (572)
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That's my big takeaway.

For months and months I've been hearing, ludicrously, how people were so smitten with an aloof, vain, thin-skinned narcissist -- who by the way is incompetent, in case that matters -- and how, apparently, that would blunt any fallout from the Lesser Depression.

Bullshit. Always was fine-spun cocooning, as usual.

Since becoming the presumptive Republican nominee, Romney's favorable-unfavorable rating has jumped to 50%-41%, his best ever and in the same neighborhood as Obama's 52%-46% standing. The former Massachusetts governor gets stronger ratings than the president when it comes to handling the economy, the issue likely to drive the campaign.

In the poll, 55% say the economy would get better over the next four years if Romney was elected, compared with 46% who say it would improve if Obama was re-elected. Twenty-seven percent say the economy would get worse in a Romney first term, compared with 37% who say that of an Obama second term.

Like I was just saying. As more independents make the mental shift to supporting Romney, they'll stop, mostly, with that "I prefer Romney but I like Obama more as a person" thing. All the switches will flip.

I predict that by September, Romney will edge Obama on "understanding the black experience in America."

Allah calls out another optimistic nugget: For the first time in the USAToday/Gallup poll, the public favors the GOP on the generic Congressional ballot, 50-44. Rasmussen shows that frequently, but this is movement in this particular poll.

There's some other stuff at Allah's link I think is kind of weaksauce. People expect Obama to win the election, and people think the economy will improve a year from now.

As for the latter: Eh, so what. It's horrible now.

As to the former: The thing is, who cares what the great mass of people think as far as predictions?

The whole point of being a news junkie is to know things before the general public.

We, collectively, are a month ahead of the crowd, if not more.

The general public is still thinking in terms of news from frickin' March.

Posted by: Ace at 01:17 PM | Comments (221)
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NO BOUNCE FOR BARRETT.

Oh and Mitt Romney in this poll? He's a point behind President Obama, 46-47.

My reaction below. more...

Posted by: CAC at 12:47 PM | Comments (156)
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Very light pink is a color, I guess.

The writer got this idea from the news director at Harvard Law.

Hm. What made him think that?

Elizabeth Warren has pushed back hard on questions about a Harvard Crimson piece in 1996 that described her as Native American, saying she had no idea the school where she taught law was billing her that way and saying it never came up during her hiring a year earlier, which others have backed up.

But a 1997 Fordham Law Review piece described her as Harvard Law School's "first woman of color," based, according to the notes at the bottom of the story, on a "telephone interview with Michael Chmura, News Director, Harvard Law (Aug. 6, 1996)."

The mention was in the middle of a lengthy and heavily-annotated Fordham piece on diversity and affirmative action and women. The title of the piece, by Laura Padilla, was "Intersectionality and positionality: Situating women of color in the affirmative action dialogue."

"There are few women of color who hold important positions in the academy, Fortune 500 companies, or other prominent fields or industries," the piece says. "This is not inconsequential. Diversifying these arenas, in part by adding qualified women of color to their ranks, remains important for many reaons. For one, there are scant women of color as role models. In my three years at Stanford Law School, there were no professors who were women of color. Harvard Law School hired its first woman of color, Elizabeth Warren, in 1995."

Meanwhile, the racist Elizabeth Warren says she's proud to have absolutely no Indian blood in her at all.

Well, that's my interpretation.

“You know, I’m proud of my Native American heritage,” Warren said. “I’m proud of my family. It’s now the case that people have gone over my college records, my law school records, every job I’ve ever had to see that I got my work. I got my jobs because I do my work. I work hard. I’ve been a good teacher.”

But her Native American heritage is the same as mine-- Nonezo.

Her previous claim that she was 1/32nd Native American rested upon the claim that a "marriage certificate" noted a great-great-great grandmother was Cherokee.

But that marriage certificate simply never existed.

Barnett added that the claim Warren is even 1/32 Native American has been “completely debunked.”

“As it turned out, contrary to their initial public suggestions, the New England Historic Genealogical Society relied not on primary source materials, but on a family newsletter that included speculation that a marriage application existed showing there could have been a Cherokee five generations removed from Warren,” he said. “However, the actual primary source materials from the custodian of those records shows definitively that the great-great-great grandmother in question was actually white.”

The New England Historic Genealogical Society, Barnett added, has stopped responding to inquiries about the analysis.

Their claim was based upon a family newsletter in 2006 claiming this "fact." But there never was any marriage certificate calling the distant ancestor anything but white.

Meanwhile, major universities plumped their "Diversity Roster" with Warren's name, but won't talk about that now.

“Professor Warren, aided by a wall of silence from Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania with an assist from the New England Historic Genealogical Society, is not being held accountable and made to answer the many swirling questions about how she came to be listed as a minority and what were her motivations for listing herself that way,” Barnett said.

The Boston Globe, which had previously claimed in a headline that a "document" proved the "Cherokee link," now quietly corrects the record:

Correction: Because of a reporting error, a story in the May 1 Metro section and the accompanying headline incorrectly described the 1894 document that was purported to list Elizabeth WarrenÂ’s great-great-great grandmother as a Cherokee. The document, alluded to in a family newsletter found by the New England Historic Genealogical Society, was an application for a marriage license, not the license itself. Neither the society nor the Globe has seen the primary document, whose existence has not been proven.

Legal Insurrection notes:

The Globe and the false report of a 1/32 Cherokee connection may have saved Warren’s campaign, as it came at a time when her campaign was in panic and without any evidence to substantiate her claim to Native American ancestry, which she used when a junior faculty member in a law school association directory to obtain “minority law teacher” status.

That's a good point: A lie at the right time can save you, even if subsequently determined to be a lie.

The "1/32nd Cherokee" is now engrained in the public consciousness, so that people think she exaggerated rather than lied.

But there is no evidence whatsoever for that 1/32nd legend -- and yet the notion still persists that she's sort of Cherokee. Because the lie came out just when people's brains were first processing this information.

It got in there in the meme-birthing phase, and it's still stuck there.

But it's not true.

Damnit: I assumed Massachusetts had already voted and Warren was the nominee.

Nope. The primary is September 6th and there is another Democrat running, now.

Posted by: Ace at 11:49 AM | Comments (312)
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