Three contests I've received emails about in one big state: the Republican primary for U.S. Senator, where incumbent Senator John Cornyn had been facing at least the possibility of a runoff race with Rep. Steve Stockman, though that seems very unlikely at thist point; the Republican primary for Lt. Governor, where incumbent David Dewhurst faces the risk of a runoff race; and TX-32, where incumbent representative Pete Sessions faces a potential threat from Tea Party-backed Katrina Pierson. I expect incumbents to win in all three, though I think Dewhurst is the most vulnerable.

Next week, we really kick things off at the Decision Desk with the hotly contested special election to fill Florida's 13th congressional district.

Results will be put in the thread below. more...

Posted by: CAC at 03:51 PM | Comments (522)
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Three charter schools had been granted "co-location" permits by Bloomberg -- permitting them to set up shop in the unused parts of already-existing public schools.

De Blasio, "The People's Candidate," is suddenly canceling that permission, giving the three charter schools little time at all to find new places to teach. It's already March, and these schools thought they had classrooms for September. But now they don't, because De Blasio says he doesn't want to "rush" these decisions.

Gee, I wonder why he'd do something like this.

Andrew Malone, principal of Success Academy Harlem Central, which is no longer approved to co-locate next year, told me he doesn’t know what his school is going to do. “It’s terrifying,” he says. “For the families, it is already nearly March. To be given no warning that the school is closing makes it impossible for them to find another option, and for the majority, unfortunately, their zone schools are failing.”

...

Considering New York City’s sky-high rent process, [a charter school called] Success will most likely close — a shame, given that it’s lived up to its moniker.

“We are a very high-performing school,” Malone says, noting that last year his sixth graders had the highest pass rate in the entire state of New York on the state math tests and that both sixth and fifth grades had the No. 1 academic achievement ranking in the borough of Manhattan in 2012.

The Harlem-based school also serves traditionally underprivileged communities — the students come from either upper Manhattan or the Bronx. Ninety percent are black, 10 percent Hispanic; 80 percent receive either a free or reduced-priced lunch.

“Just in the last 48 hours it is has been extremely challenging just seeing the children’s faces,” Malone says. “To tell them we won’t exist next year even when we are extremely successful is hard to swallow.”

Fapoumata Kebe, the mother of three children currently attending Success charter schools, would rather homeschool her children then send them to a traditional district school.

“They want my children to go to a school that is not performing well,” she says. “If they do that, I want to homeschool my children, because I want them to have a chance to succeed.”

Indignant at the surprise decision, Kebe thinks de Blasio is the cause of her children’s uncertain future. “What de Blasio wants to do is to take the children who are succeeding and take them from that school that is performing perfectly to send them to a school that is not good at all,” she says.

If these schools were failing, De Blasio and his union stooges wouldn't see them as a threat. In fact, they'd probably offer them tax subsidies, were they failing.

Posted by: Ace at 12:39 PM | Comments (385)
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Over at Hot Air, some are taking a second look at Rubio.

I liked his speech calling out Tom Harkin and the useful idiots on Cuba and Venezuela, but this does seem like too quick a bout of forgiveness. There might be some Cheap Date-ism going on in the party.

Meanwhile, a New Republic writer admits that Romney's much-media-derided "geopolitical foe" statement about Russia "seems exactly right."

Bonfire of the Vanities: Mead has a column up at The American Interest about how Crimea weakens Obama.

Facts destroy theory, every time.

WashingtonÂ’s flat-footed, deer-in-the-headlights incomprehension about RussiaÂ’s Crimean adventure undermines President ObamaÂ’s broader credibility in a deeply damaging way. If he could be this blind and misguided about Vladimir Putin, how smart is he about the Ayatollah Khameni, a much more difficult figure to read? President Obama is about to have a difficult meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu in which he will tell Netanyahu essentially that Israel should ground its national security policy on the wisdom of President Obama and his profound grasp of the forces of history. The effect will be somewhat undermined by President ObamaÂ’s failure to understand the most elementary things about Vladimir Putin.

With Hitler-style lies blasting from the well-tuned Russia propaganda machine (attacks on ethnic Russians! mass flight of refugees! fascism!) and armed soldiers backing up thugs in Crimea and elsewhere, President Putin is not exactly looking like a partner for peace at the moment—and Obama’s decision to work with him isn’t making President Obama look like a foreign policy genius.

Prime Minister Netanyahu—and many other world leaders—will be looking at President Obama with cold and calculating eyes. They can see that he turned to Russia for help when his Syrian red line policy collapsed; they can see that he is betting heavily that Russia will help him with Iran, both in the negotiations and at the UN Security Council. They observe how Washington was flabbergasted and stunned by the events in Ukraine, and they are likely to conclude that President Obama’s Middle East policy is in much worse shape than he thinks.

Both friends and foes are also probably thinking today that President Obama is going to have less control over the future of American foreign policy than he might like.

Posted by: Ace at 11:41 AM | Comments (426)
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I know some folks in the Ukraine who might disagree with this assessment.

Apparently some people told Finemann he was a dumbass.

In the more noted Oscars story, Matthew McConaughey gave an acceptance speech that was by turns humble and interesting.

I'm not sure if I fully understand his idea that his hero is the self he wishes to be (but never will be) ten years from now, but it's an interesting idea. And of course he thanked his God and parents quite a bit, only mentioning three people from the film he won for, rather than the usual litany of accountants, agents, business managers.

"First off I want to thank God, because that's who I look up to. He's graced my life with opportunities that I know are not of my hand or any other human hand," the 44-year-old Texas native said. "He has shown me that it's a scientific fact that gratitude reciprocates. In the words of the late (British actor) Charlie Laughton, who said, 'When you got God you got a friend and that friend is you.'"

...

"To my father, I know he's up there right now with a big pot of gumbo, he's got a lemon meringue pie, he's probably up there in his underwear, he's got a cold can of Miller lite and he's dancing right now," he continued. "To my dad, you taught me what it means to be a man, to my mother, who's here tonight, you taught me and my two brothers, demanded, that we respect ourselves. What we in turn learned was, we were then better able to respect others."

The self-appointed Agents of Tolerance of course turned to their favorite past time of XXXtreme Tolerance:

"OK so you really deserved it McConaughey. Just stop the stupid god talk," tweeted one observer, as others concurred.

"I thought we could get through the Oscars without someone thanking god but no he had to ruin it. F**k you McConaughey."

Incidentally, it has been bruited about that he didn't win for Dallas Buyer's Club per se, but for his entire year of work, which many people are saying is the best year for an actor in quite a long time. And included in that year's work is of course the show which everyone in Hollywood is watching, True Detective.*

By the way, I don't love him in True Detective the way many do. He's good; don't get me wrong. But he's giving a very mannered, "Actorey" sort of performance, giving Rust too many Big Tics. I'm always a little put off by acting that insists upon itself.

If I see Rust describe facial scars with that hammy gesture around the jaw one more time, I'll hunt McConaughey down, put antlers on him, and pose him in a sugarcane field.

more...

Posted by: Ace at 10:09 AM | Comments (454)
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It's behind a paywall, but you can read him calling Morgan "a ghastly little weasel."

A tabloid, the Mirror, quotes more of Clarkson's piece. Quotes from Clarkson:

"I heard that he was going to be dropped about six months ago.

"And have been sitting here for all of that time, loving his stupid Twitter boasts about his huge fame and lavish lifestyle, knowing that he didn't know what I knew.

"This was a show, remember, that was being aired round the world.

"Billions had the ability to watch it but few did.

"In fact, Morgan attracted a global audience smaller than the BBC daytime show Cash in the Attic.

"He's trying to argue his CNN show failed because the Americans didn't take kindly to his misguided attempt to spark a debate on gun control.

"Nonsense. His show failed because the viewers hated him.

"Everyone hates him.

"And that's a big problem when you are trying to play the fame game.

"You can upset some of the people some of the time and survive - thrive even.

"But if you upset all of the people all of the time, you will fail - and he has.

Posted by: Ace at 09:06 AM | Comments (204)
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Admitting error is, to me, one of the main qualifications of someone as an expert or an "elite." How the hell can anyone trust an "expert" whose ego is such that he can't say when he's gotten something baldly wrong?

But the self-styled "elites," who got Russia so wrong and criticized Palin for getting it right, aren't retreating. They're reloading.

With more dumb.

This Federalist piece notes that the Obama Administration's reaction to Romney's alleged gaffe -- calling Russia America's number one "global foe" -- seems out-of-touch now, doesn't it? Obama's legions quipped "The eighties called, they want their foreign policy back."

Well, the seventies just called for Obama -- and they want their own foreign policy back.

Even the reliably-liberal Washington Post editorial board says that Obama's foreign policy -- such as it may be -- is based on "fantasy."

Excerpts at that link, full editorial here.

If you remember, Obama suggested in 2008 that he would bring us "smart power," rather than Bush's dumb power. This was the Obama's recasting of "soft power" as "smart," and Bush's "hard power" as, impliedly, not smart.

But the ace arrow in their quiver always seemed to be -- as it continues to seem to be -- that all they have to do is patiently inform Russia (or Iran, or China, or whoever) that it is in their own countries' best interest to act as "civilized" members of the "community of nations."

This is so arrogant and dumb I don't know what to say about it.

Did they really think that not a one of Bush's diplomats thought to say something utterly obvious like "You know, it's actually in your own interests to agree with us?" This is the first or second thing said in any negotiation, over anything at all -- buying a car, buying a house, arguing with a spouse about who changes the diapers... The "it's really in your own interest" is such a common gambit that it indicates the incredibly dull-witted nature of Obama's squad to imagine this was new or novel to anyone else.

The second level of arrogance concerns the foreign nation in question -- Does Obama or Kerry (or did Hillary) really imagine these countries hadn't already gamed out in their own heads what their own best interest was? Did they really think that Putin, for example, had utterly failed to consider the benefits of being a good actor in the "civilized community of nations" would net him, and what being a bad actor would lose him?

I have to imagine that our counter-parties in these "smart power" negotiations are somewhat annoyed to be held by Obama's people as slow children who haven't bothered to think about the most basic things, such that they want and need Obama to remind them of the most basic things.

Did they really think they could just Jedi Mind Trick the whole world?

Just because it works on the weak-minded -- Democrats, the media -- doesn't mean it works on everyone.

Posted by: Ace at 08:17 AM | Comments (428)
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• Ukraine Is Hopeless, But Not Serious
  
• Cuomo Using State Resources To Build Up Crowds At Events
  
• The 80s Called, Do We Want Their Foreign Policy Back?
  
• Obama Making Threats In The Middle East...To Israel
  
• Obama To Hit Campaign Trail Pimping Minimum Wage Increase
  
• Heed George Washington's Words
  
• The President's Prophetic Threats To Israel
  
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• Teacher Caught Living Ace Of Spades Lifestyle In School Hallway
  

Follow me on twitter.

Posted by: Open Blogger at 05:00 AM | Comments (148)
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Happy Monday. March. Huh.

Former IRS official Lois Lerner may or may not be taking the Fifth again when she appears for testimony at House Oversight on Wednesday. There seems to be a little confusion on that point.

The Obama administration says it's going to offer Russia a combination of sanctions threats and a "diplomatic way out" of Ukraine, but the Russians aren't talking like they're looking for a way out. In fact, it looks like they're still looking for more ways in.

People are still finding fun ways to screw up their lives on social media.

And, if I can borrow MPPP's thing for a second, here's a Hollywood-ish story for ya:

[ RSS]

[On iTunes]

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 02:50 AM | Comments (258)
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The Biggest Political Donors

Are NOT the Koch brothers contrary to what every Democratic hack will tell you.

In fact the Koch brothers don't even appear until position #59 - which means that UPS and the National Beer Wholesalers Association give twice what the K Bros do to the GOP yet get almost none of the irrational lefty hate.

Posted by: Maetenloch at 06:30 PM | Comments (577)
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[We Politely Request That All Off-Topic or Political Comments Be Directed to the Open Thread down page, Which Will Serve Officially as the Current "Active Conversation" Thread for All Discussions Not Related To This Topic. Enjoy!]

Welcome again to the Spaced-Out Challenge! Whether you have a question about equipment, a new astronomical discovery you want to expand on, or just want to kick back and enjoy the cosmos above, come one come all on our weekly astronomical journey.

This week, we continue our beginner's guide to the Messier Marathon, the best nights for which are coming on Saturday, March 29th, and Sunday, March 30th. We stopped our hunt of Charles Messier's “nuisance nebulae” around Midnight, leaving our galaxy for island universes beyond. Now, it's time to go straight into the heart of the Virgo Galaxy Cluster. Tiny smudges of light, some fuzzy, some with faint arms, but all right before your own eyes: a view at the grandest of scales we can see. Come, let me show you. more...

Posted by: CAC at 04:35 PM | Comments (54)
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