Category — Uncategorized

If you have an interest in the weather, Dr. Jeff Masters has a good post on the Super Tuesday Outbreak which had at least four EF-4 [166-200 mph] tornadoes and the possibility that one of the nine EF-3 tornadoes may have scoured a 120-mile track across Tennessee.

There are also links to sites with even more information, but according to Tom DeLay we don’t know if there is global climate change.

Rightwingers React

In a move that surprised everyone as it shows a unsuspected connection to reality by a Republican candidate, CNN reports Romney suspends presidential campaign:

(CNN) — Mitt Romney suspended his bid for the Republican presidential nomination Thursday, saying if he continued it would “forestall the launch of a national campaign and be making it easier for Senator Clinton or Obama to win.”

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is suspending his campaign.

“In this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign be a part of aiding a surrender to terror. This is not an easy decision. I hate to lose,” the former Massachusetts governor said.

“If this were only about me, I’d go on. But it’s never been only about me. I entered this race because I love America, and because I love America, in this time of war I feel I have to now stand aside for our party and for our country.”

Romney made the announcement Thursday afternoon at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington.

I’m quite sure that the attendees at CPAC have nothing to worry about as there is absolutely no proof that John McCain intends to draft college Republicans for his hundred year war, or that he intends to allow ayatollah Huckabee enshrine his interpretation of the Bible in the the Constitution when he becomes Secretary of Religion in the McCain administration.

I haven’t made it a secret that I am not a fan of Hillary Clinton, but let’s keep the record straight.

Dave Johnson at Seeing The Forest does the work on Hillary Clinton’s legal career: she was an intellectual property law specialist and did a lot of pro bono work on child advocacy, not a typical corporate attorney.

Another issue is that she was on the board of Wal-Mart from 1986 to 1992.

It would be hard to find anyone who dislikes today’s Wal-Mart more than I do. They are a destructive force that: hired “non-English-speaking workers” to build a “Supercenter” that sucked the life out of many of my favorite local merchants; stiffed a local city for tax abatements and infrastructure improvements when they built their original store; abuses their workers by not adequately staffing the store while maintaining a large roster of part-time employees to avoid paying benefits; etc. ad nauseum.

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I don’t guess too many political blogger are around little kids or they would recognize “Yes, we can!”. To offer them a little help and guidance plug “yes we can bob” into a search engine.

I mean, really, ripping off Bob the Builder for a campaign slogan – come on.

If you mail people cards, be aware that one of the dimensions must be less than 6 ¹/₈ inches or they charge you extra for postage. Also you should write parallel to the longer edge, or they will have a fit.

This message brought to you by your new, privatized, US Postal Service, which should not be confused with the old, cheaper and friendlier, US Post Office.

Paul Kiel at TPM Muckraker reminds us that the FISA bill is back for more votes on Monday. Several of the amendments are due for up or down votes, so attendance is critical to stop telecom immunity.

Anyone making book on whether the candidates will take a break on the eve of “Super Tuesday” to actually fulfill their roles in the Senate?

Via Moi at Bloggg a Nederlander [Dutch] site that isn’t what you think.

Don’t click on anything, just wait and watch.

John Edwards and Rudy Giuliani have dropped out of the race and I am dropping out of the Democratic Party as they don’t have any real Democrats left in the process.

Molly Ivins wrote a column back in January of 2006, I will not support Hillary Clinton for president, pretty much explaining why Clinton is a bad idea. The last time people didn’t listen to Molly, we ended up with the Shrubbery. She was a great loss to the country, as she told the truth.

Natasha wondered about the other candidate in Obama: Another Liberdem? The answer is yes. Don’t listen to his speeches, read his positions. The man has more in common with Arlen Specter than John Kennedy. He’s a moderate to conservative Republican and further to the right than Hillary Clinton.

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Tonight was the last official act the Shrubbery is required to do before leaving office. That’s it. If he doesn’t do another thing, and based on past performance he will spend a lot of time doing nothing, he’s square with the requirements of his job. Amazing isn’t it. He has managed to make the Presidency of the United States the biggest no-show job in the country. There are things he can do, appoint people, sign or veto bills, etc. but he’s not required to do them. Nope, the speech was it.

If you’re interested MSNBC provides the text of the speech he was supposed to give. Who knows what he actually said, but he took 53 minutes for a six page speech.

They also have the text of the Democratic response delivered by Governor Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas. It’s only one page but she makes her point – we have problems and it would be nice if the President would join us in solving them.

And you thought it was only comets and asteroids you had to worry about.

Ellroon at Rants from the Rookery announced it first, but BossKitty at the American Street has a plethora of graphics for the story of the out-of-control intelligence satellite that is coming out of orbit to slam into some unsuspecting corner of the planet. It’s the size of a bus.

Well, we have contingency plans, right? I mean this has happened in the past and knew it could happen in the future so there’s a plan in place to take care of this in a sane and sensible manner, right? They certainly didn’t ignore the possibility of something the size of a Greyhound crashing into a major city, right? FEMA’s not involved, right? We aren’t going to try to use the missile defense thing, right?

OK, stainless steel colander™, motorcycle helmet, duct tape, and plastic, yep, I know where they are. Hmmm, Geiger counter, gas mask, bio-hazard suit, house jack, I’m set.

Barack Obama won convincingly in South Carolina, getting twice as many votes as Hillary Clinton. I’m happy for him and his supporters.

The rest of the analysis is hogwash. The combined turnout for the South Carolina primaries was about 40%. Not bad for second worst state in the nation for voter turnout, only Hawaii has lower turn out for Presidential elections, but not that great for a state that has open primaries and no party registration.

If this meant that South Carolina’s 8 electoral votes would be cast for a Democrat I might be a bit happier, but come November, South Carolina will vote for the Republican, not in any great numbers, but sufficient to put the state squarely in the red column.

Clinton still leads in the delegate count, and “momentum” exists only in the mind of the media pundits. They are trying to push things to an early conclusion, and it isn’t going to happen.

In other news – “none of the above” is gaining on Rudy Giuliani and Ron Paul for fourth place in the Florida Republican primary.

The same day Rudy was on demonstrating for all and sundry that he has never understood the American economic system, the towheaded misogynist had Pat Buchanan on, and, as Bast is my witness, Pat said something that made a lot of sense.

Everyone was talking about Bill Clinton attacking Obama as a surrogate for Hillary, when Pat chimed in say say they were wrong. Bill was reacting to what Barack had said about his administration, and it had nothing to do with Hillary.

Think about it. Bill Clinton is not exactly a shy and retiring person when it comes to his years in the White House. What Obama was saying, from Bill’s perspective, was that everything that Bill had accomplished was the result of Republican ideas.

I don’t think that Bill is going to let up on Obama. I think he is seriously ticked off about being dissed by Obama. Ol’ Bill did a number of things that I’m not happy about, but he was in charge of country during his eight years, even during the worst of the Republican/media mudslinging. He got things done, including balancing the budget, reducing the size of government, making agencies like FEMA effective, and encouraging the economy, that make those of us who were aware of the world want to see a return to those days [but without the NAFTA crap].

Royal Australian Air Force Ensign

Do not go drinking with those who fly this flag.

Dr. Cole at Informed Comment on the news: “Hiring Paul Wolfowitz to advise the State Department on arms control is like hiring Lindsay Lohan as a driving instructor.”