Why not? There's not much else doin'.

While I pack, I'm watching yesterday's Band of Brothers marathon that I put on my DVR. Which leads to the following poll:

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Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 12:59 PM | Comments (100)
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I have been accused of being insufficiently vocal about supporting Christine O'Donnell for Senate. Lest there be any confusion in the future, let the word go out:

I support Christine O'Donnell against that communist scum, Chris Coons. If you can vote in Delaware, vote for her.

Here's what I wrote the day before the primary:

Tomorrow, the GOP picks a candidate and the questions change. After tomorrow, it's not about pragmatism or purity. The only questions that matter: "do you vote for an (R) or do you vote for a (D) or do you sit out and let the (D) win?" No names in there. It doesn't really matter who the (R) is or who the (D) is.

And it doesn't really matter which side of the primary battle lines you were on.

I stand by that.

As a gesture, however, if the O'Donnell folks could call off their purge, it would be much easier to make this race about Coons and not Castle.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 11:47 AM | Comments (432)
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Ahoy, Brethren o' the Flaming Skull, it's Talk Like A Pirate Day and here's the word in dinghy-sized pieces:

Ahmadinejacket is in New York City. He's offering to return the two remaining U.S. citizen hikers in exchange for eight Iranians convicted here of violating sanctions. He also says the stories about that woman sentenced to lashes and stoning were propaganda by the American media.

Fox News has a bit of fun with Christine O'Donnell with the headline "Campaign: No Magical Explanation for O'Donnell's 'Witchcraft' Confession." According to O'Donnell's campaign, the witch video had nothing to do with her decision to back out of the Sunday shows. She wanted to attend church and a Republican Party picnic in Sussex County, which played a major role in her winning the nomination. The campaign says they didn't even know of the Maher video until Saturday afternoon.

The latest film to suggest that Boston is a deathtrap, Ben Affleck's The Town, is box office gold. Has Affleck finally earned his way back into our good graces after Pearl Harbor and Gigli? And, about Boston, eesh: Boondock Saints, The Departed, Mystic River, Gone, Baby, Gone. Movies don't lie; it's a place to run from, mateys (you thought I'd forgotten).

Finally, Legal Insurrection provides a sterling example of how not to end the intra-party feuding over O'Donnell's nomination. He's absolutely right that she's our candidate, so let's all act like it. He's absolutely a hypocrite to then slander his opponents by suggesting they opposed O'Donnell to get "high blog traffic." And he's out of his freakin' mind to then suggest that the Powerline guys or Patterico or, well, us don't want "to see our kids grow up in a nation in which the state is the servant not the master." As longtime moron It's Vintage, Duh observed to me, some people are demanding "unity" in the same sense that Democrats demand "bipartisanship."

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 11:07 AM | Comments (114)
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Click here for a ball dippingly hilarious riff on the new Democrat logo.

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 08:20 AM | Comments (170)
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Good music-theory books are very hard to find. Perhaps it's because musicians and audiophiles tend to be less verbally-oriented than most. Beginner's books in particular are rare: most are either aimed at children, or are simple "put your hands here and do this" guides. Adult beginners are well-served by DVD and other video materials, but in terms of printed matter, it can be hard to know where to start.

I have found a few books over the years that have served me well in my quest to be a less-lousy musician, and since I'm the kind of person who needs to know theory as well as practice, my reading includes a lot of history and, well, theory in addition to the "how to" end of things. more...

Posted by: Monty at 04:57 AM | Comments (261)
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If this weekend is anything like the last one, I still have a shot at greatness. Because we all sucked.

Pick early, and pick often.

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 07:54 PM | Comments (165)
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LetÂ’s rollÂ…

Lamebook:

Advertised as The Funniest and Lamest of Facebook. From what I've read so far I'll give it a "meh." You might like it though. You're easily amused and quite probably shitfaced.

Lamebook is brought to you by the lovely people who also brought you The People of Wal-Mart. They're bringers like that.

The Storm Trooper Varsity Jacket:

I'll just go with the description on Geekologie. Less typing for me:

"As you probably know by now unless you live on Hoth and your internets are perpetually frozen, Adidas has a whole line of Star Wars themed apparel. The latest? Tauntaun-skin intimates. This Dark Side Imperials varsity jacket. Now I'm not saying I'd go steady with anyone in school that has one just so I could wear it, but I'm sure we could work something out. HJ behind the Death Star gymnasium? Think about it."

I'm sure that's exactly what I would've written. It's a pretty snazzy jacket though. While there, make sure you check out the Unicorn Bike Mod. Might as well get familiar with it since starting next year that or something similar's gonna' be your only ride (As soon as DOT gets around to writing up the diktat)

More? Ok. A festival of merriment, delight and dissapointment awaits you below the fold...

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Posted by: Genghis at 05:45 PM | Comments (834)
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Interesting because Pence is much more known for his fiscal conservatism than as a social-con (though I'm sure he's at the very least well within the conservative mainstream on those issues).

The great challenge in a Republican presidential primary campaign is to straddle the the gaps between the social, fiscal and national security cons.

Could Pence do it?

In fact, Pence was so popular among those who took the straw poll that he topped the list of potential GOP vice presidential candidates too.

Pence received 24 percent of the vote, two percentage points ahead of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, the winner of last yearÂ’s Values Voter straw poll, who got 22 percent. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney received 13 percent, followed by Newt Gingrich with 10 percent. Sarah Palin, who did not attend this yearÂ’s convention and instead spoke at a fundraiser for the Republican Party of Iowa on Friday night, received 7 percent of the vote.

Palin came in second on the list of potential vice presidential candidates, and Family Reserarch Council Presdient Tony Perkins, who announced the results of the straw poll, called the pairing of Pence and Palin a “dream ticket.”

Via Brian Faughnan.

Related: Speaking of the gaps between the various wings of the coalition. I'm usually not with Gary Bauer on the importance of social issues but he gave a hell of a speech yesterday on the War on Terror. It's one of the most forthright you're like to hear on the heart of the matter: Islam.

Nicole Alan, at the Trig Palin conspiracy mongering The Atlantic, says Bauer's speech was filled with "Anti-Islamic Sentiment".

Judge for yourself based on some of the excerpts she cites how accurate her charge is.

Days after the anniversary of 9/11, in a speech touching on the Ground Zero Islamic center controversy and the recent Koran-burning threat, Bauer did not worry about being politically correct. "The terrorists of 9/11 were not created by poverty," he said, soon after he took the stage. "They were created by radical Islam." The crowd erupted in affirmation.

"We believe that all men are created equal and are endowed by their creator -- and by the way, folks, that's not Allah -- with certain unalienable rights," Bauer continued. He's a small man, with what look like acne scars across his face. He spoke with passion and precision, building to well-timed climaxes and giving the crowd room to respond -- which they did.

They gave him a mid-speech standing ovation when he said, "Mr. President, it's time for the Islamic world to prove to the rest of the world that they understand human rights and that they will tolerate religious freedom." Bauer suggested that rather than giving his speech on religious tolerance in Washington following the Ground Zero controversy, Obama should have given it in Mecca.

That's "Anti-Islamic Sentiment"? That's just facts ma'am.

Me and Gary Bauer? How much more unity can you stand?

If you have some time, watch the speech for yourself. more...

Posted by: DrewM at 12:41 PM | Comments (479)
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A couple of things...

It's old, 1999, and she's obviously changed her mind.

Still, it's not quite the kind of thing a candidate wants to have to talk about or having people talking about in general.

Added bonus...Bill Maher says he has more unaired clips of her from back in the day and he'll be playing them once a week unless O'Donnell agrees to come on his HBO show.

What could go wrong?

O'Donnell has canceled her scheduled appearances on Face the Nation and Fox News Sunday. That may or not be related to this disclosure but it's not a good thing.

I know it's not going to change the minds of a lot of her supporters but obviously this isn't gong to help with actual voters in Delaware. A candidate who is relatively unknown and already comes with some baggage needs to make voters more comfortable with them not less. She needs to be focusing on the issues and not whether or not she was a witch. And personally, I don't think Maher is bluffing. I'm sure the clips with be equally stupid but also equally distracting.

This is the vetting thing Ace was talking about. You can get by without this stuff coming out when you are the sacrificial lamb against Joe Biden. When you are a national symbol of a movement? Not so much.

I will also say this...she's getting far more vetting than Obama ever did. It's not right and it's not fair but it is reality.

At some point it becomes too much and voters either roll their eyes and say they don't care about this unending parade of embarrassing news and support her while others will hear it all and simply are impervious to her policy message.

The question is, which group is bigger?

Posted by: DrewM at 10:55 AM | Comments (923)
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Not a surprise for anyone who knows the first thing about economics. For Democrats, however, this is probably unexpected.

The Connecticut Department of Insurance approved AnthemÂ’s request without changes, including a boost of as much as 22.9 percent just to comply with one provision: eliminating annual spending limits per customer. But itÂ’s unclear how much more customers will pay because of the variety of plans and the complexity of other factors, such as a personÂ’s age.

New provisions mandated by federal law to start Thursday include allowing young adults to stay on their parentsÂ’ plan until they turn 26, eliminating annual and lifetime limits on the amount of money an insurer spends per customer and mandating that insurers cover the full cost of preventive services, such as mammograms and colonoscopies.

The same is happening across the country. Just yesterday, the California Department of Insurance approved Aetna's requested rate hikes out here.

Aetna, Inc. has gotten the green light to raise premiums, making it the last of California's four major insurers to be cleared for rate hikes by state regulators.

The Department of Insurance approved the move Friday, allowing Aetna to raise rates an average of 19 percent for 65,000 policy holders, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Anthem Blue Cross, Blue Shield of California and Health Net Inc. were allowed to proceed with similar increases last month. The four companies control 90 percent of the state's individual policies.

All the hikes take effect Oct. 1.

The President has repeatedly criticized insurance rate hikes as a response to ObamaCare coverage mandates, but that's because he believes in unicorns and money trees and other shit that don't exist. Quite simply, ObamaCare made the business of providing health care by means of health insurance more expensive. As a result, it's going to cost more.

Here were the President's promises in the week before the law passed:

"You'll be able to buy in, or a small business will be able to buy into this pool," Mr. Obama said. "And that will lower rates, it's estimated, by up to 14 to 20 percent over what you're currently getting. That's money out of pocket."

And that's not all.

Mr. Obama asked his audience for a show of hands from people with employer-provided coverage, what most Americans have.

"Your employer, it's estimated, would see premiums fall by as much as 3,000 percent," said the president, "which means they could give you a raise."

A White House press spokesman later said the president misspoke; he had meant to say annual premiums would drop by $3,000.

He lied.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 10:31 AM | Comments (78)
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