Month: August 2012
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Time Of Get Rid Of Political Conventions?
The political convention we know is a 19th Century relic. It’s time to modernize it and make it a lot shorter.
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Political Conventions In The Era Of The National Security State
Security at the Republican Convention in Tampa looks more like a war zone than a political convention in a democratic republic.
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Drunken Bigfoot Hoax Goes Horribly Wrong
A 44-year-old Montana man went into traffic dressed as Bigfoot. It did not end well.
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Romney Mine Visit Cost Miners a Day of Pay
Mitt Romney visited an Ohio coal mine to promote jobs in the industry, unwittingly showing why a job in the industry sucks.
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MRIs As Lie Detectors?
Will an MRI of your brain someday be able to tell if you’re lying? And, if it can, should it be admissible in Court?
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Lots of People do not Understand Parties, Conventions, or Presidentialism
Mark Levin provides the latest example.
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Republicans Call For Crackdown On Porn
The Republican Party has apparently solved all of the nation’s real problems and decided it can waste time on nonsense.
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Election Night Might Be Over Early
Brookings Institute scholar William Galston says election night might end early this year even if the race remains tight.
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Compromise Apparently Reached On GOP Delegate Rules Changes
The changes to the delegate allocation rules for Republican Presidential elections which James Joyner and myself have written about over the past several days have, as James noted, stirred up no small degree of controversy. Ron Paul supporters have ended up in an alliance of convenience with conservatives and Tea Party groups who see the…
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Fort Fort Stewart Terror Plot Uncovered
Four idiot privates from Fort Stewart planned to take over the base, kill the president, and take over the government.
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A Senate Upset Brewing In Connecticut?
Two years ago, Linda McMahon, formerly the CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment, lost a Senate bid to Richard Blumenthal by a rather decisive twelve percentage points. Considering that only two years earlier, Barack Obama had defeated John McCain in the Nutmeg State by some 300,000 votes, this really wasn’t much of a surprise. Connecticut has…
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David Brooks Makes Fun of…?
David Brooks’ column in the NYT is a bit odd. The piece, The Real Romney, is a tongue-in-cheek biography of Mitt Romney. One assumes that he is making fun of the way Romney’s political opponents have tried to present Romney. The problem is, not unlike the Kevin Williamson piece that was discussed here at OTB…
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Who Is Thursday Night’s Mystery Convention Speaker?
“To Be Announced” has a prime speaking slot late in the Thursday program.
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Young Brains on Weed
Via the BBC: Young cannabis smokers run risk of lower IQ, report claims An international team found those who started using cannabis below the age of 18 – while their brains were still developing – suffered a drop in IQ. […] For more than 20 years researchers have followed the lives of a group of…
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Government Intrusion in Taiwan!
Have they not hear of limited government in Taiwan? Via the BBC: Taiwan minister says men should sit down to urinate A Taiwanese minister has caused widespread debate on hygiene by suggesting that men should sit down while urinating instead of standing up. Stephen Shen, Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) minister, said that sitting on the…
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Arlen Spcter Hospitalized with ‘Serious Illness’
Former US Senator Arlen Specter is reportedly hospitalized with “a serious illness.”
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Penn State To Discontinue Playing “Sweet Caroline” At Games Due To Lyrics
Well, under the circumstances, it is kind of inappropriate: Changes are in the air at Penn State for this year’s upcoming football season, and one of them will be of unique interest to Red Sox fans. The school is discontinuing its tradition of singing “Sweet Caroline” during games due to concerns raised by school officials…
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Mondays Aren’t As Bad As You Think
According to a new study, Mondays aren’t nearly as depressing as you think they are: There are many beliefs about the patterning of positive and negative mood over the course of the week. Support has been found for ‘Blue Monday’, ‘Thank God it’s Friday’ and Weekdays versus Weekend effects, although in relatively small studies and often…
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Why Ron Paul Isn’t Speaking At The Republican Convention
Many of Ron Paul’s supporters are upset about the fact that he wasn’t given a speaking slot at the Republican convention. As it turns out, the reason for that was really quite simple: Mr. Paul, in an interview, said convention planners had offered him an opportunity to speak under two conditions: that he deliver remarks vetted…
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Romney Rules Change
Mitt Romney’s forces won a rules change that will allow future nominees to have more say over their conventions. While this strikes me as a no-brainer, some conservative activists are up in arms.
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Pennsylvania Senate Candidate: Out Of Wedlock Pregnancy “Similar” To Rape
Does, the GOP have another Todd Akin on its hands? That’s the question some may be asking themselves after the Harrisburg Patriot-News talked to the GOP nominee for Senate in Pennsylvania, Tom Smith: Struggling to explain his “no exceptions” abortion policy, Republican U.S. Senate nominee Tom Smith likened rape to having a child out-of-wedlock before walking back the…
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Prosecutors: U.S. Troops At Fort Stewart Formed Militia, Plotted To Assassinate President Obama
Prosecutors in Georgia are charging several active duty members of the military, as well as acquaintances of theirs who are retired from the military, with plotting to form a militia and engage in acts of terror up to and including the assassination of the President: LUDOWICI, Ga. — Four Army soldiers based in southeast Georgia killed a…
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What The Heck Is Wrong With The Republican Party?
As its convention begins, one has to wonder what has happened to the Republican Party.
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GOP Convention Remains Under Threat From Isaac
As Isaac bears down on the Gulf Coast, will the Republican Convention be even further impacted?
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Rioting Penn State Cadet Shocked to Be Kicked Out of ROTC Program
Justin Strine spent part of the summer in jail for violent mayhem but doesn’t understand why he’s unfit to be an Army officer.
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Paul Ryan: Rape Just Another Method Of Conception
Presumptive Republican Vice-Presidential nominee Paul Ryan apparently didn’t get the memo from Boston about not talking about abortion in the wake of the Todd Akin controversy: Vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan says that he personally believes that rape is just another “method of conception” and not an excuse to allow abortions. During an interview with WJHL…
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No, The Race Is Not Tied
Unless something changes, Obama remains the odds-on favorite to win.
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Charlie Crist To Speak At Democratic Convention
One day after endorsing Barack Obama in an Op-Ed piece, former Florida Governor Charlie Crist has been given a speaking slot at next week’s Democratic Convention: Florida’s former Republican Gov. Charlie Crist will be a speaker at the Democratic National Convention. An official with President Barack Obama’s campaign said Sunday that Crist will speak at…
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Political Conventions Don’t Bring Economic Benefits To Host Cities
Much like hosting the Olympics, being the host city for one of America’s major political party conventions does not tend to help the economy of the host city: Cities that host political conventions can rake in as much as a quarter-billion dollars or as little as nothing. It depends on who’s doing the math—and what’s…
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Fixing America’s Stupid Immigration Policy
Jon Huntsman calls for an end to “unforced errors in immigration policy.”
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Obama Leads Romney By 39 Points Among Latino Voters
Another poll indicating just how badly Republicans are doing among Latino voters: Just before the beginning of the Republican National Convention in Tampa presidential candidate Mitt Romney continues to overwhelmingly lose the Latino vote and has low levels of favorability among the majority of the Latino electorate. The first weekly tracking poll of Latino registered voters by…
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Isaac Could Rival Hurricane Katrina
Though still just a Tropical Storm, Isaac has the potential to be as dangerous as Hurricane Katrina.
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Romney Campaign Reportedly Planning ‘Aggressive’ Campaign Against Obama
The Romney Campaign is reportedly planning a more aggressive campaign against the President for the fall.
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Isaac Demonstrates Why Political Conventions In Late August Are A Dumb Idea
Tropical Storm Isaac won’t be as much of a danger to Tampa as feared, but it’s still having an impact. That’s all because of bad scheduling ideas.
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Republicans Planning Write-In Candidate Against Akin?
Mary Matalin suggested on ABC News’s This Week that top Republicans are planning to fund a write-in candidate against Todd Akin if he fails to remove himself from the Missouri Senate race: This morning on ABC News, however, Mary Matalin — a well-connected GOP operative — suggested that Republicans would run a write-in candidate to defeat…
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NYT Public Editor Charges Liberal Bias
NYT executive editor Jill Abramson is shocked that her outgoing public editor thinks her paper “virtually bleeds” a “kind of political and cultural progressivism.”
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Opposition Leader In Togo Calls On Women To Go On ‘Sex Strike’ To Protest Government
The leader of an opposition party in the African nation of Togo is calling for a rather unique protest: A Togolese opposition leader is calling on women to go on a weeklong sex strike to demand the freedom of protesters detained ahead of elections in the West African nation. Police arrested about 120 opposition supporters…
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NBC News Reports Death Of “Astronaut Neil Young”
NBC News was among the first news outlets to report Neil Armstrong’s death yesterday. Unfortunately, whoever was in charge of their new website, NBCNews.com,made a bit of a mistake: NBC News was one of the first to learn of the death of astronaut Neil Armstrong on Saturday, but instead announced the death of astronaut Neil…
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Nepal Man Kills Son, Mistaking Him For Monkey
A farmer in southern Nepal mistook his son for a monkey trying to steal his crops and shot the 12-year-old dead.
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Day One Of Republican Convention Canceled Due To Isaac
For the second Presidential election cycle in a row, a tropical storm has resulted in the postponement of the first day events at the Republican National Convention.
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Neil Armstrong, First Man On The Moon, Dies At 82
A true pioneer passed away today.
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The Origins of “D’oh!”
Dan Castellaneta, the actor who provides the voice of Homer Simpson, explains how one of television’s most famous catchphrases came to be: H/T: Andrew Sullivan
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Because Bill Clinton Is Popular, And George W. Bush Is Not
One of these men is going to his party’s convention, the other is not. The reason why is rather obvious.
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The Empire State Building Shooting And The Appropriate Use Of Force
The fact that yesterday’s shooting at the Empire State Building resulted in nine civilians being injured by police bullets raises several questions.
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All 9 Wounded at Empire State Building Shot By Police
New York’s police commissioner admits that his officers recklessly wounded 9 innocent bystanders at the Empire State Building yesterday.
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Romney and the Birthers
Romney declared “I believe the president was born in the United States” on national television the day after he announced his 2012 campaign.
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Todd Akin Controversy Exposes Rift Inside The GOP
The fallout from Todd Akin’s rape comments on Sunday has exposed a rift in the Republican Party.
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RNC Official: New Mexico Governor’s Meeting With Indians “Dishonored” General Custer
A Republican National Committee official upbraided members of New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez’s staff over her planned meeting with a group of American Indians: A progressive group called on Republican National Committee leader Pat Rogers to step down on Friday after emails showed him telling New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez’s staff that meeting with a group…