I've been going through the Weird News stuff and nothing is jumping out and goosing me. Work is slow as can be. It's snowing and feels a lot like a Friday. Drew has taken over the blog and frankly I'm sick of listening to his shit.

So I declare fuckin' war on you filth.

Are there any among you people who can craft a jibe witty enough to bring a smile to even this jaded hunchback's warty lip?

Hidden among you chortling imbeciles and twitchy clowns are a few Morons with more than one neuron to rub together, I'm told.

But naturally I doubt it. The funniest comments threads on this blog lately are the ones where at about 2 am one of you whispers 'peeenis,' and everybody else guffaws and giggles snot into their tapioca.

Yeah, I'm calling out the Overnight Thread. Holeeee Shit. I haven't seen such a collection of bristly mutants since those college fruit fly experiments.

Let me distill this for you: You all suck.
Bite me.

Posted by: LauraW at 12:05 PM | Comments (466)
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Explanation of sorts.

Geraghty at NRO snarks: "Obviously Nevada ought to reelect the guy, just out of concern for the well-being and safety of Mrs. Reid."

Posted by: Slublog at 11:41 AM | Comments (94)
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This showed up on both Jake Tapper and Major Garrett's Twitter feeds, so I think it's safe to say it will be a main stream story today.

With Democrats battling to keep control of both chambers of Congress and Republicans eager to make gains, the money race is fast underway for 2010's federal midterm elections.

By the time that every dollar is spent and every check is cashed, the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics estimates the cost of the Nov. 2 contests will be more than $3.7 billion.

"With so much on the line, the outpouring of big money into federal campaigns looks likely to continue at a brisk pace," said Sheila Krumholz, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics. "Additionally, the recent Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission could precipitate millions more in spending by special interest groups looking to advance their own agendas."

This prediction is a conservative estimate that includes spending by U.S. Senate and U.S. House candidates and political parties. It also estimates spending by so-called 527 committees and independent expenditures on advertising and get-out-the-vote efforts by outside political action committees to support and oppose candidates.

It does not include a projection for how much money could come directly from corporations, unions, trade associations or other special interest groups in advertisements stemming from the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision that reversed the ban on independent expenditures by corporations. These groups are now free to spend unlimited sums on such advertisements -- and there is no precedent on which to base an estimate of how much money corporations and organizations will spend through this new political money mechanism.

$3.7 billion is a lot of money for say me or you. In the grand scheme of things however, not so much.

That 3.7 billion is about what the NFL gets every year from NBC, CBS and ESPN in rights fees.

$3.7 billion will just cover the the $3.45 billion bill Americans are expected to run up on pet grooming this year. It won't however come anywhere near covering the $17.5 billion that will be shelled out on pet food.

And the $3,7 is a fraction of the $15 billion 'jobs' bill currently under consideration in the Senate. It's not even a rounding error in the $3.27 TRILLION 'stimulus'.

We simply aren't spending that much money on politics compared to a lot of other things. The spin on this kind of story is always a call for greater limits on contributions and spending. Some will even say we should have public financing of campaigns. Apparently we have to limit freedom to save it or something.

If you really want to see less money spent on politics, shrink the size and influence of government. If Washington and state capitals weren't so deep into picking winners and losers in this country, the value of participating in a campaign to influence elected officials would be diminished. That would cut the spending on campaigns but that's never on the table.

Posted by: DrewM at 09:46 AM | Comments (178)
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Of course, it's all the Republicans fault.

Except for Harry "Please Don't Beat Your Wife" Reid, Obama's warmed over version of the Senate's bill hasn't impressed anyone.

“I was actually surprised that they’re pushing it again. The most important thing is jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs. We need to focus on jobs,” said Rep. Heath Shuler, North Carolina Democrat and a leader of the 54-member Blue Dog coalition of conservative Democrats.

Shuler, speaking to The Daily Caller on his way out of a meeting of the Democratic caucus on Monday evening at the Capitol, expressed the sentiment that is increasingly common in Washington, the reason so many are scratching their heads at ObamaÂ’s insistence on trying to pass a catch-all piece of legislation.

“I don’t think a comprehensive bill can pass,” he said.

...House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, Maryland Democrat, knocked down the idea that the presidentÂ’s proposal represented a product that all Democrats were supporting unquestionably, undermining the White House argument that Republicans must unite behind one proposal before ThursdayÂ’s meeting at the White House.

“I’m not sure there is a ‘this bill.’ We have a bill. The Senate’s got a bill. The president has put a proposal on the floor. We’re going to talk on Thursday,” Hoyer said in an interview on his way out of the meeting.

Pelosi says of course they are going to pass a bill but she always says that.

There's also still the matter of abortion funding. Bart Stupak isn't buying Obama's language.

"Unfortunately, the president's proposal encompasses the Senate language allowing public funding of abortion," Stupak wrote in a statement released Tuesday morning.

He was unequivocal in the next line, saying, "The Senate language is a significant departure from current law and is unacceptable."

And just for fun, Obama and his minions are lying when they say the Republicans don't have a health care plan. They are also simultaneously demanding, as Hoyer points out, that Republicans have one plan. This is pretty funny since the Democrats have 3 at last count. I guess that's ok because the Democrats are in charge or something.

I still don't see anything passing. You can talk about reconciliation all you want but there's not even agreement on what they'd be passing that way. Tomorrow's show is going to produce nothing but a chance for the Democrats to say they tried to work with the Republicans and they will go the nuclear route. Problem is they are fools calling their own bluff. That never works out for anyone.

Unrelated...I see people are asking about Ace. I emailed back and forth with him a bit yesterday so he's alive and well.

*Thanks to Kratos for correcting me on the date of the summit. I changed the headline to reflect, you know, reality.

Posted by: DrewM at 08:30 AM | Comments (157)
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I'm fairly outraged by this. Madison Avenue has been using real human cleavage to sell Americans stuff ever since there have been ad agencies.

There will be no puppet cleavage shown on advertising posters in Colorado Springs bus shelters.

Lamar Advertising rejected posters for a touring production of the Broadway show "Avenue Q" because they show the cleavage of a fuzzy pink puppet.

Seriously, what kind of deranged looking glass have we gone through? This is whacked. Its crazed. Its so far off the WTF?!?!? scale I can't even tell where the zero point origin is anymore. I'm going to have to drop ten hits of blotter to try and figure out where the headspace of these uber-Puritanical ass-clowns is.

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 08:06 AM | Comments (98)
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He doesn't have the stones.

Keith's agent emails to say that before Olbermann will make any appearances organizers need to agree to his rider which includes 24 hour access to a bathtub.

Posted by: DrewM at 07:23 AM | Comments (114)
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Politico has a breathless report that Rubio confirmed, confirmed, that he would be traveling to South Carolina for a fundraiser.

Umm. No shit. Biggest "duh" ever:

Republican Marco Rubio gave Gov. Charlie Crist's Senate campaign some easy ammunition, confirming a report from CNN's Peter Hamby that the former Florida House speaker plans to travel to South Carolina next month to raise funds there with Sen. Jim DeMint. Rubio and DeMint have established a joint committee, "Friends of DeMint and Rubio," to collect money in tandem. "Marco has been honored by Sen. DeMint's support and welcomes his assistance in raising the resources needed to communicate his limited government message throughout Florida," campaign spokesman Alex Burgos wrote in an email.

Coming off his star turn at CPAC last week, Rubio's plans to visit an early presidential primary state don't look good. "Anything such as this which lends appearance that Marco is already looking past not only the August primary, but the November election, is not a good place for him to be politically," a Republican strategist told Morning Score. "Oftentimes some forget that while Jim DeMint may have a small universe of followers who read RedState, the reality is that the vast majority of Americans, including in Florida, don't have the slightest idea who Jim DeMint is."

Senate and congressional candidates fundraising outside of their own states happens all the time these days. Politico now pretending that this "doesn't look good" seems like wishful thinking on the part of Democrats and that one out-of-work political consultant they interviewed.

In fact, it's great because it means that Republicans are looking at the big picture. They want to take back Congress and keep Senate seats out of the hands of Democrats and some squishy Republicans, like Crist.

I have another scoop for Politico: Rubio's coming to California this week for some fundraisers too. Is this the end of the world as we know it!?!

Meanwhile, Crist's staffers are jumping ship as fast as they can find other things to do.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 05:23 AM | Comments (155)
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Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 05:08 AM | Comments (99)
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Monday all.

Epic Beard Guy Bus Fight - Mortal Kombat style
Someone mentioned this the other night and well here it is. Now finish him! Before the memeplex runs out of steam.

Posted by: Maetenloch at 05:41 PM | Comments (512)
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Via the Anchoress, who calls him an asshat:

"I met with some people while I was home dealing with domestic abuse. It has gotten out of hand," Reid said on the Senate floor. "Why? Men don't have jobs."

Reid said that the effects of joblessness on domestic violence were especially pronounced among men, because, Reid said, women tend to be less abusive.

"Women don't have jobs either, but women arenÂ’t abusive, most of the time," he said.

"Men, when they're out of work, tend to become abusive," the majority leader added. "Our domestic crisis shelters in Nevada are jammed.”

Jerk.

This is called a hasty generalization. Reid is characterizing an entire group of people (men) based on his personal experience. Unfortunately, his personal experience isn't the whole picture. This is the fallacy of incomplete samples. In fact women are as likely to initiate violence on parters. It's just that men are less likely to take advantage of shelters or crisis hotlines. That doesn't mean that women "tend to become abusive." It means that a fraction of the groups of people, men and women, have partner violence proclivities. It doesn't mean that all men and women do. That's a hasty generalization.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 05:30 PM | Comments (148)
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