Don't tell Barrett about it though. He's depending on exceptionally high levels in Dane, LaCrosse and Milwaukee.

I would say a serious drop-off in participation is going to happen thanks to the new rules. While some devoted kids will definitely file for absentee ballots, a great many won't be aware of the rule changes until it is far too late for them to vote. That will cost the Democrat dearly in counties like LaCrosse and Dane, not enough to flip either by a longshot but to make beating Walker's non-school non-city margin harder to top.

I currently project an 84,000 vote margin out of Dane for Barrett, and a nearly-identical one out of Milwaukee. Waukesha alone will nearly tie out Milwaukee, so Barrett and the Democrats need every last student vote they can get out of Dane and counties like LaCrosse, with no room for error.

Moronette mamawinger has been mentioning the importance of the date of the recall because of this very thing, so kudos to her for beating the drum early.

DailyKos' new PPP poll out of the state will be released this week. I'm interested to see if they show any bounce for Barrett, being they had him trail by 5 last time, 45-50 to Walker. Identical to the numbers Rasmussen published last week.

Posted by: CAC at 03:38 PM | Comments (196)
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Died this morning in Tokyo, doing what he loved.

Perhaps his biggest hit with Booker T. and the MGs, "Green Onions." Straight 12-bar blues.

One of the best blues bass guys ever, a legend. He became extra famous after the first Blues Brothers movie, with the pipe and that big fro. His friend Steve "Guitar" "The Colonel" Cropper said this about Dunn,

Guitarist Steve Cropper, his best friend and bandmate in both the MG's and Blues Brothers said this on the band's facebook page, ""Today I lost my best friend, the World has lost the best guy and bass player to ever live."

Cropper doesn't know me so that stands.

RIP Donald. I learned a lot listening to you. Including that spastic head thing. Thanks.

via jimmiebr on Twitter.

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 12:16 PM | Comments (152)
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What does that tell you?

For Arlen Specter, it's not about being a good Republican. It's about holding onto power.

But you don't have to worry about Orrin Hatch. He has an 89% lifetime ACU conservative rating. He only crosses the aisle on the really important things.

From Philip Klein at the Washington Examiner:

As President Bush worked with Congressional Republicans to explode government when they were in power, Hatch voted with him every step of the way. He voted to expand the federal role in education with "No Child Left Behind" and for the biggest expansion of entitlements since LBJ's Great Society in the form of the Medicare prescription drug plan.

In 2005, Hatch voted for the $286 billion highway bill, which contained 6,376 earmarks, including the infamous "Bridge to Nowhere." He then voted against an amendment that would have diverted funds earmarked for the bridge to help pay for Hurricane Katrina relief. In the fall of 2008, Hatch went on to vote for the Wall Street bailout.

Video below the fold from The Daily Caller. more...

Posted by: rdbrewer at 10:58 AM | Comments (154)
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Yeah, it's wrong. Very wrong.

But that's how we roll at the HQ.

Safe for work if you work in a travelling carnival, otherwise not so much (language).

via Andy at the H2 more...

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 10:10 AM | Comments (59)
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SilverGTP here, wishing a very Happy Mother's Day to all the Moronettes! For the rest of you; if you haven't at least called your mother by now then get to it!

This week's topics include videos from Halo 4 and Borderlands 2, family-friendly games you can play with your mom, focus testing with Gearbox Software, the Family Guy Online beta, a video game art exhibit, and the 20th anniversary of Wolfenstein 3D. That sounds like a lot but I've shrunk it down to Moron-sized portions just for you!

Zakn and I enjoyed playing Team Fortress 2 with a few fellow Morons last Friday night. We had a blast, as always but we need more Morons! Everything is better with more Morons. Please join us this Friday, or suggest a new day and/or game to play. You never know, we might actually listen. more...

Posted by: Gang of Gaming Morons! at 09:03 AM | Comments (49)
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$16 Billion worth of screwed.

Bud have no fear.....Jerry Brown is here!

The Democratic governor said the shortfall grew from $9.2 billion in January in part because tax collections have not come in as high as expected and the economy isn't growing as fast as hoped for. The deficit has also risen because lawsuits and federal requirements have blocked billions of dollars in state cuts.

"This means we will have to go much farther and make cuts far greater than I asked for at the beginning of the year," Brown said in an online video. "But we can't fill this hole with cuts alone without doing severe damage to our schools. That's why I'm bypassing the gridlock and asking you, the people of California, to approve a plan that avoids cuts to schools and public safety."

Brown did not release details of the newly calculated deficit Saturday, but he is expected to lay out a revised spending plan Monday. The new plan for the fiscal year that starts July 1 hinges in large part on voters approving higher taxes.

So to sum up...raising taxes didn't raise as much revenue as they expected because the economy wasn't magically improved by Obama on a national level and Brown's tax hikes on the state level. Clearly the answer is to demand more from the serfs!

Brown has said there will be even deeper cuts, mostly to public education, if voters do not improve tax hikes in November. He is seeking a quarter-cent increase in the state sales tax for four years and a seven-year hike on incomes of $250,000 or more that will range from 1 to 3 percentage points. He says the measure would raise $9 billion in the upcoming budget year.

Fortunately for Brown, it's not like people can chose to leave or move their businesses to other states. Oh. Never mind.

In 2011, 254 California companies moved some or all of their work and jobs out of state, 26% more than in 2010, according to Irvine business consultant Joe Vranich who has been tracking these departures since 2009.

The pace is accelerating, Vranich said. An average of 4.9 businesses left California each week of 2011, compared to 3.9 per week (202 total) in 2010 and one a week (51 total) in 2009. In what he calls "disinvestment events,"

Maybe we could just sell California back to Mexico. And if they won't pony up the cash, we could just give it to them. Or you know....give them a couple of bucks to take it off our hands.

Posted by: DrewM at 08:32 AM | Comments (188)
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Good morning, morons and moronettes, it's time once again for the ever-popular, widely-read, winner of the coveted Bill Keller 'Excellence In Unbiased Journalism' Award Sunday Morning AoSHQ Book Thread. Accept no substitutes.

Now with 100% recyled content! more...

Posted by: Open Blogger at 07:06 AM | Comments (115)
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Happy Mother's Day to all you moms. Hardest job in the world, if you're doing it right.

Posted by: andy at 03:31 AM | Comments (276)
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Don't forget that tomorrow is Mother's Day. You've been warned. If you haven't gotten her anything, you can always break out your crayons and draw a picture or something. Or you can read this awesome letter and get inspired. Dear Mom: You Are Amazing. It's A Scientific Fact.

So, who was your favorite fictional TV or movie mom? I guess you could use the standard, wholesome June Cleaver or Florence Henderson type for your criteria but perhaps Katey Segal was better for being over the top (and busty)or perhaps it was Ray Romano's mom on Everyone Loves Raymond. Personally, I'm gonna have to vote for Jessica Walter for how she played Lucille Bluth on Arrested Development. Lucille Bluth's Greatest Hits below the fold: more...

Posted by: CDR M at 05:58 PM | Comments (481)
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Last Tuesday, with the help of a few carefully selected cheeseheads, we reported returns from Wisconsin for the recall primary. The method used wasn't even off the ground, but was successful enough for me to notice several glaring differences between what the #AOSHQDD had and the official Associated Press numbers. None of these were inaccuracies on our end. The differences resulted from a chronic delay in Dane County (Madison), Waukesha County, and others for a substantial part of the evening, and there is no reason to doubt we will see the same thing on the night of the recall.

Many in the past have thought that the lefties in counties like Dane withheld their results deliberately until the Republican areas rolled in; and more recently, that Waukesha officials "caught on" and were reporting theirs last deliberately. The simpler explanation which became glaringly obvious was poor reporting by the AP.

Dane County reported all of its returns quickly and in substantial chunks through the evening: at about 10%, 25%, 50%, 75%, 95%, and 100% in, roughly. The time delay between the Dane County Clerk uploading the information and the Associated Press listing the numbers ran as much as an hour to an hour-and-a-half apart. There was no holding back of votes, just the reporting by the press. The same went for Waukesha, which updated at a surprisingly fast rate Tuesday. Even when all votes had been counted and uploaded, there was a sizable delay in reporting on the AP's part. In fact there was a delay in reporting nearly 30% of the statewide result.

I had suspected the lethargy back when tracking the Presidential primary. Waukesha was late as always, but finally reported big chunks of its vote around 1am West Coast time. The numbers appeared right here on Ace of Spades hours before the Associated Press bothered to recheck and update. Last Tuesday simply confirmed my earlier hunch.

It is clear the traditional method, I suppose waiting for a phone call or email, is snail-like compared to what we are more than capable of now that we aren't solely reliant on their numbers. Procedural sluggishness rests at the root of this, and in a way that is even worse than the previously assumed "intented" delays.

Intentional "scheming" to hold back reporting at least implies some sort of reasoned method. But having a second-rate hack poll junkie obsessed with numbers pump them faster because you're too lazy to click "refresh" on a screen? That's just sad.

Update- wow, just realized this wasn't sent to drafts after the first...draft.

So again...how the hell am I faster than actual reporters at giving you numbers?

Posted by: CAC at 01:51 PM | Comments (364)
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