A new Public Policy Polling release shows a much closer race in Massachusetts, as to be expected, than the MassInc released before Lynch made his intentions more clear, giving former U.S. Senator Scott Brown a three point edge (48-45) over Congressman Ed Markey and a nine point lead (48-39) over Congressman Stephen Lynch.

The open race for Secretary of State Kerry's seat will be tight but should favor the Republican, as Brown has proven his ease in a special election before and will be facing a far less Democrat-heavy electorate in June (PPP's sample is only +24 D/R for this race, which looks more like a repeat of the 2010 turnout). On the Democratic primary Markey holds a sizable lead over Lynch, but that may be because he had formerly declared way ahead of him. Former Senator Brown enjoys a +7 approval rating (50/43), better than either of his Democratic rivals.

PPP also asked voters about a Brown v D matchup in the upcoming open race for Governor, indicating he has a much more solid lead if he were to wait. I find that question a bit screwy since the focus has been on Kerry's seat and it may be an attempt to "trial balloon" a race, but there ya go. The election is June 25th.

Posted by: CAC at 04:23 PM | Comments (97)
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Also, "every young person within reach."

How right they were.

Bob Menendez is “committed to ensuring that every young person is able to reach their full potential,” read a 2012 fundraising solicitation for an October campaign event with the New Jersey Democratic senator, hosted by a political committee called “Women for Menendez.”

Menendez is now facing allegations that he slept with underage prostitutes during a series of alcohol-fueled sex parties in the Dominican Republic.

In case you had any doubt -- total embargo on the story from the liberal media.

Posted by: Ace at 03:57 PM | Comments (147)
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The convoy was carrying Russian missiles.

Beyond that, there's some confusion.

Western officials say that Israel did indeed strike the trucks carrying SA-17 missiles. The Syrians are denying it... well, they're denying Israel hit trucks containing SA-17s. They claim instead Israel hit some sort of Peaceful Scientific Installation for the Benefit of Adorable Beagles.

Honestly I have no idea what they're saying.

Syria denied news reports that a convoy was hit in Syrian territory.

"Israeli warplanes violated our airspace at dawn today and directly struck one of the scientific research centers responsible for elevating resistance and self-defense capabilities in the area of Jamraya in the Damascus countryside," Syria's military said in a statement carried by the official Sana news agency. It said the attack killed two workers and injured five others, and "caused significant material damage and the destruction of the complex."

Hezbollah also denied that Israel had attacked a convoy of Hezbollah weapons in Syria. "We have no information about this issue. We are not concerned at all," said Hezbollah spokesman Ibrahim Mousawi.

Thanks to Monty.

Posted by: Ace at 03:38 PM | Comments (114)
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Wow, a media organization giving itself a clean bill of health on a hoax!

Well I never!

NBC, by the way, deceptively changes the terms of question from "was this yet another deceptive, political edit?" to "is it okay for people to characterize the situation in different ways?"

Of course the ignore the tough question and pretend the only controversy is about that.

What about the edit, NBC? You sure seem to be doing this a lot lately.

By the way: It's NBC, not MSNBC. We must no longer observe their preference that we pretend MSNBC is an independent news company nor pretend it's not really just NBC.

Anytime you guys want to boycott the entire network, stem to stern, I'm up for it.

Posted by: Ace at 02:28 PM | Comments (273)
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Before linking this, let me supply content warnings for the actual link. And in fact I'm going to bury the rest of this post, describing what you'll see only below the break, if you're inclined.

more...

Posted by: Ace at 01:29 PM | Comments (426)
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CNN is scrambling into damage control mode now.

To clarify, Feder’s issue with “Starting Point” was that the audience was too small and happened to be predominately African American. A source close to the show insists that the ethnicity of the audience was never the issue, it was the size. Feder in no way meant to imply that the audience was too ethnic.

"Just happens to be black"..... Wait, I know! more...

Posted by: JohnE. at 12:26 PM | Comments (351)
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Thank goodness.

This whole play makes sense in only one scenario: That Marco Rubio is our candidate for President in 2016 and we need to give this to him to make him viable.

I'm not there yet. I'm not thinking like that. So I don't see the reason for it.

Quoting from National Review's editorial:

[B]roader reform measures must wait until credible enforcement mechanisms are in place. Those mechanisms include, at a minimum, a physically secured border and mandatory universal use of the E-Verify system, which confirms the legal status of new hires. We agree with Senator Rubio’s view that “we can’t be the only nation in the world that does not enforce its immigration laws. . . . Modernization of the legal immigration system is impossible unless we first secure the border and implement an E-Verify system.” We very much doubt that Senator Rubio will achieve meaningful border security in cooperation with Senators Schumer, Durbin, Menendez, and Bennet. The less-of-the-same version being developed in the House with the support of John Boehner and Paul Ryan almost certainly will suffer from similar defects, since it appears to be based on the same premises…

Senator Rubio, an exemplary conservative leader, is correct that our immigration system is broken. And he is correct that, at some point, we are going to have to do something about the millions of illegals already here. But he is wrong about how to go about repairing our immigration system, and wrong to think that an amnesty-and-enforcement bill at this time will end up being anything other than the unbuttered side of a half-a-loaf deal. And there is no reason to make a bad deal for fear of losing a Latino vote Republicans never had.

Marco Rubio has the right take as far as process: He's actually trying to persuade conservatives rather than delivering unto them an ex cathedra declaration cooked up between John McCain and Lindsey Graham.

And that's nice. No, really.

But the substance is still unacceptable.

Posted by: Ace at 11:54 AM | Comments (287)
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There is a mystery here:

How the hell did Soledad O'Brien manage to alienate millions and millions of people who never even heard of her?

Also, puffy face.

CNN Fired Her For Being "Too Ethnic?" Or rather, her audience.

Many staffers were stunned when [CNN VP Bart] Feder constantly complained that the viewership of “Early Start” and “Starting Point” was “too ethnic,” based on the high concentration of minority viewers. This common complaint worked itself up through the company, to CNN’s Diversity Committee, and to other staffers, who were mortified that a CNN executive was squabbling over attracting minority viewers.

Now, Soledad O'Brien had crap ratings and so does Piers Morgan; but they're keeping the portly white guy, eh?

Via @johnekdahl

Funny: I should have kept this one for the blog, but it's their first day, so I'm throwing them some decent stuff.

Posted by: Ace at 10:53 AM | Comments (364)
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I'm "still poised" to win the special lottery they secretly enter you in every time you masturbate.

I've got like sixty thousand secret Masturbation Lottery tickets. One of them smells like a winner.

Others... Well, I keep them in a crawlspace.

Economic Status Update: Poised.

Secret Masturbation Lottery Status Update: Lock of the week.

So it's going to be this all month, "best looking contraction you've ever seen" and "we're totally open to the prospect of a recovery."

All month? Laugh. The press won't ask about this past 3PM.

Via @lilmissrightie

What I Meant To Say Was... Now this link to The Conversation should work.

I had to just clean a few things up for you.

Posted by: Ace at 10:05 AM | Comments (439)
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Khan, I'm laughing at the superior intellect.

By the way, the decrepit "tough guy" Lawrence O'Donnell grinned and glinted last night, as it was his time to shine: Someone had to defend NBC's indefensible lie, and O'Donnell eagerly enlisted for that duty.

I discussed that at Breitbart.

Oh: If you can't find "The Conversation," it's actually just at the top of the page right next to all the "Big This, Big That" clickers.

If you can't see it it's because your computer is using a cached version of the top of the page -- it actually is there. But not in your older cached version.

Until you clear that, or it clears automatically, you can click on this.

Posted by: Ace at 09:09 AM | Comments (258)
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