The “How to Throw a Baseball” Clinic Timing

…couldn’t be better.

The class act triple play makes me weepy.

And, To ALL Our Dear Swillers

Happy MOST WONDERFUL Night of the Year!!!

This Flopping Aces Post Made Me Feel Unutterably Sad

Because he’s right.

The President of the United States has called everyday people ~ you and me ~ “enemies”.

ENEMIES

Staggering. It’s just staggering.

“Everything That’s Wrong…” No Pie Chart Necessary Edition

What sucks is that Kendrick Meek is a really decent guy, who has deserved a stand-up fight from the beginning. That a WEASEL like Bill Clinton, working with the ethics challenged Chicago tools in the White House, would throw a really viable, terrific Democrat like Kendrick over for a Circus Peanut-colored clown like Charlie Crist is an abomination. Like Marco says, it is the PERFECT illustration four days before the election of what is wrong with the Democratic Party and in Washington, period.

UPDATE: Eh…WHAT?!?!?!

Clinton denies asking Meek to exit Fla. race

PANAMA CITY, Fla. – Former President Bill Clinton said Friday that he did not ask Democratic U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek to drop out of the Florida Senate race, where he trails badly, and throw his support behind independent Gov. Charlie Crist.

Ah…okay, eh, dude.

Best Line of the Day

It’s clear that the Republicans in line to be committee chairmen are not prepared to be potted plants.

Americans are THROUGH with the old days, Newt included. (Via Instapundit.)

And the GOP BEST GET IT THROUGH their heads before the first gavel is even raised that, just like WE, the American people, can see November from our house at this moment?

WE’LL STILL be watching Washington from January on, and we’ve got their number.

The scary part for THEM is, NOW?

We know what to do with it.

I Lurves Me Some Alaskans

Via Ace, here’s a story that re-affirms my faith in good old ‘Merkun Yes We Can Do Spirit: So Princess Lisa gets the State Supreme Court to allow her name as a write-in candidate to be posted in the polling place? Folks respond by registering dozens of new people as write-in candidates

Now, the reason that most states don’t have lists of write-in candidates is obvious: If someone wanted to be a candidate on a ticket, he’d have won his primary and be on the, you know, ballot which is spelled out. A write in candidate did not win this official contest so he is, you know, a WRITE IN. That is, people have to remember this awesome person’s name and write…it…in.

But not Lisa Murzarorkowski. She’s special. Super awesomely awesome special. She lost her primary but she deserves, nay, is OWED this seat because Mublublubski.

Dozens of people flooded the Midtown Division of Elections office this afternoon to register as write-in candidates for Tuesday’s U.S. Senate election. Many said the effort is meant to protest an order by the Alaska Supreme Court yesterday allowing a list of write-in candidates to be shown to voters who ask for assistance.

The Anchorage office received 56 Senate write-in applications — in person or by fax — in just 45 minutes, said election clerk Raymond McAndrews shortly before 5 p.m.

My only concern about this is that if any of these people actually get votes they will probably be votes that would have otherwise gone to Miller. I really really hope one of these people is named “Larry Mazeltovski”…

NJ Ballot Question

In NJ this year we have but one ballot question, a constitutional amendment:

Shall the amendment to Article VIII, Section II of the State
Constitution, agreed to by the Legislature, which: prohibits
collection by the State of assessments based solely on
employee wages and salaries for any purpose other than
providing employee benefits; dedicates all employer and
employee contributions collected for any employee benefit
fund, and all returns on investments of those contributions, to
the purpose of that fund; and prohibits any transferring,
borrowing, appropriating or using of those contributions or
returns for any other purpose, be approved?

Got that?

here’s the “helpful” interpretive statement:

This proposed constitutional amendment prohibits the
collection by the State of assessments based on employee
wages and salaries for any purpose except paying employee
benefits (or making other employee-authorized or federally
required payments, in the case of the State’s own employees),
dedicates all contributions made to the unemployment
compensation fund, the State disability benefits fund, or any
other employee benefit fund, and all returns on investments of
those contributions, to the purpose of that fund, and prohibits
the use of those contributions or returns for any other purpose.
The requirements of this proposed amendment do not apply to
the gross income tax, which is exclusively dedicated by the
Constitution to the purpose of reducing or offsetting local
property taxes.

Now, I like to think that I are moderately intelligentical but I read that four or five times and could not figure out exactly what the hell they were talking about. First off, there most certainly is a part of me that agrees with the idea that things like this should be voted down in principle if they are not clearly expressed in English.

As to the substance, it seems to me this is the Legislature basically saying that “we can not be trusted not to raid state employee pension funds to use the cash for other purposes so you’d better take away our ability to do so.” This seems to me to be a good thing.

The state employee unions are against this proposal, which at first glance might be surprising, as it is basically a guarantee by the Legislature to fully fund their benefits, but what the unions are afraid of, and rightfully so, is that this will show how large these liabilities actually are and this will be used by the State in the future to both (a) not offer anywhere near as generous benefits and (b) even worse, from the unions’ point of view, be used as a very valid reason to hire as few new State employees as possible because we simply can not afford the ones we already have.

So I say, in spite of how crappily worded it is, vote “yes” on this.

Hey! Look What I Found!

I Was Busy This Morning ~ Had a Little Party to Put Together

…for one of my favorite guys.

Dang near a hundred wonderful Rubio friends showed up, despite the 9 a.m. weekday start and, amazingly, the rain held off. (Honestly, I think even the weather’s pulling for Marco.) Cheers went up when the bus ~ splendiferous in a fantastic black wrap ~ pulled into view, and then Marco and Congressman Jeff Miller came around the side, to the delight of the crowd that had gathered. Congressman Miller handled the introduction.

Marco spoke, as he always does, of the promise of this great nation, of exceptionalism and the specter of diminishment. Of responsibility and pride. Of all the things that make this great nation so uniquely a place unto itself, unlike any in the world before or since.

He had the great good grace to talk about the rest of the Republican ticket in Florida as well, to urge everyone to vote for them, getting one of the biggest laughs with, “And you should vote for Rick Scott, no matter WHAT Alex Sink’s Blackberry says!”

I’ve told my volunteers since the beginning, “See him in person once.” I don’t care how many times you’ve heard him online or on TV, and you know all there is to know about where Marco Rubio stands on everything from toilet paper to rice noodles in the Third World…SEE him in person ONCE. Some obnoxious guy named Val Prieto told me that about 14 months ago. BUGGED me about it and, oddly enough, Marco was coming to Pensacola the next week (August of last year) to speak at the Gulf Coast Economics Club. So I paid the fifteen bucks for a lousy lunch and probably the most engaging two hours of my life up to that time. And I started bugging the campaign the next day. They’ve been stuck with me ever since. “See him in person once.” His sincerity, his directness, his willingness to discourse with any individual in his path is so refreshing and an intangible that you can’t experience through a screen. And those answers he gives you will be the same answers he gives in Sarasota, or Jacksonville, Tampa, Tallahassee or, God willing, in D.C., should the same questions arise. And you instinctly KNOW that, when you’ve met him in person. Just once.

Oh, yeah.

It was a GREAT Pensacola day.

In seven days, it’ll be a GREAT for Florida and this GREAT country day.

Super Jurist Kagan Has Cast Her First Vote!

She voted for granting a stay of execution…because one of the drugs being used might not be safe

WASHINGTON — Justice Elena Kagan cast her first vote on the Supreme Court late Tuesday, joining the liberals in dissent when the high court cleared the way for the execution of an Arizona murderer.

…His lawyers, in a last-ditch appeal, had raised questions about one of the drugs used in the execution. Since the only U.S. manufacturer of sodium thiopental had suspended production, Arizona officials said they had obtained a supply of the drug from a British company.

The judge in Phoenix put the execution on hold because she said she was “left to speculate” whether this drug was safe for its intended use.

You just can’t make this shit up.

You really can’t.

Do These Protect Others…

…from the wearer’s flatulance?

Military officials in a number of European countries are testing “blast boxers,” armored underwear that protect the groin from shrapnel, according to the garments’ manufacturer.

Name That Party!

City commissioner arrested on election fraud charges; I guess he ran as an Independent

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Daytona Beach City Commissioner Derrick Henry and his campaign manager, Genesis Robinson, were arrested Wednesday, charged with committing absentee ballot fraud during Henry’s 2010 re-election campaign, the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office said.

Word to the Wise: if you’re going to fraudulently request nearly 100 absentee ballots, use more than one email address and don’t leave any of them lying around your house.

Amateurs.

Ding Dong The Ditch Is Dead

Which old ditch? The Billions Ditch

Gov. Chris Christie will kill the second Hudson River tunnel project — the biggest active public works undertaking in the country — with an announcement expected to be made today, an official said.

Christie is sticking by the decision he made more than two weeks ago to scuttle what could be a $9 billion-plus project because of concerns that the state would be responsible for $2 billion to $5 billion in cost overruns, an official familiar with the decision told The Associated Press. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because an announcement had not been made.

With a broke NJ on the hook for the billions in cost over runs, this is the correct decision.

Hey, What Does This Button Do?

Oops…

On Saturday morning, according to people briefed on what happened, a squadron of ICBMs suddenly dropped down into what’s known as “LF Down” status, meaning that the missileers in their bunkers could no longer communicate with the missiles themselves. LF Down status also means that various security protocols built into the missile delivery system, like intrusion alarms and warhead separation alarms, were offline. In LF Down status, the missiles are still technically launch-able, but they can only be controlled by an airborne command and control platform like the Boeing E-6 NAOC “Kneecap” aircraft, E-4B NAOC aircraft or perhaps the TACAMO fleet, which is primarily used to communicate with nuclear submarines. Had the country been placed on a higher state of nuclear alert, those platforms would be operating automatically because the frequencies used to transmit nuclear codes would be interfacing with separate systems, according to officials.

…Commanders at the Air Force Base sent warning notices to colleagues at the country’s two other nuclear missile command centers, as well as the to the National Military Command Center in Washington. At that point, they did not know what was causing the failure, and they did not know whether other missile systems were experiencing similar symptoms.

According to the official, engineers discovered that similar hardware failures had triggered a similar cascading failure 12 years ago at Minot AFB in North Dakota and Malmstrom AFB in Montana. That piece of hardware (pictured below) is the prime suspect.

The Prime Suspect:

I don’t want to set the world on fire…

S0 FAR, FL0R1DA 3ARLY V0T1NG NUMB3RS

…MAK3 M3 SM1L3 L1K3 A CH3SH1R3 CAT.

Early voting has become one of the Democrat’s most powerful political weapons, that is, until now. At last check, 150,000 more Republicans had cast early ballots, either in-person or by absentee. For a party that’s never won even a single day of early voting, it’s a sign GOP enthusiasm is growing.

GROWING?

We be CHOMPIN’ at the bit, cher.

Now, back to putting Marco signs together for my little bus party tomorrow…ya’ll welcome to come.

When Ever I Need Some Bullish Commodity Advice

…I just know I can count on Jim Rodgers.

His candor is very refreshing.

Not Quite What I’d Tout

But, hey, I’m just making noise from the back seat

(Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama on Monday touted his administration’s job-creation efforts just eight days before elections in which voters’ economic anxiety threatens his Democrats’ grip on Congress.

…Obama’s attacks on Republicans have done little to dent voter disappointment with his economic policies, which have so far failed to bring down unemployment stuck near 10 percent.

What those clever writers at Reuters fail to mention is that while it’s true that Obama’s policies have indeed “failed to bring down unemployment stuck near 10 percent” what they did manage to succeed in doing was push unemployment up to 10 percent.

When he took office in 2009 the unemployment rate was 7.7%, and here are the rates for the rest of 2009 once The Won was in charge in that Newer Smarter way of his:

Feb:8.2 March:8.6 April:8.9 May:9.4 June:9.5 July:9.4 August:9.7 Sep:9.8 Oct:10.1 Nov:10.0 Dec:10.0

2010 has been 9.5 or higher every month.

So who’s “talking a good game” now, Chief?

“It Was The Right Thing To Do”

When caught blatantly cheating during a debate

Florida Democratic candidate for Governor Alex Sink said

“After the debate tonight, one of my campaign advisors admitted he tried to communicate with me during one of the breaks. While he told me it was out of anger with Rick Scott’s repeated distortion of facts, it was a foolish thing to do. It violated a debate agreement and I immediately removed him from the campaign.”

It seems to me the RIGHT thing to do was immediately say to the staffer trying to show you the message “what the hell are you doing? Get that thing out of here!”

Instead the video clearly shows Sink listening and pondering the message in clear, brazen, violation of what she agreed to. She only objected to it AFTER SHE GOT CAUGHT.

Rules only apply to us Little People.

VOTE VOTE VOTE next week, folks, as if our very way of life depended on it.

Because it does.

Shoeless Schmoe Jackson

Via Tim, a dirty stinky hippy launches his own WMDs

Hmm, that wind up and delivery look awfully familiar…

Our Hero

“Don’t Call ME a Liar, Pal”

For your enjoyment, a riff on “Felix the Cat Clock eyes”……
Starring Paul “Spend Me a River” Krugman!!

Krugman Thinking

This is how Nobel winners think, that the solution to a huge deficit caused in large part by out of control government spending is more government spending.

Much like alcoholics can drink themselves to sobriety.

Kiss Some More House Value Buh-Bye!

Figure another 20% or so if these geniuses get their way

Sacrosanct tax breaks, including deductions on mortgage interest, remain on the table just weeks before the deficit commission issues recommendations on policies to pare back with the aim of balancing the budget by 2015.

…At stake, in addition to the mortgage-interest deductions, are child tax credits and the ability of employees to pay their portion of their health-insurance tab with pretax dollars. Commission officials are expected to look at preserving these breaks but at a lower level, according to people familiar with the matter.

The War of the Left on the Middle Class continues.

No White House Christmas Card for HIM!

From Jake Tapper’s Twitter Feed just now:

jaketapper R.I. Dem Gubernatorial Candidate: President Obama “Can Take His Endorsement and Shove It” (from me + @AnnCompton) > http://bit.ly/cNYkAC

Do I sense a tinge of “bitter” in the air…?

UPDATE: Ed’s got the whole story. Excuse me as I stifle a snicker.

2011 Labs4Rescue Calenders Available

I’m partial to the Black one, of course, but they’ve got all MANNER, color and size of Labradork covered and their purchase goes to the very BEST cause imaginable.

You DO know BeauBeau is a Labs4Rescue Wabbie, don’t you?
What? You didn’t?

–Under the impression it was common knowledge, Beauregarde needs a cookie to recover.

Well, he is! (Although he came to us named…”Craig”. We’ve never quite gotten over that one. Supposedly it was his vet’s name, but…come on.)
(Really? “CRAIG”?)

So BUY A CALENDER and keep track of delightful dog days all year long.

Barack’s Special Theory Of Relativity

Einstein is so last millennium, folks. Here’s our Nobel Prize Winning Community Organizer’s plan for next year:

1) spend $1.4 trillion more than you take in first year
2) spend $1.2 trillion more than you take in second year
3) spend “only” say $800 trbillion* more than you take in third year
4) declare self “Hawtest Deficit Hawk Evuh“

*sorry, I was in touch with my Inner Biden for a moment there; thanks to Mike for the correction