The Truthers, Paulites, LaRouchies and general cranks are hell-bent to hijack a movement about limited government (which most of them don't really care all that much about) as a vehicle to advance their own fringe agenda-items.

For those of you unaware, a third party called the Tea Party of Nevada just registered with the SOS. IÂ’ve been researching and emailing around ever since, and here is what IÂ’ve come up with so far:

I cannot find any evidence that any of these principals have ever been involved in any Tea Party activities, until now. I’ve emailed a number of Tea Party organizer-activists in the state and so far, nobody has ever heard of any of the principals – except for Barry Levinson because he is a Las Vegas attorney.

Here are some snippets from my research so far:

Barry Levinson was part of the “Bush Lied, People Died” cabal (very strange creds for a Tea Party guy).

Not really core to the story but one of the principals, Larry Lathum, appears to be a 9/11 Truther. A number of sane Tea Partiers emailed me to say they are concerned about credibility and perceptions and are not happy to see LevinsonÂ’s and LathumÂ’s names on that principals list.

Honestly, we don't need a third party that will do nothing but "send a message." We need a functioning GOP that champions small-government philosophy and actually wins elections so that philosophy becomes tangible action.

The Truthers, LaRouchies, Paulites, etc., don't mind losing elections all that much because to them elections are just publicity stunts for advancing their pet (weird) ideas in the media.

Anyone who actually wants to do more than "send a message" really ought to work to take over his local Republican apparatus and force the party that generally believes in the Tea Party agenda -- even if their belief is often compromised by mercenary cynicism -- to adhere to its stated beliefs.

This third-party crap is sheer nonsense. I don't care if these fringe types set up their own make-pretend parties-- that's all they've been doing for 50 years, anyway, entirely opting out of genuine politics to indulge in childish make-pretend fantasy-politics, and no one's missed their absence in the interim-- but the danger is that more practical-minded Americans will wind up voting for these opportunistic mutants because of the high trust of the "Tea Party" brand.

Posted by: Ace at 04:43 PM | Comments (146)
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Been watching this fall for two years now:

[R]eflecting a trend that has been going on for more than a year, just 35% of U.S. voters now believe global warming is caused primarily by human activity.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 47% think long-term planetary trends are mostly to blame, down three points from the previous survey in January. Eight percent say there is some other reason, and 10% aren't sure.

But 56% say President Obama still believes that human activity is the main cause of global warming. That's the highest finding on that question since last March.The president went to a United Nations summit in Copenhagen in December in hopes of reaching an international agreement that would limit human activities that some scientists say contribute to global warming.

That puts Obama on the wrong side of yet another issue, particularly since no one is buying his line that crippling American industry will create jobs.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 02:39 PM | Comments (192)
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What? 110?

Even with the help of the rightroots?

She still says she thinks she qualified but I'm starting to think that claim that she already had 3500 was just completely made up.

Posted by: Ace at 01:53 PM | Comments (107)
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Your fully electronic gaming table, along with animated monsters (with sound effects), has arrived.

more...

Posted by: Ace at 01:37 PM | Comments (89)
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Today is the real start of the Olympics for meÂ…MenÂ’s and WomenÂ’s Curling and MenÂ’s Hockey started today.

Unfortunately the MenÂ’s Curling team took a tough loss to the Germans 7-5. A great double take out by the German skip in the 9th end was the final blow to the US team that never quite got going. Despite what Dave in Texas thinks, Curling players are tough since they play double headers. The US men are back in action tonight against Norway.

The US women are just getting underway against Japan (CNBC)

As for the hockeyÂ…meh. The US beat an over manned Swiss team 3-1.

The Swiss didnÂ’t have the size, speed or scoring talent to keep up with the US. The Swiss had some great scoring opportunities and just couldnÂ’t put them away (kind of like the NY Rangers on a nightly basis).

The US leveraged their speed and size advantages but their absolutely porous defense would have been fatal against an elite team like Canada, Russia or Sweden.

Before the game I said on Twitter that I think the US is the 4th best team in the tournament (I should have added "at best") and there was nothing in that game that made me change my mind.

On the upside, tomorrow is practice day before ThursdayÂ’s game against Norway (should be an easy game) and then two days off before the big match up against Canada on Sunday.

ThereÂ’s never been much doubt that the US would get out of round robin play but whether or not they have enough to make the medal round , let alone win one, seems to me to be very much in doubt.

Bottom lineÂ…sloppy game against inferior talent but they did what they had to do to win. This isn't figure skating, there are no style points and a win is a win (and 3 points). Hopefully itÂ’s something they can build on as they head towards the first real test on Sunday.

tmi3rd's thoughts below... more...

Posted by: DrewM at 01:10 PM | Comments (95)
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Oh my. He's putting it in such a way that Obama would have to be a total narcissistic dick to refuse.

But I think he'll rally himself to manage just that.

Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) and his daughter, Ayla, say they're serious about their proposal to play hoops with President Barack Obama at the White House.

And now the father-daughter team is taking it a step further: They'd like the option of opening the game up to the public in order to raise money for Haiti.

"I think it'd be really fun. … I was thinking why not charge admission. It'd be a really good game knowing me and my dad — we're very competitive — and give all the proceeds to Haiti," Ayla Brown said Monday in an interview with ABC News.

Obama will refuse, because he worries -- properly -- that Ayla would beat him.

This is a bigger danger for Obama than for normal politicians. I don't like throwing around the word "fascist," but creating a fantasy of Dear Leader as an Idealized Superman is straight out of the fascist playbook. Mussolini, his supporters bragged, "wore out a new horse every day, and a new woman every night." (Or at least that was a bit of agitprop I saw in an Italian movie about the Mussolini days -- A Special Day that with Sophia Loren and, oddly enough, Dean Vernon Wormer from Animal House.)

Obama's nurtured that Cult of Personality fantasy image since he started running. And if Scott Brown, or worse yet, Ayla Brown made him look foolish... well, they can't have that.

Something else they can't have? Scott Brown competing with Obama for the Glamorous Handsome Celebrity Politician slot.

Posted by: Ace at 12:46 PM | Comments (192)
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I'd love to see that itemized bill. How much does waxing the lilac kayak go for these days?

"Sessions:"

Dr. Daniel R. Lerom is listed in documents as having a long-standing sexual relationship with his Lakeland patient, listed only as "HK" in a lawsuit filed with Hillsborough County Circuit Court.

Each time they two had sex, documents say, the doctor would bill her Blue Cross Blue Shield Insurance for their "sessions."

...

The doctor even referred to himself as her "Red Hot Lover," or RHL for short.

A lawsuit filed by the patient and documentation from the Florida Surgeon General's Office show that the two had oral sex and intercourse in hotel rooms, his office on West Kennedy and the patient's home in Lakleland.

Barack Obama will give a speech on Thursday announcing a plan to "bend the curve" of the costs of oral sex. He says that we can easily reduce the cost of oral sex by "eliminating unnecessary overuse of expensive oral sex therapy" by... expanding oral sex therapy coverage to 30 million more people.

Oh, and by slashing Medicare.

Posted by: Ace at 12:11 PM | Comments (127)
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That MSNBC blogger asked why Democrats are acting as if Obama's support is 35%.

Okay.

Why is Obama acting like it's still 70%?

The president is still a huge draw in Democratic campaign circles, and Reid wants him in Nevada on Thursday, but ObamaÂ’s approval rating keeps dropping, and no matter what Democratic lawmakers accomplish, history shows they canÂ’t divorce themselves from the presidentÂ’s polls.

ThatÂ’s bad news for Reid, who already trails virtually every GOP candidate in Nevada, whether or not Obama stumps on his behalf.

...

Reid insists Obama is still the biggest asset Democrats have — despite intraparty squabbling about health care and jobs legislation.

“No one can deliver the Democratic message better than he can,” said Reid spokesman Jim Manley. “Polls go up, and polls go down.”

They go up, too? Really?

When?

For the past few months, ObamaÂ’s approval rating has trended downward. A New York Times poll published Friday showed only 46 percent approve of the presidentÂ’s general job performance, while 45 percent disapprove.

Voters are far less enthused with Congress.... But disapproval of Congress is nothing new, and history shows that the presidentÂ’s approval rating matters more than CongressÂ’s in the midterms.

...

“Like it or not, the president at the top more or less defines what the party is,” said Democratic pollster Andrew Myers.

Not everyone in Congress agrees with this conventional wisdom.

“Going into the midyear election, you’re going district by district, running on the record of what you did in Congress,” a senior House Democratic aide said. “You can’t make a blanket statement that because his numbers are up, we’ll be up. ... It’s just too simplified.”

Ahhhh... the Old Standby, "there are 435 individual elections, each decided on a case-by-case basis" claim. I remember offering that weak hope myself in 2006, right before we got walloped as so many of those individual elections turned the same damn way. Gee, it was almost as if there was some unifying force that strongly influenced each election and turned the majority of swing voters in the same direction.

Obama is an unpopular president. In fact, as that CNN poll disclosed (but CNN sought to downplay), Obama is less popular in these states than the Congressmen he will supposedly be boosting with his Most Awesome Presence. 51% of voters say that their individual Congressman should be reelected; only 44% say that about Obama.

So I'm not really sure how the less-popular guy helps out the more-popular guy. I guess in cases like Reid's -- he's very, very unpopular -- Obama's weak 44% reelect number starts to look positively glowing.

Posted by: Ace at 12:02 PM | Comments (67)
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I wouldn't normally pimp a fundraiser but this is for Marco Rubio.

Rubio's having a series of fundraisers on February 26th in San Diego, LA, and The OC. (Michael Bluth just emailed me to say "Don't call it that.")

And, if you're out there, you can attend.

Rubio raised some money with his "StimulusBomb" but he still trails Crist badly...

While Marco enjoys a 14 point lead today, this race will certainly tighten up as Gov. Crist has a commanding cash advantage ($9 million raised to Rubio's to $3.4 million). That's why Marco's trip to California is so important to helping him raise the funds necessary to turn his lead into a victory.

Nevermind the fact that he'll need a lot of money in the general, too.

I'm guessing it's one of those standard deals where it's $500 a plate (or whatever) for a lunch or dinner where Rubio will speak. Hey, if you're going to donate anyway, might as well get a speech and a meal out of the deal.

Posted by: Ace at 10:55 AM | Comments (39)
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Man and woman pulled over and arrested on Saturday after a police chase related to a road-rage incident in which it is alleged the woman threatened another motorist with a weapon. The woman, 45 yeah old Kimberly "Asma" Al-Homsi, is a repeat "subject of interest by federal anti-terrorism authorities."

You know what they say about consistency.

The pursuit ended in Fort Worth after the truck carrying the pair hit ice at Rosedale Street near Loop 820. One of the pair told officers there was an "incendiary device" in the truck, authorities have said.

Police closed Loop 820 at Rosedale for nearly seven hours while they investigated. Nearby homes were evacuated as a precaution. The road reopened about midnight.

Authorities found three pipes containing black powder which were detonated by bomb technicians, authorities said. The gun inside the truck was a toy, authorities said.

A previous probation was revoked in 2007 after a six-hour standoff where she was having another pipe fashioned into an "illegal firearm". She and her friend were also seen multiple times hanging around DFW Airport and Love Field conducting what appeared to be surveillance, dressed in "traditional Muslim garb with camouflage pants underneath during at least one of the incidents."

A little unclear on the concept with the pants there.

She also claimed a friendship with Wadih el Hage, a former associate of Osama bin Laden currently serving a life term for conspiracy. but she claims she is being harassed because of religious sterotypes and not her pipe bomb hobby.

I wonder how many of these things you have to make before the law thinks maybe you're a little dangerous? I guess we'll see. I hope the magic number is "4".

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 10:40 AM | Comments (68)
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