Posted by: Open Blogger at 09:29 AM | Comments (5)
Post contains 0 words, total size 1 kb.

Just $362,000 last year alone.

There's nothing wrong with him making money. But for all his intelligence, he does seem to lack some basic common sense.

Like doubling down on the individual mandate, for example, which could have easily been abandoned, as he could point to studies showing that it doesn't do anything to reduce the pool of the uninsured.

(Which stands to reason-- how many people with enough money for health insurance choose against it? A small number, sure. But enough to justify an intrusive diktat?)

Posted by: Ace at 09:21 AM | Comments (67)
Post contains 113 words, total size 1 kb.

He hasn't accepted the invitations for two Florida dates yet, and one of his strategists is grousing.

[A] key Romney adviser is expressing fatigue and frustration over what he sees as a never-ending series of GOP debates.

"There are too many of these," Romney strategist Stuart Stevens said after Monday night's Fox News debate at the Myrtle Beach Convention Center. "We have to bring some order to it. We haven't accepted FloridaÂ…It's kind of like a cruise that's gone on too long."

I don't suppose that anyone can disagree too much that there have been too many debates. I wish he had skipped earlier ones, though, because most debates are about him, and you rarely get to hear other people except vis a vis Romney.

Maybe his thinking is that, given an apparently wide lead in Florida (Romney 46, Gingrich 20, Santorum 12), he's got Florida wrapped up and can afford to coast.

The problem with that rationale is that the field may not be five-strong when he gets to Florida. Perry or Gingrich or Santorum may drop out by then, and the remaining candidates will get a bump from that.

Prediction: He goes to both debates or at least one. Maybe he'll skip one to make the point that he's not required to attend every single one of them.

Posted by: Ace at 08:25 AM | Comments (184)
Post contains 235 words, total size 2 kb.

Eugene Robinson just wants to let you free-market ideologues know that he's on to your game. He knows what evil lurks in your profiteering Republican soul. He knows that your shriveled black cinder of a heart burns with joy every time a poor waif is cast out of his house to live among the other urchins on the streets. He knows that you light your $100 Havana cigars with hundred-dollar bills, and then blow the smoke in the face of some poor wretch who came to the door of your solid-gold mansion to beg for a crust of bread. Eugene Robinson points the trembling, enraged finger of blame at YOU, moneybags! YOU!

Teh Bernank loves the feel of freshly-printed cash. Yes he does.

S&P to the EFSF: BAM!

S&P to Portugal: BAM!

Why some countries are rich, and others poor. Bad luck and poor geography have an impact, but incompetence, non free-market economies, dishonest and inefficient government, and a lack of individual initiative are much better predictors of national poverty. Real wealth comes to the well-prepared -- it doesn't happen by accident.

The Greek fiasco may finally be going into the final reel. I remain astonished that this “crisis” has dragged on as long as it has -- it’s been obvious for a year now that default was pretty much inevitable. more...

Posted by: Monty at 04:57 AM | Comments (250)
Post contains 1108 words, total size 9 kb.

This comes in a preexisting lawsuit against some new pro-union rules the NLRB is pushing on six million (really) employers. The plaintiffs are adding a challenge on the grounds that the NLRB has been reduced to only two lawful members, as a result of Obama's three "recess" appointments. The Supreme Court held last year that at least three members of its maximum five are required for the NLRB to operate.

Details.

U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson in Washington is hearing business challenges to a rule, not yet put into effect by the NLRB, that would require as many as six million employers to put up in their workplaces a permanent poster that notifies their employees of the legal rights they have under federal labor law. That requirement, the so-called “notice posting” rule, is now due to go into effect on April 30. It had been set to go into effect at the end of this month, but the Board postponed it in December at Judge Jackson’s specific request while she ponders the challenge (pending in National Association of Manufacturers, et al., v. NLRB, District Court docket 11-1629).

Although that rule was put into final form by the Board before the President early this month gave “recess appointments” to three new members, the motion filed Friday argued that those appointments are “unconstitutional, null and void,” reducing the Board to only two members, and thus the Board “no longer has authority to implement or enforce the Notice Rule on its purported effective date of April 30, 2012.”

The plaintiffs argue that the Senate wasn't in recess. The Obama Admin went ahead with the appointments anyway after a legal memo stated that the pro forma "mock" Senate sessions being held every three days were not sufficient to keep the body in business.

Judge Jackson is an Obama nominee, named to the court less than a year ago and confirmed by a unanimous Senate.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 03:12 AM | Comments (40)
Post contains 337 words, total size 2 kb.

Oy. Tuesday.

ICYMI last Friday, the corruption trial of John Edwards has been delayed because he has a "life-threatening condition" that requires surgery.

Wikipedia, as well as some other websites that I don't care about, will shut down for 24 hours tomorrow in protest of SOPA/PIPA. Rep. Cantor announced yesterday that he would halt all movement on SOPA in the House, but PIPA is still in the works in the Senate.

A Russian tanker began refilling fuel tanks in Nome, Alaska. The town missed its last fuel barge shipment after record snows in November and would run out before the next possible shipment in April.

Speaking of record snows, Seattleites, Portlanders, and the folks in between are bracing for a mega-storm that could dump up to 12 inches in the next 48 hours. Recall the absolute cluster a few years ago after the City of Seattle banned the use of snow salt for environmental reasons. They're not putting up with that BS again.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 02:50 AM | Comments (72)
Post contains 171 words, total size 1 kb.

I'm out and about so tonight's gonna be a DIY edition.

Posted by: Maetenloch at 05:30 PM | Comments (548)
Post contains 86 words, total size 1 kb.

Or, as Jon Huntsman might say, "Liveblogging 南卡羅來納州共和黨辯論". I'm gonna miss that condescending putz, but we'll always have Google translate so no big loss.

Huntsman's exit whittles the field down to the Inevitable Mitt Romney™ along with the Not-Mitt quartet of Gingrich, Paul, Perry and Santorum.

Second look at a double Scotch?

In any event, here we go again: Fox News Channel at 9pm - livestream here.

Standard reminder: Your comments do not automatically display. So don't ask "Why aren't my comments displaying?" They don't display.

They're not posted comments a la chat room. Instead they go to queue, which the producers (cobloggers) read, and we post them, by hand, if we think they make a good point.

Liveblog thingy below the fold. more...

Posted by: andy at 04:45 PM | Comments (470)
Post contains 143 words, total size 2 kb.

At least he will enter training camp in that position.

Some of his throws look pro-level. Some of his throws look amateurish.

I think some sportswriter had it right when he said Tebow doesn't yet have the ability to anticipate where the receiver is going to make his break, and where he'll be when he does; instead, he waits to actually see this happen, then throws. Pro quarterbacks don't have the time to wait to see an open receiver, most of the time.

That's something that may come with experience. But I think most quarterbacks who fail don't wind up failing on athleticism or arm-strength, but on processor speed, the ability to see the field fast enough to make quick and mostly accurate projections a second ahead into the future.

Man alive, did the Patriots demolish them. On both sides of the ball. The weak New England defense completely stymied the Broncos.

Speaking of demolishing -- I'm not rubbing this in to Wisconites' faces, just stating a fact: The Giants completely dominated Green Bay in a way I would have never have guessed, and certainly not bet. Two bad calls (and all three bad calls in the game were in favor of Green Bay) led to two Green Bay touchdowns, and one of them might have also subtracted a Giants score.

It was frustrating to watch Aaron Rodgers keep scrambling for 8-12 yards whenever he ran for the first. But of course Aaron Rodgers doesn't beat people that way. He beats people by throwing the ball to receivers down the field. As frustrating it was for me, as a Giants fan, to keep watching him pick up first downs, I did keep it in mind: I guess no one's open downfield, huh?

The Giants secondary had been weak just a year ago and in fact most of this year, right? And yet somehow -- we can't see how because they don't show us the receivers in many shots -- they were apparently covering Green Bay's fearsome receivers on most damn plays.

Two great games next Sunday. I'm surprised Vegas has New England out 8 points in front of Baltimore. I figured it would be four. They have the Niners as three point favorites, which sounds right. Wait a Minute: I misread. The "Vegas sharps" line has the Niners as 11.5 point favorites. That seems way too high to me. Did they not just see the Giants shut down the NFL's best offense?

Meanwhile, in terms of winning the Super Bowl, Vegas now has New England as a clear favorite, at 6:5. New York and the Niners are both 3 to 1 against, and the Ravens are 6 to 1 against.

Vegas really doubts the Ravens, huh?

Posted by: Ace at 01:47 PM | Comments (423)
Post contains 474 words, total size 3 kb.

... and it's open blog where the Ship of Ace meanders aimlessly through the series of tubes, I'd just like to take this opportunity to thank you morons for hitting the Amazon thingy over in the sidebar like it owed you money during the holidays and into January.

The big guy should be able to upgrade to gourmet Ewok chow and may even be able to afford to add Dave in Texas to the coblogger dental plan. (Not that he will, of course, but now he needs a different excuse)

Ace really minimizes the business aspect of the blog (leaving rattling the tip jar to the cobloggers ... ok, Laura ... for example). It's just not his thing. No different with the Amazon link, which was really commenter driven, as countless members of the Moron Horde mentioned it in Monty's Sunday book thread and elsewhere.

Ace thanked me a while back for taking the initiative to set it up, and I just wanted to pass the thanks on to you folks who are the real reason for its success.

Open thread in the comments.

Posted by: andy at 01:27 PM | Comments (41)
Post contains 194 words, total size 1 kb.