Fuck its silent in here.......

[Quality Start Machine]

It looks like the Romney team is preparing to go thermonuclear against Obama with some of these things soon.

...the Republican's campaign is now prepared to go eye for an eye in an intense, no-holds-barred act of political reprisal, said two Romney advisers who spoke on condition of anonymity. In the next chapter of Boston's pushback — which began last week when they began labeling Obama a "liar" — very little will be off-limits, from the president's youthful drug habit, to his ties to disgraced Chicago politicians.

I don't know if that's really going to work.  Isn't this an attack avenue that the Romney-aligned Super PACs should use rather than the candidate himself?  Or a VP nominee even?  I think the polls are pretty clear that even though Americans may not like much of Obama's policies, they find him somewhat likeable.

Plus, given Romney's failed foray into being a barber, I'm not sure youthful indescretions would be a good platform for choosing your fight.

Anyway, all that kind of thit (on both sides) is just red meat for the base. Romney needs to win some moderates, and he's not going to get there this way.

[Gilgamesh]

It looks like the Romney team is preparing to go thermonuclear against Obama with some of these things soon.

...the Republican's campaign is now prepared to go eye for an eye in an intense, no-holds-barred act of political reprisal, said two Romney advisers who spoke on condition of anonymity. In the next chapter of Boston's pushback — which began last week when they began labeling Obama a "liar" — very little will be off-limits, from the president's youthful drug habit, to his ties to disgraced Chicago politicians.

I don't know if that's really going to work.  Isn't this an attack avenue that the Romney-aligned Super PACs should use rather than the candidate himself?  Or a VP nominee even?  I think the polls are pretty clear that even though Americans may not like much of Obama's policies, they find him somewhat likeable.

Plus, given Romney's failed foray into being a barber, I'm not sure youthful indescretions would be a good platform for choosing your fight.

Anyway, all that kind of thit (on both sides) is just red meat for the base. Romney needs to win some moderates, and he's not going to get there this way.

He will need better thit to phling.

[Quality Start Machine]

It looks like the Romney team is preparing to go thermonuclear against Obama with some of these things soon.

...the Republican's campaign is now prepared to go eye for an eye in an intense, no-holds-barred act of political reprisal, said two Romney advisers who spoke on condition of anonymity. In the next chapter of Boston's pushback — which began last week when they began labeling Obama a "liar" — very little will be off-limits, from the president's youthful drug habit, to his ties to disgraced Chicago politicians.

I don't know if that's really going to work.  Isn't this an attack avenue that the Romney-aligned Super PACs should use rather than the candidate himself?  Or a VP nominee even?  I think the polls are pretty clear that even though Americans may not like much of Obama's policies, they find him somewhat likeable.

Plus, given Romney's failed foray into being a barber, I'm not sure youthful indescretions would be a good platform for choosing your fight.

Anyway, all that kind of thit (on both sides) is just red meat for the base. Romney needs to win some moderates, and he's not going to get there this way.

He will need better thit to phling.

He better wear hith pith helmet.

[J. Walter Weatherman]

If nothing else, this is well-executed:

[Brownie]

An interesting look at Obama's campaign spending. Lots of it is mundane, and there's no political point to be made. They are burning through cash at a nice clip, but if they can sustain fundraising, this will not be an issue.

[Internet Apex]

DRLP? If so, I apologize and would welcome a Thrill-Link to the discussion you guys had about THIS:

http://www.uic.edu/depts/pols/ChicagoPolitics/leadingthepack.pdf

Summarized:

http://www.chicagojournal.com/News/02-15-2012/Changing_our_corrupt_city%27s_course

Conclusion: Chicago is the most corrupt city in the country.

[Canadouche]

DRLP? If so, I apologize and would welcome a Thrill-Link to the discussion you guys had about THIS:

http://www.uic.edu/depts/pols/ChicagoPolitics/leadingthepack.pdf

Summarized:

http://www.chicagojournal.com/News/02-15-2012/Changing_our_corrupt_city%27s_course

Conclusion: Chicago is the most corrupt city in the country.

Most corrupt? I thought Tonker was only there for a few days.

/joke would be better if made after Tonker came and went. But in the retrospect of years, who will remember?

[CBStew]

DRLP? If so, I apologize and would welcome a Thrill-Link to the discussion you guys had about THIS:

http://www.uic.edu/depts/pols/ChicagoPolitics/leadingthepack.pdf

Summarized:

http://www.chicagojournal.com/News/02-15-2012/Changing_our_corrupt_city%27s_course

Conclusion: Chicago is the most corrupt city in the country.

Most corrupt? I thought Tonker was only there for a few days.

/joke would be better if made after Tonker came and went. But in the retrospect of years, who will remember?

Hell, who will remember on the day after?

[Wheezer]

John Rocker opines that the First Amendment was intended to prevent people from having their feelings hurt.

Technically, as our Founding Fathers intended, we are all given the undeniable right to voice our thoughts and opinions freely without fear of scorn and/or ridicule derived from non-agreement. I supposedly have the same right to express myself as you do. In a perfect world, my rights should be no different from yours. I'm quite certain that given the current stage of the world's social climate, however, anyone ascribing to the ridiculous notion that our world is perfect is kidding himself. Our "perfect" world was replaced many moons ago by the defective reality in which we are all forced to reside – and one of the most blatant areas to view the erosion of perfection is seen in the lack of ability many in this great country have to speak freely without fear of chastisement.

[Edit.--Longer scorn.]

[J. Walter Weatherman]

Our "perfect" world was replaced many moons ago by the defective reality in which we are all forced to reside – and one of the most blatant areas to view the erosion of perfection is seen in the lack of ability many in this great country have to speak freely without fear of chastisement.

What We Lost, And What We Never Had...



Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

[J. Walter Weatherman]

Holy shit. I think Harry Reid just bit off Romney's ear, à la Holyfield-Tyson II.

The fallout from this could certainly get "interesting", as they say.

[World's #1 Astros Fan]

Holy shit. I think Harry Reid just bit off Romney's ear, à la Holyfield-Tyson II.

The fallout from this could certainly get "interesting", as they say.

I don't know what happened but I feel like Harry Reid can certainly fuck things up for the dems.

[J. Walter Weatherman]

Holy shit. I think Harry Reid just bit off Romney's ear, à la Holyfield-Tyson II.

The fallout from this could certainly get "interesting", as they say.

I don't know what happened but I feel like Harry Reid can certainly fuck things up for the dems.

He may well have put Romney in a no-win situation with something that seems on the merits well beyond a cheap shot. In an interview with Huffpo, no less.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/31/harry-reid-romney-taxes_n_1724027.html

Saying he had "no problem with somebody being really, really wealthy," Reid sat up in his chair a bit before stirring the pot further. A month or so ago, he said, a person who had invested with Bain Capital called his office.

"Harry, he didn't pay any taxes for 10 years," Reid recounted the person as saying.

"He didn't pay taxes for 10 years! Now, do I know that that's true? Well, I'm not certain," said Reid. "But obviously he can't release those tax returns. How would it look?

"You guys have said his wealth is $250 million," Reid went on. "Not a chance in the world. It's a lot more than that. I mean, you do pretty well if you don't pay taxes for 10 years when you're making millions and millions of dollars."

...

Tellingly, neither Reid nor his office would reveal who the investor was, making it impossible to verify if the accusation is true. And as his quote makes clear, he's uncertain if the information is accurate. The Romney campaign's press secretary, Andrea Saul, has previously denied rumors that Romney didn't pay "any taxes at all."

Romney's response so far?

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2012/08/02/romney-to-reid-put-up-or-shut-up/

(CNN) - Mitt Romney on Thursday pushed back against Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's allegations that the presumptive GOP nominee has not been paying his taxes.

"It's time for Harry to put up or shut up," Romney said on Sean Hannity's radio show.

Okay...

[Eli]

Holy shit. I think Harry Reid just bit off Romney's ear, à la Holyfield-Tyson II.

The fallout from this could certainly get "interesting", as they say.

I don't know what happened but I feel like Harry Reid can certainly fuck things up for the dems.

He may well have put Romney in a no-win situation with something that seems on the merits well beyond a cheap shot. In an interview with Huffpo, no less.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/31/harry-reid-romney-taxes_n_1724027.html

Saying he had "no problem with somebody being really, really wealthy," Reid sat up in his chair a bit before stirring the pot further. A month or so ago, he said, a person who had invested with Bain Capital called his office.

"Harry, he didn't pay any taxes for 10 years," Reid recounted the person as saying.

"He didn't pay taxes for 10 years! Now, do I know that that's true? Well, I'm not certain," said Reid. "But obviously he can't release those tax returns. How would it look?

"You guys have said his wealth is $250 million," Reid went on. "Not a chance in the world. It's a lot more than that. I mean, you do pretty well if you don't pay taxes for 10 years when you're making millions and millions of dollars."

...

Tellingly, neither Reid nor his office would reveal who the investor was, making it impossible to verify if the accusation is true. And as his quote makes clear, he's uncertain if the information is accurate. The Romney campaign's press secretary, Andrea Saul, has previously denied rumors that Romney didn't pay "any taxes at all."

Romney's response so far?

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2012/08/02/romney-to-reid-put-up-or-shut-up/

(CNN) - Mitt Romney on Thursday pushed back against Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's allegations that the presumptive GOP nominee has not been paying his taxes.

"It's time for Harry to put up or shut up," Romney said on Sean Hannity's radio show.

Okay...

Why won't Harry Reid release Mitt Romney's tax records?

[R-V]

Climatefreude!

A team of UC Berkeley physicists and statisticians that set out to challenge the scientific consensus on global warming is finding that its data-crunching effort is producing results nearly identical to those underlying the prevailing view.

The Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature project was launched by physics professor Richard Muller, a longtime critic of government-led climate studies, to address what he called "the legitimate concerns" of skeptics who believe that global warming is exaggerated.

But Muller unexpectedly told a congressional hearing last week that the work of the three principal groups that have analyzed the temperature trends underlying climate science is "excellent.... We see a global warming trend that is very similar to that previously reported by the other groups."

More climatefreude! I look forward to morph explaining why Muller is a TRADER. Did Obama get to him like he got to John Roberts?

The verdict is in: Global warming is occurring and emissions of greenhouse gases caused by human activity are the main cause.

This, according to Richard A. Muller, professor of physics at UC Berkeley, MacArthur Fellow and co-founder of the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature project. Never mind that the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and hundreds of other climatologists around the world came to such conclusions years ago. The difference now is the source: Muller is a long-standing, colorful critic of prevailing climate science, and the Berkeley project was heavily funded by the Charles Koch Charitable Foundation, which, along with its libertarian petrochemical billionaire founder Charles G. Koch, has a considerable history of backing groups that deny climate change.