McCain seems to do the best, though they all beat her.

A coblogger (probably Dave in Texas) posted this in the sidebar, but RobG just reminded me. Seems big enough to note on the main page.

Democrat Hillary Clinton would lose to all major Republican White House candidates, according to a hypothetical election matchup poll Monday, reversing her months of dominance over potential 2008 challengers.

The Zogby International poll was the latest sign that withering attacks on the former first lady were chipping away at her opinion poll leads just 38 days before the Iowa caucuses, the first party nominating contests.

In the new survey, Clinton trailed Senator John McCain 42 percent to 38 percent, former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani by 43 percent to 40 percent and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney by 43 percent to 40 percent.

She also lagged behind former Arkansas Republican governor Mike Huckabee by 44 to 39 percent, and former Senator Fred Thompson by 44 to 40 percent in hypothetical general election matchups.

Clinton's top Democratic challengers Barack Obama and John Edwards however would still beat their hypothetical Republican rivals in potential 2008 contests.

In July, Clinton held a five point lead in the same poll over Giuliani, edged out McCain by two points and had a clear lead over other contenders.

A Rasmussen poll last week had Clinton also falling behind Giuliani in a hypothetical matchup of the November 2008 general election, and narrowly beaten by McCain.

InEVITAble? Let us hope so, at least as regards the Democratic nomination.

But It's Smothered In Secret Sauce: TMF points out

A. Its Zogby

B. Its Zogby interactive

C. Its got John Edwards beating men with actual penises (McCain, Guiliani)

D. Its Zogby.

True enough. The "interactive" part is especially bad because that's not even a random sample.

Allah noted that, and suggests checking out Gallup instead, which has the White Witch beating Rudy by five and McCain by six and everyone else by more.

Posted by: Ace at 01:13 PM | Comments (27)
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Although there are 50 genes associated with obesity, one, called FTO, seems especially determinative, with those carrying it 70% more likely to be overweight.

It's not really a blockbuster story, but I like how the Daily Mail chooses to illustrate the fact that a simple DNA test can tell if you carry FTO:

The guy is obviously a doctor -- check out the labcoat -- and of course he needs to check if this particular beauty-magazine model has the gene for obesity.

Thanks to herbert.

Posted by: Ace at 01:09 PM | Comments (11)
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A truly strange and heartbreaking deformity, because I have to admit, even though I know it's wrong and hurtful, I couldn't help but shun this poor guy. I just couldn't be in his company without being freaked out. I wouldn't be proud of it, but I would do it just the same.

Detail of hands and feet:

An Indonesian man whose life has been ruined by strange roots that sprout from his hands and feet is hoping a US doctor can help him.

Dede, nicknamed "Tree Man", has been treated like a freak show because of the horn-like growths.

He was sacked from his job, his wife left him and he was shunned by his neighbours.

The 35-year-old, who only has one name, is unable to work because he cannot use his hands and lives in poverty with his two teenage daughters.

He said he cannot travel anywhere and is forced to stay in his parents' house because his hands and feet are so heavy and cumbersome due to the growths.

He first noticed the warts after he cut his knee as a teenager, and in 1993 he was taken to hospital but doctors could not find a cure.

Dede, who lives in the village of Tanjung Jaya about 100 miles south of the capital Jakarta, told reporters: "First it felt itchy and some warts appeared on my feet.

"I neglected it and then growths started appearing quickly, covering my whole body. Sometimes people mock me, but sometimes they don't."

A doctor said the bizarre growths are caused by the HPV virus.

Video: Over at Hot Air.

UPDATE (Jack M.): Life imitates Warcraft? Behold, a Druid in "Tree of Life Form"-

Posted by: Ace at 12:38 PM | Comments (53)
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They locked up the AFC East before they even took the field, owing to a Buffalo loss, and two more wins and pretty much they're guaranteed home-field advantage throughout the playoffs. But I don't get the sense they're taking December off.

NFL films has highlights from the game (right sidebar video). Close, but I just never got the sense the Patriots were going to lose, despite trailing for most of the game. They just seem to determined and too confident and too good.

The other day I was in Waldgreen's and a fiftyish woman cashier was talking to her co-worker about all the controversy about the Pats running up the score on their mostly-hapless opponents. She got angry: "What about that Superbowl where Chicago embarrassed us? This is our year. Fuck them."

I didn't think they could do it... but now I think it's more likely than not that they will. They can't afford to take off so much time for their starters anyway; then they'd be rusty for the playoffs. It seems like what's driving these guys isn't a Super Bowl win, which one would have to say is very likely, but a perfect seasons. They only have to play Baltimore, Pittsburgh, the Jets, Miami, and then the Giants. Only Pittsburgh seems to have a reasonable chance at beating them. The Giants will probably have their wild-card spot locked up by then (or be eliminated from the playoffs altogether), and so will have no chance of improving their post-season position and thus nothing really much to play for.

Plus, they have Eli Manning for their quarterback, who threw four (well, three and three quarters) interceptions run back for touchdowns Sunday. He was easily the Vikings' most potent offensive weapon.

Keith Olbermann twisted a Tom Brady quote about seeing things, and learning things, in a game that one never sees in practice as calling his actual games mere "practices," which isn't what he said, and then darkly warned that defensive ends "diving at his knees" would keep in mind he'd called them practice opponents. Yet another bit of douchebaggery from the guy who brings his sportscasting to political commentary and now his hyperpartisan political commentary (with all its dark conspiracies) to sportscasting. Basically a Special Commentary telling Brady, "You, Sir, deserve a career-ending ACL injury because you said something I don't like. Or at least I'll pretend I didn't like it for purposes of shamming up a fake controversy about it."

What a dick.

Posted by: Ace at 12:27 PM | Comments (29)
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Because people like 'em, that's why.

Oh, here's the original "giving him the business" call, found by tachyonshuggy.

Posted by: Ace at 11:50 AM | Comments (26)
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I've been fascinated with this whole project since before I even lived in Boston. The City Journal has a big re-examination of the whole project, and how the powerful Massachusetts congressional caucus got the rest of America to pay for Boston's 15 billion dollar "highway beautification project."

...the Big Dig still would probably be a near-forgotten dream like Westway if not for Massachusetts’s Washington dominance in the late seventies and eighties. Democrats ran Capitol Hill, and Massachusetts’s wholly Democratic congressional delegation had a lot of seniority. Everyone in Massachusetts thus assumed that they would fund the project with “ten-cent dollars,” of which the feds would pay the other 90.

Even so, Massachusetts got its initial federal funding only because of Salvucci’s and Dukakis’s brilliant and successful argument: since it had built its Artery before the Interstate Highway System paid for such projects, the state should be able to use the federal money that it hadn’t spent back then to rebuild the Artery. This fluke explains why Massachusetts, at a time when other northeastern states were ignoring infrastructure in favor of expanding social programs like Med-icaid, focused on nuts and bolts: it knew that if it did so, it could tap into “free” federal money. Taking this argument to Washington, legendary Massachusetts Democrat Tip O’Neill, the House’s majority leader and soon to be its Speaker, in 1976 inserted “placeholder” funds for the Big Dig into a congressional blueprint of costs to complete the Interstate Highway System.

A decade later, though, President Reagan didn’t care to give Massachusetts Democrats billions for what skeptics considered a “highway beautification project.” When Reagan vetoed a 1987 highway bill that contained the Big Dig’s first significant federal funding, the real politics started. Tip, and Ted Kennedy in the Senate, garnered enough supporters, including 13 Republicans, for an override. In a preview of how Washington would work over the next two decades, they approved goodies that other states wanted, too. Wavering out-of-state politicians came on board.

After TipÂ’s override, local Big Dig planners never worried about pesky things like whether cost estimates and project scope were reasonable. Massachusetts had proved that it was more powerful than the president; surely there would always be more money where its initial funding came from. But over the ensuing decades, the Big DigÂ’s price tag waxed and MassachusettsÂ’s congressional power waned. Washington imposed a firm dollar cap on its Big Dig spending at the turn of the millennium, leaving Massachusetts to pay the rest. State taxpayers would eventually foot nearly half the projectÂ’s cost.

It's an important topic. Many cities are going to need to undertake massive infrastructure projects in the coming years. Is it even possible to do this in America anymore? Boston only managed it by getting other people to pay for it it and paying a lot of money -- about one third of the project's total costs -- on mitigation efforts to insure that no one was badly inconvenienced by the dig.

Posted by: Ace at 11:19 AM | Comments (19)
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She knew nothing about modern art, and didn't understand this painting, but she recognized it had "power."

Posted by: Ace at 10:18 AM | Comments (29)
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Via Instapundit, I came across this idiotic post at Extreme Mortman.

His idea is that YouTube is a bad thing because it may make politicians more careful about what they say in public. No, really:

...politicians will surely become even more guarded than ever before. And that’s a terrible thing. We will have more robotic candidates and politicians — more talking points, more platitudes, more stay-on-message public encounters. And far less fun. All in fear of the YouTube upload.

Savor what weÂ’ve got. Because by learning more now, we may learn far less real soon.

Y'know, I think that maybe newspapers cause the same problem. And cable news, it's killing those unscripted moments from candidates. By keeping them on-message all the time, we never learn who they really are.

What a "terrible thing" that instantaneous scrutiny of politicians leads them to clean up their acts.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 10:09 AM | Comments (12)
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It's a much beloved football moment of Men of a Certain Age -- an NFL ref explained his personal foul call along the lines of, "And then at the bottom of the pile this guy here is giving him the business." Late seventies or so, I think, and repeated a lot in funny NFL clip compilations.

This weekend a college ref made the same call:

Points deducted for not repeating the made-up signal for "giving him the business," which, if I remember right, consisted of miming underhanded jabs and pokes.

Via Breitbart.

Posted by: Ace at 10:00 AM | Comments (19)
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With the retirement of Trent "Porky" Lott, the GOP has been presented with a golden opportunity.

As many of you know, Lott resurrected his post-Thurmond Birthday Party fall from grace by successfully seeking out, and winning, a GOP leadership position. For the past several years, he has served as the GOP Whip in the Senate.

Lott was a terrible choice for this position. Not only was he a porkaholic who frequently showed disdain for conservatives, but he was also a cheerleader for Amnesty at a time when the GOP base (and the American public at large) were against it.

And now he's gone. Good riddence.

Which means the GOP has a leadership position to fill. And, in my mind, there is only one Senator qualified to fill it.

That man is Jeff Sessions (R-AL).

Sessions is a champion. Not only did he help torpedo "comprehensive immigration reform", but he has also: used his position on the Judiciary to fight for Bush's judges; used his position on the Senate Budget committee to fight for Bush's tax cuts; and used his position on the Armed Services Committee to stand behind the Iraq War and the Troops.

Sessions has also paid his dues in the Senate. When the chips are down and Conservatives need a champion to take to the floor and argue our case, Sessions responds to the challenge.

My sources say that this could come down to a battle between Sessions and Jon Kyl (R-AZ). Make no mistake, Kyl is a fine man.

But Kyl was wrong on comprehensive immigration reform.

And immigration is going to be a huge issue in 2008. Giving Sessions the nod for this position would go a long way to clearly identifying a major policy difference between the GOP and the "let's give everyone a drivers license" Democrats.

Further, from my time in the Senate, I can tell you this: Sessions essentially laid the groundwork for the new young turks like Sen Jim DeMint. (Sessions was the Chairman of the Conservative Senate Steering Committee. His successor? Jim Demint.)

Call the RNC. Call Sen. McConnell. Call Sen. Sessions.

Let them all know that there is only one man for this position.

Senator Jeff Sessions.

UPDATE: Regrettably, a source informs me that Sessions will not be running for the Whip position. Kyl appears to have the votes needed to win. What could have been...

Posted by: Jack M. at 09:41 AM | Comments (29)
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