In honor of the President's first (and probably not the last) sub-40% approval rating, this thread will be 39% Open.
Jimmy Carter 2: Electric Bugaloo.

Posted by: CAC at 09:20 AM | Comments (386)
Post contains 37 words, total size 1 kb.

The big publishing news of the past week is probably the release of Mark Steyn's After America, which our own ArthurK has been blogging. Given the various catastrophes that befell the West last week -- a credit downgrade, riots in England, more financial chaos in Europe -- I wonder if Steyn's PR people maybe got a little overzealous in their advance prep for the book. I've picked the book up, but haven't read it yet.

Apart from Steyn and the redoubtable Theodore Dalrymple, I generally don't read the socio/cultural type books: I find all that ideological axe-grinding tedious in the hands of lesser authors. (It's one reason I've never cared four Coulter or Ingraham's stuff.) But I made an exception for David Mamet's The Secret Knowledge: On the Dismantling of American Culture. Mamet is another Hollywood icon who has moved from the political Left to Right over the years, and this book is his broadside against the Leftist takeover of popular culture. I'm looking forward to reading this one -- Mamet is a splendid essayist in addition to his talents as playwright, screenwriter, and director.

I picked up both of the above books in their Kindle editions. I still have concerns about the DRM restrictions of books over the long term, but the convenience factor is so wonderful that it offsets any doubts I may have. I still buy the occasional book in paper -- out-of-print books, large-format books, books with a lot of photos and/or maps -- but for most reading matter these days I prefer the Kindle. (You can now buy a Kindle for $114 if you're willing to look at some ads before reading your book. If you don't like ads, you can pay an extra $20 to get the ad-free version. And you can download Kindle software for almost any device you can think of -- PC's, iPhones, and Android phones.)

What's everyone else reading?

Posted by: Monty at 06:05 AM | Comments (157)
Post contains 325 words, total size 2 kb.

Tim Pawlenty acknowledged the obvious this morning:

Speaking to ABC's "This Week," Pawlenty said his campaign needed a lift in the straw poll.

"The pathway forward for me doesn't really exist and so we're going to end the campaign," he said.

Now we have to wait to see who picks up the coveted Pawlenty endorsement. Or not.

Posted by: andy at 05:36 AM | Comments (407)
Post contains 69 words, total size 1 kb.

The theme for most of this chapter is The Govt. Is The Biggest Monopoly Of All - And They're Not Worried About Trust-Busters.

Optimism is a disease, After America is the cure! OMG, Rick Perry just slapped me silly for saying that!

more...

Posted by: Open Blogger at 12:55 AM | Comments (141)
Post contains 900 words, total size 6 kb.

Well, with the riots that just occured in England and the media starting to breathlessly talk about it coming our way, have you given it any thought as to what you might want to have on hand if and when those numbnuts show up on your doorstep? Well, here's 6 Non-Lethal Weapons That Will Make You Wish You Were Dead. I'll take them all. And throw in a plasma rifle in the 40 watt range.

So do budget cuts cause riots? Freakonomics takes a look.

Once you cut expenditure by more than 2% of GDP, instability increases rapidly in all dimensions, and especially in terms of riots and demonstrations.

Posted by: Open Blogger at 06:00 PM | Comments (735)
Post contains 764 words, total size 7 kb.

You people, with your "reds" and "greens" and "holly jolly Christmas".

Kiss my ass.

I saw a 48 shotgun shells in your face.

Anyway, Saturday afternoon prognosticatin. What did Perry's announcement do to the race? Does Sarah come in? Does Ron Paul still sound like Walter Brennan?

UPDATE: commenter joffen tips us to Perry's first ad.

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 04:41 PM | Comments (220)
Post contains 70 words, total size 1 kb.

Above the post update:
Bachmann received 4823 votes (28.55%)
Ron Paul got robbed! He finished 2nd with 4,671 (27.65%)
Tim Pawlenty 3rd with 2,293 (he's done)
Rick Santorum 4th
Herman Cain 5th

Rick Perry got 718 write-ins, more than Romney got. Hmmmm.

Apparently not receiving a lot of write-in votes: Sarah Palin.

16,892 total votes.

Clearly the ticket will be Bachmann/Paul.

Original Post:
First let me say what a scam this is. It's simply a fundraising gig for the Iowa GOP. Candidates have to pay to get space and voters have to buy tickets to vote.

Also...Get over yourself Iowa. Someone has to go first and I guess you can make a case for Iowa. What drives me nuts is people who act as if Iowa going first was ordained in the Book of Genesis or something. Some Iowans seem to think living in Iowa makes them more serious about this process and that they have some preternatural ability to screen candidates.

Results should start coming in around 6 eastern. Now FNC is saying 6:45 or so. Maybe when I saw 6 is was central time.

The conventional wisdom is Pawlenty needs to come in 3rd or better with the assumption being Ron Paul and Michele Bachmann will be 1-2. Honestly, with Perry getting in today, I don't see how coming in anywhere behind Bachmann helps T-Paw. He's still in the back of the pack nationally, so, "I'm Number 3!" in Iowa (when Mitt isn't really competing and Perry just jumped in) changes that. There's just not a lot of rationale to his campaign at that point. He's also going to have trouble fundraising without some sort of jump here. This might be the beginning of the end for him.

Also baring a miracle, Rick Santorum probably fades away after this.

Herman Cain gave a great speech to a mostly empty hall after many people already voted. At some point soon he's got to figure this isn't happening and has better things to do with his time.

No matter how he finishes, Newt probably stays in since he's digging the attention.

Huntsman really is focusing on New Hampshire for what that's worth so today doesn't mean much to him.

The other interesting thing to watch will be the write-in vote. It's the first time they've had them so expect Perry and Palin to get some play.

Of course, all of this might change depending on the outcome. We'll see.

Posted by: DrewM at 01:48 PM | Comments (510)
Post contains 421 words, total size 2 kb.

Early in the speech.

I forgot the first thing he talked about was the "immeasurable" and "profound" sacrifice of the troops lost in Afghanistan recently. He spoke about them first, rather than as an afterthought, as Obama did. He just asked the audience to "take a moment" to contemplate their "selflessness."

This I think was shortly before that, just as he was saying hello to his family and to Red State.

This is his family. I think his wife is Ann (or Anita), and his kids are Griffin and Sydney.
more...

Posted by: Ace at 12:51 PM | Comments (288)
Post contains 1160 words, total size 7 kb.

Rick Perry after winning a game of Russian Roulette he played with a fully-loaded revolver*:

* via @RickPerryFacts on Twitter.

Saturday afternoon open thread and coyote hunt.

Video below the fold. more...

Posted by: andy at 12:48 PM | Comments (68)
Post contains 39 words, total size 1 kb.

Welcome to the second installment of Blogging After America. You may now don your sackcloths and ashes.

This first chapter looks at the loss of American Confidence.

Steyn has responded to a common complaint about America Alone - this book has lavish notes and almost all of them come with hyper-links. Now if he'd just put those 50 pages of notes on his web page I wouldn't have to type the urls...

Also, I'm being super-brief on many of these points. If I give one example, Steyn might have 4 or 5 in the book. So if you think a point is poorly supported - that's probably me being terse.

more...

Posted by: Open Blogger at 10:09 AM | Comments (87)
Post contains 909 words, total size 5 kb.