What Gets Around More Than A Joint At A Willie Nelson Concert?

[BlogBox]

Intriguing question, isn't it? Many questions dominated the blogs this week, and artful bloggers answered them with snark and substance. For example: Who were the big Super Tuesday winners and losers?; Who thinks you're dumber than dirt?; Who's acting like a one-man Catholic League and getting all hot and bothered?; and, Which perpetual presidential candidate is ready to ride again? All this, plus DUers Seeker 30, underpants and El Pinko take the... um, cake. Enjoy!

What Gets Around More Than A Joint At A Willie Nelson Concert?

Answer: That nasty "Obama is a Muslim" email. According to Wonkette, it's now entering into newspaper op ed territory. The sordid details:

At the Ottawa Herald of Franklin County, Kansas, even the guys who work the newspaper printing press can write a column for the "op ed" section. And proving once again that small-town papers are like blogs without the quality control, pressman Gary Sillett contributed a terrific "community viewpoint" about the upcoming presidential election.

"To elect Barack Obama to the highest office in the land would be nothing less than spitting on the graves of the victims of 9/11," Sillett wrote last week.

GRRR! But wait. There's bound to be more smearing this year, and not just aimed at Obama. While wingnuts have had over a decade to smear Senator Clinton, The Bilerico Project now reports that Senator Clinton won the GLB California and New York vote decisively. (No other states were even polled on this; like Iran, there are obviously no gays in the other states, right?)

The New York GLB results weren't really stunning - they broke 59-36 in Clinton's favor, but the general population ended up 57-40 for her. So, meh, it's not too far off the electoral results.

The California GLB results were 63-29 in her favor, while the general results were 52-42. That puts her double digits ahead among Californian queers than in the general population of that state. Speculate away in comments as to why.

Can't you just see wingnuts salivating and figuring out how to use this info against Clinton? I feel a fundraising letter coming on. A final note on these candidate smears: The fact that the Ottawa Herald published this "Muslim Scare" filth, written by one of its own employees no less, is proof positive that our national road to issues-dominated elections is still a steep uphill climb, even in the 21st freakin' century. We all (especially us Clinton supporters) must tell the Ottawa Herald, in no uncertain terms, that we refuse to stand for this. Period. And ignorance is no excuse for passing along ridiculous smears, based on the flimsiest possible accusations. Speaking of ignorance...

Why Is "Stay In School" So Much More Important Today Than Ever Before?

Answer: BushCo thanks those with null set math skills and Curiosity Quotients roughly the equivalent of Pi. People in the know (statisticians, economists, and demographers) will tell you that roughly 150,000 jobs must be created each month to keep up with demand, due to a net increase of people entering the labor force. So, when BushCo has to report a one-month loss of 17, 000 jobs, the actual total loss is more like 167,000. But you didn't see that reported last week, did you? Sorgum Crow had this to say:

Nope, not under there...


Bush looks for the 17,000 jobs that were lost in January 2008. Personally, I'm looking forward to the job that will be lost January 20, 2009.

Me too, Sorgum Crow. Me too.

Who Were The Big Super Tuesday Winners And Losers?

Answer (Part 1): Democrats were the big winners. That's right. The capital D voters outnumbered the capital R's by 2:1 in some reports. And individual states had major voter increases so ginormous that even Diebold wouldn't be able to eke out an R win. From Political Ticker:

Turnout for Democratic contests, rounded to the nearest thousand:

STATE: MISSOURI
PREVIOUS RECORD: 528,000
VOTES TONIGHT SO FAR: 778,000 (98% reporting)
% CHANGE OVER PREVIOUS RECORD: +47%

–

STATE: ILLINOIS
PREVIOUS RECORD: 1,504,000
VOTES TONIGHT SO FAR: 1,809,000 (91% reporting)
% CHANGE OVER PREVIOUS RECORD: +20%

–

STATE: NEW YORK
PREVIOUS RECORD: 1,575,000
VOTES TONIGHT SO FAR: 1,744,000 (99% reporting)
% CHANGE OVER PREVIOUS RECORD: +11%

–

STATE: NEW JERSEY
PREVIOUS RECORD: 654,000
VOTES TONIGHT SO FAR: 1,104,000 (99% reporting)
% CHANGE OVER PREVIOUS RECORD: +69%

–

STATE: MASSACHUSETTS
PREVIOUS RECORD: 793,000
VOTES TONIGHT SO FAR: 1,170,000 (98% reporting)
% CHANGE OVER PREVIOUS RECORD: +48%

–

STATE: ARIZONA
PREVIOUS RECORD: 239,000
VOTES TONIGHT SO FAR: 314,000 (67% reporting)
% CHANGE OVER PREVIOUS RECORD: +31%

Scroll down http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=4455922&mesg_id=4455922">this page for DUer underpants' update on actual D v R voting totals. Of course, CNN could've reported on all states and territories voting on Super Tuesday, but that would probably affect their "Stay tuned for the neck-and-neck horserace" ratings gambit this fall; and we wouldn't want that, would we? Sheesh!

You want Super Tuesday speeches? Here they are (via HuffPo).

You want to know dates, poll times, and delegate info for the rest of the primary season? The Green Papers is your one-stop site for everything you ever wanted to know about the process for both Dems and R's. And there are live links to individual contests. For example, did you know this about New Mexico?

17 district delegates are to be allocated proportionally to presidential contenders based on the caucus results in each of the State's 3 congressional districts.

CD 1: 6
CD 2: 5
CD 3: 6

In addition, 9 delegates are to be allocated to presidential contenders based on the caucus vote statewide.

6 at-large National Convention delegates

3 Pledged PLEOs

The State Chair shall notify each district chair by 15 February 2008 of the delegate allocation by presidential preference.

And who were the biggest losers? Answer (Part 2): Willard Mitt Romney and "Obama Girl."

Wonkette reports:

WHAT A RICH ASSHOLE: By some guy's calculation, Mitt "Mittens the" Romney "has spent $1.16 million per delegate, a rate that would cost him $1.33 billion to win the nomination." On the other hand, "each $1 million spent by Huckabee has won him 20 delegates." You know where both of these candidates will be in about a month? Dead, somewhere. (The Trail)

"Obama Girl" Amber Lee Ettinger, who's YouTube video rocked the internet last summer, didn't vote for Senator Obama. In fact, she didn't vote at all. City Room has the details, which sound a lot like "The dog ate my homework." An amazing opportunity lost, Amber. One last note: Back in the day, Amber--even for people who were allowed to vote-- it was a lot harder to vote and extremely dangerous to speak out...

Why Do Digital Pamphleteers Do It Better?

Short answer: No need to own ponies; and no Redcoats out to hang you for treason against the king. Nicole Belle at Crooks and Liars posts this nifty video profile of blogging phenom, Steve Benen.

Naturally, the trolls emerge in the comments section to kill the joy. Typical.

Who Thinks You're Dumber Than Dirt This Week?

Answer: Sirius Satellite Radio, that's who. Via Atrios:

Indie Talk

Because what the country desperately needs is the same old shit. Emailed press release:

NEW YORK–February 4, 2008- SIRIUS Satellite Radio (NASDAQ: SIRI) today announced the launch of Indie Talk, an exclusive, groundbreaking talk radio channel that will serve as an uncensored, unfiltered forum for independent thought and opinion. The channel will feature veteran actor and political maverick Ron Silver, among others. Indie Talk will give an equal voice to individuals from any affiliation or background, target the blogger generation, and be a platform for listeners across the country to react to breaking news, issues and buzz.

Ron Silver? Political maverick? Pardon me while I OMG and LMAO. In other one-man maverick news...

Who's Acting Like A One-Man Catholic League And Getting All Hot And Bothered?

Answer: Oops, the Catholic League really is just one man. And he's really pissed, writes Queerty:

We knew it was only a matter of time until the Catholic League caught wind of Equinox's new nun and bum advertisements, but we had no idea it would take nearly three weeks! They're losing their edge, but not their venom: "…This patently stupid ad that Equinox is floating suggests that it must hype its edgy image in order to compete."

If you missed the actual ad, Queerty posted it earlier:


Oh, the scandal! When Bill "I Am The Entire Catholic League Membership" Donohue complains, remind him that if he starts today, he might be able to remove all nude works of art from Rome in two or three hundred years. Sheesh. Speaking of one-man bands...

Which Perpetual Presidential Candidate Is Ready To Ride Again?

Answer: Ralph Nader, Mr. "There's No Difference Between The Two Parties" Third Party Guy, says he'll run in '08 if he can raise $10 million. Your Right Hand Thief devotes major blog coverage to once and future Nader campaigns, including this juicy bit:

It's easy to be ideologically pure when you have no intention of getting more than 2% of the vote. It's easy to criticize Douchey Dems for their lack of courage, when they are making compromises to assemble a majority coalition of different factions. If Greens honestly believe Dems are just as oppositional to their agenda as Goopers, then they should vote Green. However, if they think Dems might pass more of their agenda than the Goopers, it might be wise to strategically assist the Dems at certain times.

For example, look at the razor tight Virginia Senate Race of 2006. Sen Jim Webb won by 9,000 votes, despite the presence of a Green Party candidate. Luckily for Webb, the Green candidate gave him a quasi-endorsement just before election day, and he barely beat presidential wannabe George "makaka" Allen. Not only did that strategic endorsement help tip the race, but it helped tip the entire Senate to the Democrats. Similarly, Nader could've thrown some support to Gore in crucial battleground states like Florida in 2000. It would've been easy for him to do. Knowing that the election would be close, he could've made a deal. But that would've forced Nader to sacrifice a smidgeon of ideological purity, and a helping of ego, so it was a complete non-starter. Al "Earth in the Balance" Gore just wasn't "Green" enough for Nader. He was just as bad as Bush. Recent history proves otherwise.

Hm. Begs the question...

Is Anyone "Green" Enough For Nader, Who Thinks There's No Difference Between Democrats And Republicans?

Answer: Yes, Virginia, and there's a Grand Canyon-sized difference, damn it. Nader should take a few minutes each day and read some blogs. If he did, he might learn from Orcinus, for example, that "if Republicans really, really hate being called fascists, then maybe they shouldn't talk and act like them." Orcinus has the quotes and the links to back up his thesis statement, and he slices and dices the likes of torture lovers Limbaugh, Coulter, Savage/Weiner, Beck, O'Reilly, Kit Bond, Lou Shelton, Mukasey, and Goldberg... in a single blog post. Whew! If it looks like a fascist, sounds like a fascist, and touts torture like a fascist... it's a fascist, damn it. Thanks, Orcinus. While we're on the subject of exposing fascist-acting wingnuts...

Have You Thanked A DUer Today?

Answer: If you replied to a post with a positive comment, you did. This week, thanks to Seeker 30 for this hilarious post:

I thought Bush was the king of morons until I saw Romney

How anyone could look at this clown and think he is presidential material completely boggles my mind. The repukes really do like brainless puppets that stand for nothing, but then again water seeks its own level.

Brainless puppets. Hm. I like that.

Thanks to underpants http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=4455922&mesg_id=4455922">for pointing out (with evidence, of course) that the actual big vote win on Super Tuesday was even bigger than previously reported:

Put anther way, the Clinton/Obama race drew 76% more voters than the McCain/Romney/Huckabee race.

Cool!

Finally, thanks to El Pinko, for posting this in the DU Lounge:

My first post in the Lounge: LMAO at this Wal-Mart Tidbit

http://gigglesugar.com/744601


...In the bakery department. Made-to-order service can't get anymore precise than this! (Minus the creative spelling.) Read below:

"Some people that work here had a going away party the other day for a woman that is leaving.

One of the supervisors called a Walmart and ordered the cake. he told them to write: "best wishes Suzanne" and underneath that write "we will miss you". here's the cake that was delivered."

Great first Lounge post, El Pinko! Fact: You can always count on the Lounge Lizards to brighten your day! Thanks, Lounge. And many thanks to all DUers!

Is There "Something To Chew On" Until Next Week?

Answer: Of course. Last week's Sherri Shepherdism begat this week's update. Check out Best Week Ever's Voting Lessons For People Who Think The World Is Flat:

Yes, Sherri is an easy target. If she weren't, do you think she'd be on The View?

Bloggers have burned up the keyboards this week, and if this continues, choosing the best blog posts in the weeks ahead will get harder and harder. Thanks to all who sent in links this week. Let's keep our eyes on that November 4th prize and work together once our party nominee has been decided!

-- Delilah Boyd

[devilgrrl]

1. What a stupid thread title

:eyes:

[sharp_stick]

2. What's wrong with that title?

I guess you could say that Nelson fans do bogart the weed a little more than say Deadheads but there's usually more than enough to go around.

[Viking12]

3. A hooker at the Republican convention?

Well, you asked.