As if she needed to pin the weirdness meter any harder to the right.

Note the media isn't discussing this woman's obsessive love of Barack Obama.

That's not weird to them, after all.

But they're going to get that weird headline in one way or another.

Accused campus killer Amy Bishop was a devotee of Dungeons & Dragons - just like Michael “Mucko” McDermott, the lone gunman behind the devastating workplace killings at Edgewater Technology in Wakefield in 2000.

Bishop, now a University of Alabama professor, and her husband James Anderson met and fell in love in a Dungeons & Dragons club while biology students at Northeastern University in the early 1980s, and were heavily into the fantasy role-playing board game, a source told the Herald.

“They even acted this crap out,” the source said.

The media's only got one Narrative and it's not going to step on that storyline.

Seriously -- if the shooter were a political conservative, you think we'd be hearing about D&D? No baby -- we'd be hearing about Glenn Beck and Bill O'Reilly.

All. Day. Long.

Thanks to TopSecretK9's Twitter feed.

Posted by: Ace at 08:31 PM | Comments (267)
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So the weekend is coming to an end. But that doesn't mean the ONT has to.

Flashlight Transforms Into Submachine Gun
It's based on a Glock upper receiver and magazine. Sadly they say they have no plans to make or sell these. No idea what the flashlight's wattage is. Like anyone cares.

Posted by: Maetenloch at 07:48 PM | Comments (417)
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On Sunday he said he didn't know anything about a gun and that she was a "loved teacher":

Mr. Anderson talked to The Chronicle outside his home Sunday morning as he and his four children prepared to leave for church. He said his wife believed that her denial had been caused, at least in part, by a miscommunication over whether two papers had been published in time to count toward her tenure bid. While some colleagues have said that she didn't get along well with other professors, Mr. Anderson called her "very personable" and said she was a "loved teacher." There had been no threats or hints of violence, he said, nor was he aware that his wife even had a gun.

Today, he was singing a different tune:

But in an interview with The Chronicle today, he acknowledged that she had borrowed a gun, though he wasn't sure from whom. "She was very cagey and didn't say," he said.

Mr. Anderson said he had told his wife he didn't want the gun around the house because of their children, who range in age from 8 to 18. "Get rid of it," he recalled telling her. "I didn't want to have it. I didn't feel we needed it."

Ms. Bishop, according to her husband, had borrowed the gun and was considering buying it. Last summer, he said, someone followed her across the campus. "She was worried about crazy students," he said.

Sure, you get jumped by a reporter outside your house on a Sunday morning, you might omit some things...especially things you were feeling guilty about. But it looks so far like Anderson did nothing wrong, so he needs to be forthcoming and in every way helpful as the police and others attempt to figure out what the hell happened with Amy Bishop.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 07:13 PM | Comments (50)
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And he's talking.

A senior official tells ABC News that "several days" ago U.S. and Pakistani intelligence captured the Taliban's Number 2, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, and he is providing intelligence.

"This operation was an enormous success," the official told ABC News. "It is a very big deal."

Baradar is second to only Mullah Mohammed Omar in the Afghan Taliban, and is the commander of the organization on a daily basis. The story of his capture was first reported by Mark Mazzetti and Dexter Filkins of the New York Times.

A U.S. counterterrorism official, while refusing to confirm the news of Baradar's capture, told ABC News that "if he were taken off the battlefield, it would deal a major setback to the Afghan Taliban and be a personal blow to Mullah Omar, who has relied heavily on him for years."

I can't wait for someone to ask Bobby Gibbs tomorrow if Baradar has been given his Miranda warning and if not why not? Don't get me wrong, I'd be very happy if Obama is learning.

Either way, congrats to the intelligence officers who made this happen. It's a big win for us.

Posted by: DrewM at 06:50 PM | Comments (57)
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He's 86. New Jersey might have a health-related open seat, too.

An aide to U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey says the 86-year-old Democrat has fallen and has been taken to a hospital as a precautionary measure.

Although he's pretty healthy for an 86 year old -- he just got back from a junket to Haiti -- 86 is still up there. Falling at home isn't a good sign.

And yeah, should he retire, I'm pretty sure the New Jersey governor -- Governor Chris Christie -- would get to appoint his replacement until the next convenient election.

This is shaping up to be something even more than a perfect storm.

Posted by: Ace at 06:44 PM | Comments (117)
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She's still ahead of each -- but she's the incumbent, and an incumbent who can't break 50% is in trouble.

Oh -- and she's only barely ahead of her opponents:

Rasmussen found Boxer barely leading Republican challenger Carly Fiorina, 46-42, the same margin as January but down from a 10-point lead in September. Boxer beats former congressman Tom Campbell by the same four-point margin, 45-41, the same as in January when he jumped into the race, and is ahead of state Assemblyman Chuck Devore by only five points, 47-42, down from her November lead of 10 points and January's 46-40 spread.

Hot damn. Look at Chuck Devore there!

Posted by: Ace at 05:52 PM | Comments (84)
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Form: Print this out, have your whole family sign it, and drop it off at the local registrar's by noon tomorrow. (Print out this version of the form -- this version has the candidate information already printed on it.)

Sign up everyone you know:

Hoosiers who would like to help d'Ippolito can print out this petition document, have the entire family sign it, and then drop it off at your county registrar's office by noon tomorrow. Better still, take it to the bar tonight and have everyone there sign it, too. Indiana does not have party registration, so any registered voter's signature is valid.

D'Ippolito claims she is close to having the required number of signatures to appear on the May 4 ballot -- 500 of them from each of the state's nine Congressional Districts. If she gets them, she will be the nominee, end of story. This would frustrate Bayh's attempt to pass his seat along to a party insider.

...

If she gets 4500 signatures, she's on the ballot.

And she's a neophyte the state party doesn't like and apparently a leftish ideologue, so she can't win.

Beautiful.

Democratic Senator Evan BayhÂ’s shocking retirement announcement has unleashed some frantic maneuvering in both DC and Indiana, as tomorrowÂ’s noon deadline looms for any candidates wishing to compete in the Democratic Senatorial primary race. As of BayhÂ’s withdrawal announcement today, there are no candidates qualified for the primary race. It appears at this hour that the establishment Democrats, such as Indiana Dem. Reps. Baron Hill and Brad Ellsworth, are not attempting to meet tomorrowÂ’s deadline for the primary. Instead, Indiana Democrats hope to appoint a Senate nominee in a caucus process, bypassing primary voting by the people of Indiana. However, those well laid Democratic plans may be disrupted by a darkhorse candidate, liberal Democrat Tamyra DÂ’Ippolito, a local restaurant owner. PoliticoÂ’s Jonathan Martin explains the facts on the ground as of this afternoon:

A Bloomington, Ind., restaurant owner who had been running an obscure and uphill challenge against Sen. Evan Bayh for the Democratic nomination claimed Monday that sheÂ’s just 1,000 signatures short of qualifying for the ballot.

In an interview with POLITICO, Tamyra D’Ippolito said that after news broke Monday morning that Bayh was retiring, her campaign contacted Democratic officials in Indiana to request they help her get the needed signatures by noon Tuesday — when they must be verified by the state’s 92 country registrars.

It would be something close to a nightmare scenario for Democrats: were D’Ippolito to qualify for the ballot, she would be the likely nominee and the party would be left to face the GOP with a political neophyte who said she is running in part to take on a party establishment she said practices “sexism with a big S.”

ItÂ’s precisely what Bayh had hoped to avoid. By disclosing his retirement one day before the filing deadline, the idea was that no Democrat would qualify for the primary ballot and the partyÂ’s state central committee could tap their favored candidate.

It was not possible to verify DÂ’IppolitoÂ’s claim about how many signatures sheÂ’s collected. To qualify for the statewide ballot in Indiana, candidates need 500 verified voter signatures from each of the stateÂ’s nine congressional districts.

But in the mad scramble following BayhÂ’s surprise decision, worried Democrats in Washington and Indianapolis were taking the prospect seriously.

“This would be a complete and unmitigated disaster,” said a leading Democrat in the state. “We’d be up shit’s creek.”

Her facebook page says she'll be collecting signatures at her restaurant:

People are welcome to come in and sign tonight at Ragazzi's. I have plenty of petitions. Just call me first because I am in and out. 323-9005. Have customers at 6:30 pm but not sure they will make it today in with the snow.

She especially needs signatures from the 8th District in the southwest:

DÂ’Ippolito said she was working diligently to get the needed signatures but was still lagging, especially in the 8th District which is in the southwest corner of the state.

She said she wasn’t certain she’d qualify because, as she put it, Bayh-backing Democratic officials “have been stonewalling us for four months.”

A DSCC official conceded that after the Bayh shocker they were still trying to determine who exactly DÂ’Ippolito was and whether she could qualify.

Eh, one thing she has is outsider status. But she's very statist (and very socialist) on health care, which would likely doom her in reddish Indiana.

I believe this is her restaurant:

Rgazzi Arte Cafe

212 South Rogers Street (Between 3rd and 4th Streets)

Historical Prospect Hills 2 blocks from the Bloomington Hospital

Bloomington, Indiana 47404

ph: 812-323-9005

Hey! Tell everyone you know-- seriously. This is potentially huge.

The Board of Elections will try to disqualify as many signatures as they can, because the Democrats desperately don't want her to be the nominee.

So we need a lot of signatures, particularly from right-leaning counties where she'll have trouble collecting them. (Gary, for example.)

And make sure all your information is accurate and legible.

Don't let them disqualify you.

Trouble-Makers in Indiana... can use the thread below to coordinate whatever needs coordinating.

Posted by: Ace at 03:46 PM | Comments (405)
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I don't know if anyone in Indiana needs to contact anyone to make mischief, or if coordinating on this ballot-signature this is necessary.

Maybe some people can agree to run collected petitions to the local registrar.

If anyone has some organizing idea to help pull this off, post here.

This thread is really for Indiana people to organize. Please, no chit-chat and stuff. Use the other thread for that. This is for serious mischief-coordination only.

Remember: Signatures in the reddish counties, especially in the southwest, are especially critical.

[DrewM.] Someone at Firedog Lake spoke with DÂ’Ippolito and apparently she's short in the Evansville/Terre Haute 8th Congressional District (represented by Brad Ellsworth, who is a leading choice to get the nod should the party pick the nominee). Help out if you are there or know people in that district.

"I Signed:" [ace] Like an "I Voted" thread -- if you've signed, let everyone know it, and how many signatures you got, and when you're planning on running your list over to the county clerk.

And make sure you look up where your county clerk is actually located. Don't put it off!

This can happen, man. This can be the greatest pwning in recent political history.

Posted by: Ace at 03:14 PM | Comments (52)
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"I'm not wasting this Authoritative Hair on a mere Senate race."

I'm just noting this because Allah is mystified Pence isn't running for the now-open seat in Indiana.

Pence hasn't said he's running for president (so my headline is sort of a lie). But he's doing most of the things you'd do if you were to run.

I figure he doesn't want the Senate job because he'd just be starting that even as he began running for President. And he'd have to sort of lie in the senate campaign, claiming he wasn't even considering abandoning the seat for a run at the presidency.

True, he'd have to give up his House seat for that, too, but that's just one of 435 and besides it's always filled by special election, and presumably Pence is in a safe district.

Posted by: Ace at 12:31 PM | Comments (284)
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Biden makes a distinction. He claims he knew the surge would resolve the military problem in Iraq, but that he has long contended only a political resolution would really do the job.

This is as stupid as usual for Biden. Military solutions are indeed political solutions -- ask Adolf Hitler about that.

And the plan of course was always to settle the security issue so that a political solution could occur.

In the second clip featured below, that is precisely what Biden says will never, ever happen -- or at least "not in our lifetimes." He repeats the Bush case for the surge -- that the surge will stabilize the security situation, and that in turn will lead to a political resolution -- and then says that will never happen.

And of course now he is claiming he didn't say that, or merely said that a military solution of itself was insufficient.

Well, duh -- but no one ever said it would be sufficient on its own. And Biden knows Bush didn't say that, because there's Slow Joe Biden repeating Bush's theory of military solution then political solution, only to claim it couldn't work.

"One of the great achievements of the Obama Administration" he recently said.

Thanks to Milton.

Posted by: Ace at 12:20 PM | Comments (130)
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