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Looks like the Club for Growth/Sarah Palin wing of the Republican Party has prevailed in this race. DeDe Scozzafava suspends her campaign:
Dede Scozzafava, the Republican and Independence parties candidate, announced Saturday that she is suspending her campaign for the 23rd Congressional District and releasing all her supporters.
The state Assemblywoman has not thrown her support to either Doug Hoffman, the Conservative PartySource: Crooks and Liars RSS Feed
Performers at Thursday's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame benefit concert included John Fogerty, left, who joined Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band onstage to play tunes by Creedence Clearwater Revival and Roy Orbison.
Music Review
By JON PARELES
NYT
History lesson, star showcase, oldies singalong, canonization and romp — on Thursday night, the first of two Madison Square Garden celebrations and benefits for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was all of those.
From the Daily News:
No joke: visiting your mother-in-law can really pay off!
Just ask Pennsylvania resident Mi Hyun Moon, who bagged a $5 million jackpot while in Queens with her husband to see his mother.
She chose to receive a lump-sum payment of $2.8 million or $1.8 million after taxes.
So she gets less than half of what she won.
This state is so sad...
Obama unhappy with criticism of his NYC date night: "WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama says only once since Jan. 20 has White House life annoyed him.
It was the Saturday in May when, trying to be a good husband, he kept a campaign promise to take his wife, Michelle, to New York after the election for one of their 'date nights' - dinner and a Broadway play.
Conservative commentators and Republican officials criticized him for doing so.
'People made it into a political Source: Chicagoray RSS Feed
RedState Morning Briefing
For October 29, 2009 1. Women Aren’t Liking The Sexiest President That Ever Was or Will Be’s Health Care Plan
2. Rich Heffley and Charlie Crist Fail In Their Rubio Attack. Potentially Violate Federal Law.
3. Did Charlie Crist and Rich Heffley Create the Charlie Crist Hitler Video?
4. Lindsey Graham: South Carolina’s Missing Senator
5. The NRSC’s Embarrassing Fig Leaf
6. National Conservative Campaign FundSource: Red State RSS Feed
Overshadowed by John Kerry's embrace of a typically Kerry-ian middle-way strategy in Afghanistan was his response to a reporter's question about Hamid Karzai's alleged drug lord brother:
During our walk, we had a very direct conversation about that. In fact, he asked me about it, he raised the subject, quite interesting. And we talked about the perceptions of his brother.
Let me just say this in answer to this. I have requested from our intelligence sources and law enforcementSource: The Plank RSS Feed
CDC | Each week CDC analyzes information about influenza disease activity in the United States and publishes findings of key flu indicators in a report called FluView. During the week of October 11-17, 2009, a review of the key indictors found that influenza activity continued to increase in the United States from the previous week. Below is a summary of the most recent key indicators:
Visits to doctors for influenza-like illness (ILI) increased steeply since last week in the UnitedSource: subrealism RSS Feed
A new poll shows an interesting snapshot of the American mindset that sharply contradicts what Hollywood and the MSM would have us believe...
40% of Americans consider themselves CONSERVATIVE, 36% say they're MODERATE and only 20% identify themselves as LIBERAL.
"Forty percent of Americans describe their political views as conservative, 36% as moderate, and 20% as liberal. This marks a shift from 2005 through 2008, when moderates were tied with conservatives as the mostSource: Blonde sagacity RSS Feed
Do you think that the government is spending money faster and faster? It is.
I was browsing the budget's historical tables yesterday when I realized that it took 16 years for the federal government to go from spending $1 trillion a year to spending $2 trillion a year (that's 28 years, if you look at the data in real dollars). It only took seven years for the federal government to go from spending $2 trillion to spending $3 trillion (that's six years in real dollars).
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Jimi is our chief hometown hero here in Seattle (Kurt Cobain being a very close second). This is from probably his most famous performance after Woodstock, live at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival. (At the end of his gig, he climaxed "Wild Thing" by lighting his guitar on fire.) Anyway, I used to have an LP from Monterey with Jimi on Side One and Otis Redding on Side Two. (What a great album. Somewhere I lent it to someone and it vanished.)Source: Crooks and Liars RSS Feed
By Mail Foreign Service
This is the world’s most expensive SUV - but with three bottles of the world’s most expensive vodka included in the price tag, it actually appears to be a bargain.
The 1million Dartz Prombron Monaco Red Diamond Edition has gold-plated windows, pure tungsten exhausts, and the speed gauges are encrusted in diamonds.
The seats are not for the squeamish. They are made of one of the softest materials around - leather from a whale’s penis.
Source: The Two Malcontents RSS Feed
The New York Times has an article about digitally-altered photos, and whether they should be required to come with warning labels -- at least in cases when they change a woman's body to become inhumanly skinny. It sounds like a nutty idea to me. What struck me in the article was this before-and-after shot of Jessica Alba:
Here's whatI found strange. To me, the photo on the left looks vastly better. But the one on the right is the digitally altered version. Not only did the studioSource: The Plank RSS Feed
The Heenes may not be capitalizing on their hoax that fooled the nation, but that’s not stopping others from trying to make a buck.
Plantraco Microflight, a remote control airplane and blimp company based in Saskatoon Saskatchewan is looking to capitalize on the "balloon boy" hype with an official "Balloon Boy Halloween Kit" selling online for $19.99.
The costume is based off of last week’s hoax involving Richard and Mayumi Heene, who falsely reported their 6-year-old sonSource: The Two Malcontents RSS Feed
The left continues to demonize critics on a scale seldom seen before. Not only has the White House declared war on an entire news channel – Fox News – but leftist commentator, news channels, newspapers and magazine do their best to convince the public that all opposition is “unpatriotic” as well.
Reason compiled a handy list of prime examples of Democrats calling Republicans and critical Independents “unpatriotic,” “unAmerican” and what not:
Bill Press,Source: PoliGazette RSS Feed
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has spent years trying to perfect his Spanish. He bucked Republican allies to endorse immigration reform. And he has created a package of small-business services called the Latino Business Initiative.
He has been rewarded with dozens of endorsements from ethnic news organizations.
But on Thursday, the city’s biggest and most influential Spanish-language newspaper sent a different message: “adiós.”
In a front-page editorial, it endorsed hisSource: Queens Crap RSS Feed
If you miss the live broadcast you can catch a re-broadcast of the Sunday, Monday and Tuesday night shows on URLRadio.net from 11:00am - 12:00pm central time. Or you can always download past shows via the podcast.
The Say Anything Show - Fullscreen
ON TONIGHT’S SHOW: Why is it that we’ve lost so much faith in capitalism? Why can’t we trust market forces, and trust the public’s ability to make the best decisions for themselves? I’ll discuss. Also, shouldSource: Say Anything RSS Feed
Off to Rudiments of Blacksmithing III today, at 2pm. Woot!
http://www.prospecthillforge.com/classDe…
Rudiments of Blacksmithing III
This class continues where Rudiments of Blacksmithing II left off. You’ll finally have some idea of how to manage a forge-fire, and get to practice doing so. While doing so, you’ll produce matching scrolls and generally work on having more control over your work, and learn still more basic techniques, including:
Source: dispatches from TJICistan RSS Feed
Thursday I reached for Rick Perlstein's wondrous Nixonland to help make a point about how similar the tragically hubristic war in Afghanistan is to the tragically hubristic war in Vietnam. But after I found what I was looking for in the book, and quoted copiously in the post, I kept reading and found something else I want to share. Perlstein really is one of the best contemporary historians writing about American politics and if you stick with DWT long enough you'll probably wind upSource: DownWithTyranny! RSS Feed
What do leftist documentary maker Robert Greenwald, Little Green Footballs blogger Charles Johnson, and Daily Beast contributor Max Blumenthal have in common?
They all peddled malicious, false quotes attributed to Rush Limbaugh and are unrepentant about furthering false information regarding the talk show host.
NewsBusters parent company the Media Research Center has a new Web site complete with video and/or screenshots of these and others in the media furthering the phonySource: NewsBusters RSS Feed
A school was ordered to pay nearly £20,000 in fines and legal costs yesterday after a pupil lost all but two of her fingers in an art lesson.The penalty was increased on the Giles foundation school in Boston, Lincolnshire, because staff failed to report the "catastrophic" incident, involving plaster of paris, to the Health and Safety Executive.Boston magistrates heard the schoolgirl, whose identity has not been revealed, was one of a group on a BTec course who were making sculptures ofSource: British Blogs RSS Feed
RedState Morning Briefing
For October 15, 2009
Go to http://www.redstate.com/action/ for the name and phone number of your Senator. Call your Senator and demand opposition to the Baucus health care plan.
1. The Totally Real And Not Fake Stupid Quotes Shenaniganza!
2. Rush’s Rams
3. How Limbaugh’s embodiment of MLK’s dream changed my life
4. Is Robert Wexler Under Criminal Investigation?
5. Snowe’s Yes Vote and ObamaCare’sSource: Red State RSS Feed
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Amy-Sherman Palladino creator of Gilmore Girls, will be doing a show for HBO. Like her previous show, it will deal with mother-daughter relations:
Sherman-Palladino will write and executive produce the untitled drama, which chronicles the complicated relationship between three adult sisters, all writers sharing the same upper east side apartment building, and their mother, a domineering literary lioness who reserves most of her affections for their Source: Liberal Values RSS Feed
Peace prize becomes a travesty
WA Today.com.au
by Paul Sheehan
Long before the Nobel Peace Prize was debased and trivialised into an episode of American Idol, the failure beneath the soaring rhetoric of Barack Obama had been exposed. Even the secretary of the Nobel committee sheepishly admitted on Friday: ''Nominations for the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize closed just 11 days after he [Obama] took office.''
While Republicans were hoping to have all members in its caucus oppose health care legislation, Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) announced today that she will vote for the Finance Committee’s bill, making her the only Republican to do so. “When history calls, history calls,” she told her colleagues, noting that she still had some criticisms of the bill. She also touted the legislation’s “bipartisan, landmark reforms.”
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) wrongly predicted that the billSource: Think Progress RSS Feed
They helped conduct it, but the backlash at the incoherence of the findings has forced them to place the blame back on the folks who commissioned it, AHIP.
From Politico:
PricewaterhouseCoopers, the authors of AHIP’s report, put out a statement last night that basically said, “Hey, we weren’t paid to evaluate the effects of the entire bill, but rather a small slice of it.” The statement only seems to reinforce critics’ view that the report is skewed preciselySource: Donklephant RSS Feed
UPDATE: The situation has now been resolved and the Guardian ungagged. Read to the bottom of the post for further details.
Looks like Carter-Ruck solicitors should be in the PR business, because neither I nor, I'll wager, you, had ever heard of Trafigura until they allegedly slapped an injunction on the Guardian prohibiting them from - get this - reporting proceedings in Parliament in which Trafigura's name had, apparently, been mentioned.
Well, get comfy, guys, because you'reSource: Mr Eugenides RSS Feed
As if the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (Fan and Fred) crackups weren't bad enough, IBDeditorials.com noted on Thursday evening that another bad-mortgage shoe is about to drop. This times it's at the Federal Housing Authority (FHA).
First, let's revisit Fan and Fred to remind readers just how complete the disaster has been at these decades in the making Democratic crony-controlled entities.
A little-noticed CNNMoney.com item by Chris Isidore in late July told us what the original Source: NewsBusters RSS Feed
Brownells has shipped the parts I ordered to complete my AR-15 lower. I figured I’d keep it simple for my first lower, and just got a DPMS parts kit and a DPMS standard M4 collapsable stock kit. This upper will go on my 6.8SPC upper, so that I don’t have to keep stealing the lower off my Bushmaster every time I want to shoot 6.8SPC. The good thing about ordering from Brownells, from the East Coast, anyway, is that you get to see a nice f**k you to Mayor Daley in the FedEX tracking:
Source: Snowflakes in Hell RSS Feed
A PB Essay by Martha Richler
The Bullingdon photo just won’t go away. It pesters Cameron like a fly – the more he swats at it, the more persistent it gets.
Cameron could learn a thing or two from Clinton, who handled his Oxford days deftly from the start. In the same year as the Bullingdon photo,1992, Clinton was elected President of the United States. Unemployment in America was up to ten million – and Clinton knew how vital it was to downplay his privileged past.
Source: Political Betting RSS Feed
Editor’s Note: Las Vegas Boulevard – also known as “The Strip” – is known for its glitz, glamour and lure of hitting the jackpot. But a world exists beneath this iconic area – it has also become home to those down on their luck. Homeless are living in the flood channels that run beneath the city, where many of them have built elaborate shelters deep in the dark labyrinths.
Many of the people who have settled underground are driven here by unemployment, drugsSource: AC360 RSS Feed
From the NY Times:
Sam Chang, the hotel king of New York, surveyed a portion of his domain from West 39th Street, a gritty block south of the Port Authority, from where he can see not one, not two, but a half-dozen of his hotel sites on a single block. “They ought to name this block for me,” he said.
Investors, real estate brokers and hotel chains love Mr. Chang. Community groups, some elected officials and the hotel and construction unions, not so much. Critics contend he has Source: Queens Crap RSS Feed
As John Noonan notes below, Iran’s favorite nuclear watchdog, IAEA director general and Nobel laureate Mohamed Elbaradei announced yesterday that the greatest threat to the Middle East is Israel. Though he is due—long overdue—to retire from the UN agency in November, the Cairo native told Spiegel Online in May “There can be no question of retirement. The nuclear threat is too great for me to be able to put this issue to rest. I will continue to play an active role.” If that’s bad Source: The Blog RSS Feed
Last week, I posted a chart on this blog showing the percent change in federal education spending and student achievement since 1970 (achievement has been flat while federal education spending has nearly tripled).
After laughing out loud when he saw it, IQ expert and Bell Curve author Charles Murray mused that “such a huge proportion of a child’s educational prospects are determined by things other than school (genes and the non-school environment) that reforms of the schools can Source: Cato-at-liberty RSS Feed
RedState Morning Briefing
For October 5, 2009
Sign up to get the morning briefing by email here.
A question we must all ask today: If Barack Obama cannot convince the IOC to send the Olympics to Chicago, how is he going to convince Iran to give up its nukes? 1. Obama Has Lost A Valuable Thing
2. Roland Martin is a Moron
3. Virginia argues that they don’t need to send out military absentee ballots in time to vote
4. ACORN Planned ‘Takeover’ Source: Red State RSS Feed
From the admittedly biased BBC News:
Relatives mourn next to dead bodies in Amausi village in the eastern state of Bihar. Maoists kill 16 Indian villagers
Friday, 2 October 2009
Sixteen people have been killed by suspected Maoist rebels in a village in the Indian state of Bihar, police say. The attack took place in Icharwa village in Khagaria district, 200km (124 miles) from the state capital, Patna, late on Thursday night.
A survivor, whose son was among theSource: Sweetness Light RSS Feed
Chet Culver was one of 22 governors to sign a letter this week to congressional leaders that expresses support for health care reform.
“Sky-rocketing health care costs hurt families, force businesses to cut or drop health benefits and cause already strained state budget deficits to significantly grow.
