Do you know this man?

It's worth a click to compare his goofy face to the uniform and decorations. Hilarious.
General Chinpube is awfully young and geeky to be such a powerhouse of military manhood, n'est-ce pas?

His decorations include;
Round Patch, right side says "Central Intelligence Agency." Ummm yea. Great start.

Awards:
Around the neck is the British Commander of the British Empire (CBE).
2 Distinguished Service Cross
Air Medal
Flying Cross
2 Silver Star
Bronze Star
Purple Heart
National Defense (too bad he didn't make it easy on us and forget this one)

Devices:
SAS crest
CIB w/ 2 stars
Master jump wings
Helo pilot badge
Air assault wings
Pathfinder

.... and so on. How did he ever have the time to complete JPME 1 & II?

To the point Texas readers;

WE NEED A NAME. If you know, email-twitter-facebook me at the POC above.

Purely personal note: I like his glasses too. I have a personal bias about squared-off, black-rimmed glasses. To me they say "Please, somebody take me seriously. I'm begging you."

But that's not a crime. Impersonating a member of the Armed Forces is.

Thanks to xbradtc, who has an even better picture of Admiral Hepcat 'Elvis' Costello.

Posted by: LauraW at 10:12 AM | Comments (178)
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Had a lost weekend and am not really up on all of the specific polls, except the best poll for Coakley says it's a tie, Coakley's own polls say she's behind, and most polls are now somewhere in the 5-10 range for Brown.

I don't mean to pat myself on the back too hard but I did say (albeit in the comments) "This is going to happen. Wrap your minds around that."

I could just feel the momentum and the preference cascade working.

I am still hoping for a win, hard, partly because if Brown loses, I'll feel bad for encouraging hope.

I don't really want to get too cocky but it has been my (secret) prediction the race would end up 10-12 points for Brown.

But Rothernberg, for example, now says lean Brown. Days ago they changed it from Lean Coakley to Tossup, and now to lean Brown.

Rothenberg joins Cookin so designating the race.

And polls of specific counties and towns -- bellwethers -- show the race breaking for Brown.

Breaking hard for Brown, as Ben Smith says, with a Drudge-esque kick.

The bellwether polling, conducted Saturday, Jan. 16, and Sunday, Jan. 17, shows:

• Brown (55 percent) leads Coakley (40 percent) by 15 points in Gardner. Independent candidate Joseph L. Kennedy polls 2 percent, while 3 percent are undecided.

• In Fitchburg, Brown (55 percent) has a 14-point lead over Coakley (41 percent), with 2 percent for Kennedy and 2 percent undecided.

• Peabody voters give Brown (57 percent), a 17-point lead over Coakley (40 percent), with Kennedy polling 1 percent and 3 percent undecided.

And of course the White House is now predicting a Brown win.

Thanks to AHFF Geoff.

Sorry about this lame post, I often need "ice-breaker" posts to get me going.

Republican Tracking Poll: Brown Gained Support Over Weekend. "Can it happen? yes it can."

Awesome Video of Coakley Phone Bank. Actually, I can't see the video, but from the description, it sounds good. Let me know what I'm missing.

Thanks to Andrew for that, via Watchdog.

Posted by: Ace at 10:03 AM | Comments (130)
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Howdy-howdy from Oakland. Any news doin?

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 07:43 AM | Comments (222)
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Yo Martha/Marcie/Mabel/Muriel/Marybeth/Moloch/whatever the heck people are calling you these days...maybe its time to just stop when your campaign is generating this kind of ummm..."enthusiasm", eh?

...Be mindful that anecdotes are just that. HereÂ’s mine. A guy showed up at the [Brown] headquarters to make a contribution and get a lawn sign. Martha Coakley volunteers had appeared at his Springfield home an hour before. That lit his fuse. He went online, got the address of the headquarters, and drove to Holyoke. HeÂ’d had enough. The guy couldnÂ’t be a Republican because there arenÂ’t any in Springfield....

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 06:12 AM | Comments (238)
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While Obama Calls In His Own Volunteers To Help Coakley

When dealing with Democrats, surprise trunkfuls of ballots and other such curious voting irregularities are simply part of the process.

From Redstate:

Next week, MassachusettsÂ’s citizens will head to the polls to vote in a historical election. Close elections draw intense scrutiny, and ensuring the accuracy and credibility of the process is crucial. For that reason, the Scott Brown campaign is assembling a volunteer legal team to ensure that no voters are disenfranchised and that all ballots are accurately counted. The citizens of Massachusetts deserve a fair and honest election.

On Election Day, we will need lawyers in a variety of tasks, including legal research of compliance issues that arise; witness interviews, preservation of evidence, and preparation of witness affidavits to document any voting irregularities; and monitoring of polling places, courts, and city halls.

You can sign up at the link below. We will contact you with further information, including a conference call training session.

Please do not wait, Election Day is January 19th!

HERE IS THE LINK TO THE BROWN LEGAL TEAM WEBSITE if you would like to help.

On the opposition's side, Obama is bolstering Coakley's GOTV efforts by lending her his own highly motivated team of volunteers from Organizing For America:

As Mr. Obama appeared alongside Ms. Coakley, thousands of phone calls were being placed to voters by out-of-state volunteers. Organizing for America, the outgrowth of the Obama campaignÂ’s army of volunteers, essentially took over the get-out-the-vote operation for Ms. Coakley.

Jeremy Bird, the deputy director of the organization, said volunteers made 90,000 calls on Saturday to voters in the state and were on their way to repeating that performance on Sunday. In a conference call for volunteers across the country, Mr. Bird said: “Don’t cross your fingers. Dial them.”

Well, we didn't expect them to just take their thrashing lying down, did we?
This is a terribly exciting race. Can hardly wait until tomorrow.

Posted by: LauraW at 04:11 AM | Comments (193)
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Sunday, Sunday, Sunday and Sunday evening as well. Welcome all nocturnal morons and moronettes.

Space Orbiter For Sale Real Cheap. Now comes with free engines!!
Now just $28 million each. And the engines are included for free. Better order now. Operators are standing by.^*

*_{Use caution when flying in cold weather. Also avoid hitting foam at supersonic speeds. Refer to user manual for other safety instructions.} more...

Posted by: Open Blog at 06:38 PM | Comments (730)
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Worshersture,

Ok something.

Video courtest Andy.

Check out the little Nazi there. She's a piker that one.

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 06:08 PM | Comments (143)
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The manEwokhunt for Ace goes on, but we've gone the whole day without a designated Scott Brown thread.

There isn't a huge story out there today, but that itself may be the story. Wasn't the Globe or some such supposed to drop some big hit piece on him today? That dog hasn't barked, showing either (1) they've got some shame, (2) Brown's too clean even to make stuff up about, or (3) they realize he'd probably win anyway.

Meanwhile, Obama showed up (his tie couldn't make it, though), couldn't fill the hall for Coakley, and got heckled, otherwise giving a pretty dull speech. Elsewhere Brown did fill his hall -- and more -- and said some good stuff.

Oh yeah, and another Friday poll shows Brown up 51-41.
Update: today's Pajamas poll has Brown up 52-42.

But don't crack the champagne yet, folks. Remember, the point is not just to win but win way outside the margin of cheating. Because if (IF) Brown does win, the bigger the margin the better. We want House Dems being pressured to short-circuit the conference process on ZeroCare to crap their pants and bail.

Tomorrow's a federal holiday. If you're in or around MA, you can and should still volunteer (if you haven't) to knock on doors for Scott Brown. We need every legitimate GOP voter out there on Tuesday.

Posted by: Open Blog at 04:37 PM | Comments (346)
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The science is settled and the glaciers in the Himalayas are melting! That's what the the world body in charge of scaring the hell out of everyone, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, has been saying for the last two years.

Turns out the science this dire prediction was based on wasn't so much science as, speculation by some guy no one ever really heard of and originally reported in a non-peer reviewed magazine.

The super awesome climate folks who know everything, never make mistakes and can predict with such certainty the climate in a hundred years or so, included this bit of "settled science" in an IPCC report.

In the past few days the scientists behind the warning have admitted that it was based on a news story in the New Scientist, a popular science journal, published eight years before the IPCC's 2007 report.

It has also emerged that the New Scientist report was itself based on a short telephone interview with Syed Hasnain, a little-known Indian scientist then based at Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi.

Hasnain has since admitted that the claim was "speculation" and was not supported by any formal research. If confirmed it would be one of the most serious failures yet seen in climate research. The IPCC was set up precisely to ensure that world leaders had the best possible scientific advice on climate change.

Professor Murari Lal, who oversaw the chapter on glaciers in the IPCC report, said he would recommend that the claim about glaciers be dropped: "If Hasnain says officially that he never asserted this, or that it is a wrong presumption, than I will recommend that the assertion about Himalayan glaciers be removed from future IPCC assessments."

The head of the IPCC had in the past called disagreement with the alarmist claim as "voodoo science". Ooops.

Be sure to visit your favorite Global Warming site to see if this is a "nontroversy" or if they simply ignore it.

Posted by: DrewM at 02:21 PM | Comments (260)
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Enough about that crap. On to the Jets and the Chargers. I just need a couple minutes to dab up the blood here.

...

Okaaaaay! All better now. Now that I can quit worrying about the Girls, here's your second NFL Sunday action thread. Frankly I'm surprised the Jets are here but keep in mind I'm the guy who can't pick worth a damn, which I'm sure none of you were thinking anyway. Ok some of you jerks were, I know it.

Upfront pic. Do I love you people, even when you are all dogging me?

Yes I do. Yes I do.

Girl and Van de Graaf Generator in Winter

The field is charg-ed
chargey charge charge see my hair?
look up over jugs

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 12:37 PM | Comments (437)
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