Happy Wednesday, oh happy, happy Wednesday.

We've got Wisconsin posts queued up, so I'll avoid that here. In other news . . .

Barbara Walters regrets Assad regime connection, apologizes for conflict of interest.

President Clinton whupped President Obama in a proxy war in the New Jersey Democratic primary. Rep. Bill Pascrell, a 16-year incumbent and one of Hillary Clinton's major supporters for her New York senate race, was backed by Clinton. Obama backed another 16-year incumbent, Rep. Steve Rothman. Outcome? Clinton's guy beat Obama's guy 2 to 1. (Ignore the headline that says this race was "tight.")

Nine people have been empaneled on the Sandusky jury so far. Four of them have direct connections to Penn State.

The outcome of California's Prop 29, an additional $1 per pack tax on cigarettes, is still unclear. It's close.

Cheryl Crow has a brain tumor. Apparently it will not require surgery.

New Q poll shows a statistical tie in the Virginia senate race between former Democratic Gov. Tim Kaine and former Republican Sen. George Allen.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 02:50 AM | Comments (120)
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The Worst Girls Ever?

Okay this is old (from 2008 ) and shamelessly stolen from Hot Air but it's still worth posting.

Watching it will probably make you wish for SMOD, a shorter Mayan calendar and/or a speedup of the Iranian nuke program. When the first girl explains why she stole the money I couldn't help but think this must be an outtake from Idiocracy - but no these are real people and this actually happened. Bonus points if you can guess the state without checking. Or what would become of them.

On the slightly positive side they are honestly dishonest without bothering with the usual whining and BS excuses and truly seemed confused why they couldn't keep the money since they were being punished for stealing it anyway. At least they steal using the old fashioned working-with-your-hands way rather than the modern scamming people and suckling off the teat of government while wallowing in victimhood method.

In many ways it's easier to fix a society with girls like this than one with a large underclass of passive, infantilized non-criminals.

Oh and meet your new ONT Girlfriend: Celia Alchemy Savage

Her hobbies are guns and blowing stuff up along with posing in lingerie. Alas the ATF and FBI just don't appreciate chicks like Celia.

Posted by: Maetenloch at 05:11 PM | Comments (583)
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[Above the post update - Andy]

WALKER BEATS '10 SHARE WITH MORE TO SPARE, WINS BY >175K

LT GOV SURVIVES

STATE SENATE #13 STAYS R
STATE SENATE #21 UNDECIDED-- UPDATE FLIP TO DEMOCRATS (AND WITH IT CONTROL OF WI SENATE...UNTIL REDISTRICTING FLIPS IT BACK IN NOVEMBER)?
STATE SENATE #23 STAYS R
STATE SENATE #29 STAYS R

It lives.

HEADS UP- Despite NO budget, we made the real clear politics website with our coverage comparing results to previous elections! Congrats to JohnE for making this map work better than I could have ever dreamed!!! (look around upper left of page) here

TWEET #AOSHQDD and screw you dinosaur media!

Welcome to the AOSHQ WISCONSIN 2012 RECALL RESULTS THREAD!
A quick rundown on how this is going to work.
The recall against Walker is the big show. There will be an elaborate breakdown of data LIVE updated very frequently starting the moment the polls close.

The goal of this is to report results AND project a winner faster than the traditional media. Per our weak run during the primary, we had just such results about an hour ahead of the Associated Press.

PART 1-- WALKER RECALL

INTERACTIVE MAP/LIVE SPREADSHEET HERE (opens up a new page, refresh for updates)

LIVE RESULTS (CONTINUED BELOW THE FOLD): more...

Posted by: CAC at 04:00 PM | Comments (2111)
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Seems like nonsense. They're supposed to give Congress the information it needs to conduct oversight.

Offering to give them 40% (which the DoJ has made sure doesn't implicate anyone) is not really a compromise.

By the way, Democrats are, of course, suing in Federal court to keep polling places in Democratic bastions open until late at night. As usual.

Posted by: Ace at 03:51 PM | Comments (51)
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On an April night in 2011, I along with dozens of other morons watched the returns for Prosser V Klopp. An AP error did not show the actual totals from Waukesha. All night long we were wondering where the votes were coming from per county.

It was frustrating, but fun to watch.

But I knew we could do better than this.

Starting this year, I began to watch how the AP did with reporting results versus, well, us, just half-assing it. During the recall primary, we out-reported them for several key counties, in some cases an hour ahead. There WAS a way to report results faster.

But it required reliable people, designers, and a battle plan.

The first step was to keep the workload light per "reporter" - no more than 8 counties, or one if that county itself is massive. That way, in addition to reporting the results directly in a collective manner, any individual reporter could check and see WHERE these votes were coming from in their counties. Critical information if you are waiting for Milwaukee county to report and you wonder if the city is all in, or if you are watching Waukesha and waiting for Brookfield.

The next step was finding a way to compile the data in a MEANINGFUL way, which includes comparing results to previous elections. That was as easy as copy-paste, but getting everything to flow smoothly took a man with skill and speed. JohnE, our photoshop extraordinaire, was just such a guy, and has developed the page you will soon be refreshing like a pack of rabid dogs.

The final step? Reporting as thoroughly as possible. We have "reporters" on the state senate races and the Lt Governor race as well, all exchanging information behind the scenes to keep the data flowing.

Big props to Ace for encouraging what may very well be the future of election night reporting: where bloggers can out-report the dinosaurs.

A year ago, I swore there had to be a better way.

In 30 minutes, you will see just that.

Posted by: CAC at 03:26 PM | Comments (223)
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Of course they do.

One would imagine that 100% turnout would be pretty unlikely in and of itself, but they're expecting 119%. They say it's "unprecedented."

I should say so.

Same-day registration permits this.

The "119%," they will say, is copacetic because it merely represents 19% new voters registering.

I am not convinced.

Will Walker hold? In the face of "119%" turnout? I sure hope so.

Dane, Dane, Dane? The liberal bastion of Dane County could win this for Barrett, if it gets historic 80-90% turnout, Robert Costa says.

Per Allah, it's up to 75%.

Posted by: Ace at 01:34 PM | Comments (456)
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Half a million for a Spanish getaway there, half a million for a night on Broadway there, and pretty soon you're talking about real money.

To some extent I think this is sort of bullshit: Maybe presidents like to pretend to be hardscrabble men of limited means, but few actually are. Even men of modest beginnings, like Nixon, were fairly wealthy by the time they took office.

That said, if Obama's going to run this insipid "Mitt Romney is rich, ew" campaign, then it's worth a look at the Obama's plush lifestyle.

Jodi Kantor's book The Obamas noted the Obama's lavish habits.

Even the president made uncomfortable jokes about why his wife needed so many things. Behind the scenes, aides said, the Obamas were concerned about money: the presidentÂ’s books could only sell so many copies, and it would be years until he could write more and the first lady could write her own. From vacation rental homes big enough to accommodate the Secret Service to all the personal entertaining they did at the White House, their lifestyle had grown fearsomely expensive.

People shouldn't demand that people of means should live like paupers, just to send some signal that they're "of the poor."

That signal is itself a lie. It shouldn't be transmitted.

So, what's this nonsense I keep hearing about "Horse Ballet?"

Mitt Romney is a rich man. He made his money the old-fashioned way -- he earned it. He actually gave away his inheritance from his father. Yes, he was still armed with his father's connections, and those are a form of wealth. But he worked for his money.

He didn't just have a political movement donate it to him, through buying an "autobiography" which in all likelihood was written by a domestic terrorist.

The Obamas are welcome to their ceviches and waygu beefs and Spanish getaways.

But let's have an end to their attempts to stoke resentment against Mitt Romney for doing what every parent tells his kid to do: study hard, work hard, be a success, make enough money to ensure your children will never want.

Posted by: Ace at 01:26 PM | Comments (65)
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CAC and JohnE. have put together something special tonight. It's sort of a first for a blog, a quixotic experiment to provide real-time results, all with an interactive county-by-county map and updates from correspondents keeping an eye on local returns.

It should be interesting, even just as an experiment.

He plans on going live with the Ace of Spades Decision Desk at 8pm Eastern (an hour before the polls close in Wisconsin, so he can report exit polls).

Posted by: Ace at 01:09 PM | Comments (118)
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I saw this movie on Sunday, and am still writing a review. Overall, I'd say three stars.

Conservatives need to ask themselves why they're not seeing it. The show I attended, late afternoon on Sunday, was no more than 8% filled. About 13 people there (I counted) in a theater that holds around 150.

You can't bitch that Hollywood doesn't make conservatively-themed movies and then not show up to support it with cash-money dollars when someone does.

In addition, it's a good movie. It's got a lot of flaws (which I'll mention in my review), but the story is compelling.

If you don't know the story (and I bet few did): In 1927, an atheist takes over as president of socialist Mexico (the revolution had been ten years earlier) and begins, as they do, imposing a host of noxious anti-clerical laws. Socialists often hate religion from the jump, and have no modesty about the ambitious of government -- government, in their view, exists to make people better, including by coercive law, and in their view religion is a stupid superstition and therefore "making people better" means driving the religion out of them.

Beyond that impulse, they often believe the Vatican is reactionary/conservative, and despise the fact that "agents of a foreign power" have any capacity to challenge socialist government officials in the battle of ideas.

A rebellion rises up, with intellectuals and priests pushing an economic boycott to bring down the government, and riders out in the hillside taking a more... direct approach. Andy Garcia plays a gifted general (he defeated the bandit lord Zapata) now in soft-bellied retirement, overseeing a plant that makes... pink decorative soaps. Although he himself is an atheist, his wife and children are devoutly Catholic, and he supports religious liberty. In theory -- he just doesn't think anyone should make any waves about it.

The League for the Defense of Religious Liberty (yes, it was called that, or just "the League") hires him. And they do stress "hire" -- his compensation package is detailed. So this mercenary atheist general takes command of the disorganized rebels, and tries to shape them into some kind of effective fighting force.

So it's Braveheart in 1920's Mexico, with an overtly religious theme. Plus, lots of stuff about freedom. (A lot.)

I have problems with the film -- mostly structural problems with the script, big-picture problems, as opposed to carping about this line of dialogue or that -- but it's a big, worthy film, and it's about resistance in the face of socialist persecution and anti-religious zealotry, and freedom, and family, and yes, about faith too.

So why haven't you seen it?

Film is a business. Hollywood makes lots of gory zombie films because in 70 years only a handful of gory zombie movies have failed to make money. They're profitable.

So, make the sort of film you say you'd like Hollywood to make profitable. It cracked the top ten, but the "top ten" doesn't make producers' eyes pop.

Given the demographic of the movie, and the fact that theaters aren't packed to the rafters, the typical hassles associated with the theater -- unruly teenagers, long waits, bad seats -- aren't present. The only crowd noise I had to deal with in my screening was a couple of older men talking about socialism during the trailers.

Oh: I guess I didn't make it clear what kind of movie this is (and the limited advertisements didn't either). It's a war movie. It's about the Cristero War, and the war is depicted. Like, that thing about the intellectuals? That's the first 20 minutes. After that, it's war.

more...

Posted by: Ace at 12:06 PM | Comments (247)
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He says the wiretap applications -- aurthorized by top DoJ officials -- demonstrate a complete familiarity with the tactic, thus undermining the DoJ's current posture that they had no idea what gun-walking was until after Brian Terry had been shot.

Democrats are sticking to their "we don't read wiretap applications, we only authorize wiretaps without having examined them at all" claim.

Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer, Deputy Assistant Attorney General Jason Weinstein, and Deputy Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Blanco were responsible for authorizing the 2010 wiretaps, according to Issa, who did not make copies of the authorizations public because of their sensitive nature.

“The applications discussed — in no uncertain terms — the reckless tactic used in Operation Fast and Furious,” Issa wrote. “In light of the information contained in these wiretap applications, senior Department officials can no longer disclaim responsibility for failing to shut down Fast and Furious because they were unaware of the tactics used.”

The committeeÂ’s ranking Democrat, Rep. Elijah Cummings (Md.), balked at IssaÂ’s assertions, calling them unfounded and mischaracterizations.

Cummings said — in a 10-page letter responding to Issa — that these top-ranking DOJ officials did not personally review any of the six wiretap applications.

Instead, as has been standard practice across multiple administrations, deputy assistant attorneys general reviewed summaries of the wiretap applications as prepared by attorneys in the Office of Enforcement Operations, according to Cummings.

In testimony before Congress and in letters to lawmakers, the DOJ has maintained that it has no evidence indicating senior agency officials knew about or approved the “gun-walking” tactics used in Fast and Furious.

Cummings's letter cited sworn testimony before the committee of Weinstein, in which he explained the wiretap review process. He had only reviewed a summary of the wiretap applications and said that he did not know at any time that guns were being walked in Fast and Furious.

Thanks to DrewM.

Posted by: Ace at 11:59 AM | Comments (104)
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