The Democrats get their turn to tear each other up.

Have at it and enjoy.

NFL Playoff update: Bryan at Hot Air pointed out that you can follow the Steelers-Jags game online here. Right now it's 7-7, the 2nd quarter is about to get underway.

UPDATE (Jack M.) Oh man...Silky and Obama's alliance against Hillary has just cost her this debate.

She lost her cool on this Health Care/Agent of Change stuff. She made it all about her. "I did this...I did that". And she basically said "NH you owe me..I put your kids on SCHIP."

Bad Hillary came out of the bottle. Someone get Allah to put the clip up. It's probably the most important moment of either debate.

UPDATE 2 (Jack M.) Hillary's "reality break" is her second big mistake tonight. Insinuating that John Edwards killed that 17 year old liver patient by failing to get the Patients Bill of Rights through the House? L.O.L.

Man, she's exposing herself as a lamp-throwing harpy tonight. She's really melting down.

UPDATE 3 (Jack M.) HAHAHAH. Good for Obama. In response to Hillary's taking credit for Clinton-era "accomplishments", his saying "I respect BILL Clinton for getting those things done" is fan-freaking-tastic.

Posted by: DrewM. at 05:52 PM | Comments (181)
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Since Ace is passed out somewhere on Bowery Row, I'm gonna put up a New Hampshire Debate thread for all you homos (and you know who you are) who would rather watch and discuss this than the NFL playoffs.

The GOP goes first. I think it starts at 7:00 EST.

I'm gonna go ahead and summarize it for you here though, so you can watch football if you prefer:

Huckabee is funny.
McCain is barely suppressing his inner rage.
Thompson sounds pretty "phlegmmy".
Romney is standing behind two different podiums trying to figure out what side he should be on.
Giuliani is talking about how he was Mayor of New York.

Just expand on that for 90 or so minutes and I'll think you'll be good.

More (DrewM.)

CNN/WMUR NH Poll:

GOP: McCain 33, Romney 27, Giuliani 14, Huckabee 11, Paul 9.

Dems: Clinton 33, Obama 33, Edwards 20, Richardson 4, Kucinich 2.

The Poll was taken yesterday and today, so it reflects the post Iowa landscape. It does have a margin of error of +/- 5%, which if I recall my political polling class from college is fairly large.

Streaming video [Gabe]: At WMUR in New Hampshire. Thanks to moron Knemon.

Posted by: Jack M. at 03:48 PM | Comments (225)
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Seattle v Washington right now, Seachickens up 7-0.

Commenter ghengis will be excited. I don't get it. How does a guy grow up in Oklahoma and move to the Pacific northwest and become a Seahawks fan?

...

oh. my bad.

Jax v Pitt tonight. Giants/Tampa Bay (how the fuck did that happen? you decide which team I meant), and Titans / Chargers tomorrow.

Football. It's what's for dinner.

UPDATE: We got a game in Pittsburgh. 29-28 Steelers with 2:38 left. And that interference call in the end zone was bogus.

Posted by: Dave In Texas at 02:15 PM | Comments (34)
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One delegate.

Romney has won 4. As a result, Hugh Hewitt has moved his family to Laramie out of gratitude.

Fred, even after getting the endorsement of Wyoming Right to Life currently has...zero delegates from today's caucus.

These are incomplete results. This is the most recent story i could find.

But in terms of votes counted so far, Mittens has 50%, Hunter 21% and Fred! has 17%.

I suppose the good news is that the Huckster didn't get any delegates in Wyoming. The bad news?

Some campaigns finished behind....Duncan Hunter. And while I am a Hunter supporter, that's just sad.

Objectively sad.

UPDATE: Kaitian puts me some f'n knowledge in the comments and says the count has been updated. Kaitian claims the new numbers are:

Romney - 5, Thompson - 1, Hunter - 1, McCain - 0

I guess I won't have to write that "Hunter Comeback Kid" story after all.

Posted by: Jack M. at 12:59 PM | Comments (26)
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Is it just me? This picture reminded me of someone (not the commenter someone)

Guess before you click. It might just be me. more...

Posted by: Dave In Texas at 12:44 PM | Comments (61)
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Update and Bump:
That was it? Lame. It occurs to me that this is the type of statement that will get one karmically kicked in the teeth, so I retract it. Good show, Mother Nature.

Original Post:
The AP reports: "Fierce Arctic Storm Lashes California". (The headline may change; it already has twice, and its current incarnation seems to go against current weather-reporting policy.) I don't know if the storm is really going to be that bad, but people are treating it that way.

The breathless reporting is probably adding to that:

Homeowners rushed to stack sandbags around houses lying below fire- ravaged hillsides in Southern California, while Northern California residents—like those along the Gulf Coast before a hurricane—scurried to stock up on last-minute provisions. Forecasters warned the high wind and other extreme weather would last through the weekend.

In the eastern Sierra ski town of Mammoth Lakes, resident Barbara Sholle went to the supermarket after receiving a call from the town's reverse-911 system. She waited an hour to pay for her groceries amid a crush of residents.

"People were waiting in line for shopping carts," she said.

The storm system began dumping rain and snow Thursday in parts of Northern California. Power outages, damaged electrical lines and downed trees were reported by nightfall.

Around here, the news programs have been bleating about it since yesterday and I've received three emails (one from work, two from school) to be wary of mudslides and check road conditions before I go anywhere.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 08:54 AM | Comments (48)
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Groan

Romney now is highlighting how he has spent much of his life as a change agent—whether as a businessman, Olympics CEO or Massachusetts governor.

"If you want to see change in Washington, it's going to take somebody going there who knows how to change things," he said Friday night in Manchester, just hours after he and his staff decided to shift emphasis.

Somebody help me out, is anybody not the candidate of change?

Posted by: Dave In Texas at 08:29 AM | Comments (51)
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I've spent a lot of time trying to figure out the seemingly inexplicable rise of Mike Huckabee as a presidential candidate. The Mark Steyn column that Jack M. linked and wrote about expresses much of it, especially this part.

There is a potentially huge segment of the population that thinks homo economicusis missing the point. They're tired of the artificial and, indeed, creepily coercive secular multiculti pseudo-religion imposed on American grade schools.

He's the first happy culture warrior to have a legitimate shot at the presidency. I would be willing to bet that Jack M.'s boss gets mail not just about multi-cultural issues, but about bad language on television shows and on the radio, increasing social acceptance of homosexuality, the availability of skank wear for kids and other hot-button social conservative issues that groups from the Moral Majority to the present-day Family Research Council have been talking about for years. When these folks talk about the culture war, they aren't talking about the struggle against radical Islam. more...

Posted by: Slublog at 08:11 AM | Comments (40)
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"Targeted tax cuts" may be part of an economic stimulus package that President Bush is considering proposing at this year's State of the Union speech. I say "may" because the President hasn't made up his mind yet:

"In terms of any stimulus package, we're considering all options, and I probably won't make up my mind as to whether or not I lay one out until the State of the Union," Bush told the Reuters news agency in an interview. He added: "We are listening to a lot of good ideas from different people. We've got our people out there carefully, not only monitoring this situation but listening to . . . possible remedies."

Aides have previously said Bush was considering stimulus proposals, mainly in the form of targeted tax cuts, and the president's comments indicated he may unveil them in coming weeks. He is scheduled to meet today with a working group on financial markets led by Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. and is to give an economic speech in Chicago on Monday. Aides said no decision will be made until he returns from a trip to the Middle East on Jan. 16. His State of the Union address is scheduled for Jan. 28.

Of course, once he has decided on a course of action, he has to convince Congress to follow. The chances of that are slim to none in the post-killer wedgie era. (Killer wedgies being the repeated corrections offered to Congress over the past year, starting with the surge and ending with the veto of the National Defense Authorization Act. One of the morons called it that, but I forgot which one.) On the other hand, it's always possible that he could cut a deal.

The writer of the article I linked manfully avoids the use of the term "Bush legacy", but I expect we'll hear it plenty as the speech approaches. Whether a new round of economic stimulus can be important or lasting enough to be the President's legacy is a matter of debate. Personally, I think a grand legacy would be to end earmarks by executive order.

What's on your Bush legacy wish-list?

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 07:58 AM | Comments (17)
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Which is unusual, because I almost always find something to bitch about in anything I read, regardless of its author.

But not in this case: Secular Left vs. Christian Left.

Confronted by Preacher Huckabee standing astride the Iowa caucuses, smirking, "Are you feelin' Hucky, punk?", many of my conservative pals are inclined to respond, "Shoot me now."

But, if that seems a little dramatic, let's try and rustle up an alternative.
In response to the evangelical tide from the west, New Hampshire primary voters have figured, "Any old crusty, cranky, craggy coot in a storm," and re-embraced John McCain. After all, Granite State conservatism is not known for its religious fervor: it prefers small government, low taxes, minimal regulation, the freedom to be left alone by the state. So they're voting for a guy who opposed the Bush tax cuts, and imposed on the nation the most explicit restriction in political speech in years. Better yet, after a freezing first week of January and the snowiest December in a century, New Hampshire conservatives are goo-goo for a fellow who also believes the scariest of global-warming scenarios and all the big-government solutions necessary to avert them.

Well, OK, maybe we can rustle up an alternative to the alternative.
Rudy Giuliani's team is betting that, after a Huck/McCain seesaw through the early states, Florida voters by Jan. 29 will be ready to unite their party behind a less-divisive figure, if by "less divisive figure" you mean a pro-abortion gun-grabbing cross-dresser.

Actually, you should read the whole thing. Steyn has several premises that I believe to be correct:

more...

Posted by: Jack M. at 06:29 AM | Comments (40)
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