The reason we need to import Canadian shale oil, skip 13 closer refineries, take it to Houston, refine it, pump it aboard an oil tanker, and ship it to Cuba is because they have no oil, and if we supply it, we can use those billions to pay for our rent to maintain our Guantamino military base, airstrips, and large military presence. And kick Mother Russia in the teeth again.

So, Keystone is an anti-Russian plot.

I've heard the stories about how the Obama administration thoroughly dislikes and mistrusts her. I've seen how lame and irrational our approach to 2014 was. And I recall the days of Howard Dean, when we fought in 50 states, when we put up candidates in every single local district, and we had some simple, unified, and effective messages.

The successes of Dean have been tossed into the trash, and with it the election of 2014.

We need to reward success, punish failure, and fix what is broken. The DNC, the DCCC, and the DSCC are broken. Time to clean house, starting with the worst DNC leader I can ever recall us having.

We need to fix things, and I cannot think of a better way to start.

There are a very large number of absentee votes coming in. So many, that the voting counters claim that they would be unable to get a tally if they are forced to wait until the polls close. It is likely that they will be given permission to start counting now, so long as all of the results are kept quiet.

High turn out? Good for the governor, the senator, and most of those Ds running for the house.

Rauner & Quinn are still tied, and it really depends on whether Madigan wants Quinn to prevail. His army is enough to determine the election.

However, the real loser is the Suntimes. Given how bad and unreadable the Trib has become, down to a 3d grade ejukashun, the Suntimes still had some things going for it - the best sports section, four crosswords, sudoku and ken ken, and some pretty savvy political reporters.

After the Suntimes endorsed Rauner, then quashed a story about the dealings and wheelings of his company, while he was in charge, they lost all credibility. No wonder that their best state political reporter quit. McKinney was sharp, wrote well, and hard working. His own credibility is strong, the Suntimes had better look in a mirror.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-rauner-sun-times-1023-biz-20141022-story.html

(Disclaimer- I know and like Dick Durbin. The only time I have found major fault with him was when he caved into pressure when he was complaining about torture committed by the CIA and US troops. If he had stood tall, perhaps some of the worst parts of the Cheney Bush Admin could have been reversed or slowed)

Dick is one smart, knowledgable, and professional person. Any state would be lucky to have him.

Oberwurst? I'll bet he doesn't even know how to milk a cow. Once he inherited his family fortune in milk and ice cream, I doubt that he even knew which end of the cow to milk.

Oberwurst came out fighting, but mostly he seemed to be trying to explain why he had no answer, while Durbin was directly answering tough questions, with well thought out explanations.

According to the International Business Times:


A threat to leak nude photos of actress Emma Watson following her game-changing HeForShe gender equality speech at the United Nations in New York this week has been revealed to be a hoax. Rantic Marketing, the social media enterprise behind the buzzed-about website EmmaYouAreNext.com, which included a countdown clock for when nude images of the British film star were set to be released on 4chan, used the platform to promote an anti-4chan campaign.

At midnight Wednesday, instead of releasing the rumored forthcoming nudes of the 24-year-old “Harry Potter” star, the website redirected visitors to Rantic.com, where they were met with a message pledging to #SHUTDOWN4CHAN. “Spread the word!” reads the page’s welcome announcement. The hoax comes three weeks after the first round of female celebrities' hacked images were leaked on the site and Reddit’s “The Fappening” boards. “Join us as we shut down 4chan and prevent more private pictures from being leaked,” said Rantic. “None of these women deserve this, and together we can make a change.”

Rantic claims to have been hired by unidentified celebrity publicists to create the hoax in an effort to shut down the controversial image-sharing site following the recent nude photo scandals that have affected stars such as “The Hunger Games” actress Jennifer Lawrence, actress Gabrielle Union, Olympian McKayla Maroney and reality-TV star Kim Kardashian.


- - -

While many of the criticisms here may be valid, if we go around calling 4chan terrorists, especially in view of the above, we end up looking like the ones we have criticized. http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025573731

You first allowed the locals handle the situation, which is almost always the right thing to do.
When they proved to be idiots in search of a village to shoot up, you made the right decisions.
Your choice of who would be in charge locally was inspired.
You dealt with a potentially deadly and explosive situation very smartly.

Some might criticize you for not moving fast enough, but seriously, what rational person would expect the police to start riots, shooting tear gas at media groups, arresting journalists or having a quasi military response that only made things worse?

Congrats, Mr. Nixon. You done did good. I suspect the people of Ferguson will thank you for it. As will all other rational thinkers.

Here's a letter I wrote to NBC about Me Depressed.

What village idiot decided that Gregory could handle a tough and important assignment like Meet the Press? Whoever it was deserves to be fired since they obviously have no clue about:

a. What the program entails. (Hint - intelligent conversation about one important topic)
b. How a well run program like MTP should and could offer a great deal to the political discourse in this country. There is a huge potential audience, if they weren't having their sensibility, taste, and intelligence insulted by the likes of Gregory.
c. How bad Gregory is at his job. Seriously. Ask around.
d. The toxic mix of Gregory and his standard stable of GOP old white farts turns people off faster than Sarah Palin orating about hard work, family values, ethics and the newspapers she reads.
e. The general public would be better suited if NBC simply shut the whole mess down and replaced it with 30 minutes of the old fashioned black and white TV test pattern that was used in the 1950s and 60s.

Can you people be so dense as to not realize what an embarrassment Gregory is?

If you do plan to fix MTP instead of shutting the whole mess down, here are a few suggestions. The first step is simple. NEVER LET GREGORY NEAR A LIVE CAMERA AGAIN. Next, pick someone who is not a media whore, but who learns about a subject, understands his or her role, and grills the target politely, but firmly. No talking points allowed. Your host should never allow those to control the discussion. Oh god, and please, no more McCain, Rinse Preibus, Graham, or any other standard GOP sTalking head. PLEASE! Finally, no refusal to answer the question. If some Teabagger decides to recite their scripted crap, either call them on it, or shut them down. Embarrassment is the best medicine for tepid idiocy.

Your new host can be female, male, or trans. I really don't care. Liberal? conservative? White, black, hispanic, oriental - It does not matter. But character and ethics, intellectual honesty, knowledge, and hard questioning done in a fair manner do. Gregory has none of those. In abundance.

If you wish to write them, try this: contact.nbcnews@nbcuni.com

And it struck me how far news has fallen in this country. Lamborghini? A news story? And Aussie actress?
Wha da fa?

That said, is there anything as funny and exciting as the upcoming battle between the open carry assholes of texass and the NRA? It was bound to happen at some point, but of all places, Texas really deserves to be the battleground in this 10 round, no gloves, no rules, no neutral corner event.