The great Wizard, Kos, ratfucking the great Charlatan, Mittster. Where’s Tolkien when you need him?

ET meet Aziza Mustafa Zadeh.

And again.

Where’s Tolkien when you need him?

Will Bilbo do? Good morning Attaturk and firepups.

I have been thinking about open primaries of late. I’m not sure I like them. Our electoral system is already the object of too much mischief. But, as long as we have them and the evil Rethugs take advantage of them … sigh.

Well I don’t know about Tolkein, but I’m here.

And they’re polling likely republicans. If Markos can get just a few thousand rat-effers to cross the line, that might be enough.

and have you seen this crazy wiki?

One of the Billionaires for Bush has it in her email sig.

hiya, eg!

Diane Benson and et mentioned in the same article.

I expect to see both of your names in numerous Congressional press releases soon.

What do you hear from your little one at college?

nada. the beginning of the term, plus crew team strength tests have been keeping her butt in gear.

and have you seen this crazy wiki?

Looks like LOLcat is another lighthearted computerized translation software project. There was a rash of stuff like this back in the day. I remember one where one could feed in any English text and it would spit out a “jive” version. Of course there are lots of ASCII text versions of the Holly Bibble floating around teh Net, so it’s perfect fodder for these things.

lolcat translator

learn to speak lolcat: the lolcat translator

lolcat is a made up language that is said to be spoken by fluffy animals such as pets. Your vet won’t have heard of it, because it’s not real – animals can’t talk. But if they could, wouldn’t you love to know how to communicate with them? Or maybe you just want to speak lolcat because it’s funny. Give it a try! U mite liek it?

Hey EG, we adopted a sweet little abandoned cocker.

Ooo tell us more about new pup, Raven!

Well, she’s black like Raven. Bladder stones, an eye condition that will require daily treatment for life, and a skin allergy. Someone dumped her in a crate at our vet. They did the surgery and gave gave us special food and the first round of meds pro bono. She is tiny but really sweet. The bohdi isn’t thrilled but I am sure time will take care of that.

OH yea, it’s hard to type with her in my lap!

ON Topic.
Romney

had become the first candidate from Massachusetts ever to lose a New Hampshire primary and his poll numbers were plummeting faster than “The Old Man of the Mountain”.

1. Mr. Romney is not from Massachusetts, he maintains a home there, now known as the Asylum Mansion. He played loose and fast with the electoral rules to establish a residence and qualify for governor.

2. The nose of “The Old Man of the Mountain” in the White Mountains was a. wired together to maintiain its profile crumbles sometime in the past decade.

Something for the pups to play with while I make the tea. Back in a jiff’.

ON Topic

Well excusssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssse me.

1. Mr. Romney is not from Massachusetts, he maintains a home there, now known as the Asylum Mansion. He played loose and fast with the electoral rules to establish a residence and qualify for governor.

Yea, and Hillary is a New Yorker, right? Sheeeeeeeeet

Tea is clearly needed. I correct myself.

The nose of “The Old Man of the Mountain” in the White Mountains was a. wired together to maintain its profile b. crumbled (e.e crashed in an avalanche)sometime in the past decade and now is seriously out of joint, being beyond repair.

*G*

But it is still the profile on the highway route markers.

[asserting right to be off topic at 6am] Raven that’s so great that you took in a special needs critter. Does he remind you a little of the first Raven in character as well as looks?

Good morning, pups (and Raven’s new pup). As if it’s not bad enough that it’s Monday AWATT is in the Times, along with Mr. Krugman. Bill “Always Wrong, All The Time” Kristol says that in his version of reality it’s apparently impermissible for leading Democrats to acknowledge — let alone celebrate — progress in Iraq. Apparently in his reality things are going just tickety-poo in Iraq. Mr. Krugman, in a column titled “Responding to Recession” says recent statements by the presidential candidates and their surrogates about the economy are quite revealing.

http://mgpaquin.wordpress.com/

The coffee, tea and hot chocolate are ready, and the biscuits are just out of the oven. Try to have a good day, despite it being Monday and sullied with AWATT.

Your are excussssssssssssssssssssssed. Especially if the crumbling and out of jointing of Mr. Not-from-the-BlueBayState brings you as much pleasure as the whee (sp?) one.

Actually it was kind of emotional going to get her. She’s smaller but looks like him. She is very very friendly and quiet as a house mouse. She was dumped but we don’t think she was abused. The whole theory here was that it would be good for the bohdisattva to have a pal.

Ahhhhhh… .
*breathing in deeply*

I love the smell of bloodied Kristol in the morning

Congratulations on the new addition Raven!

tickety-poo? AWATT? Not in my handy http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/…..t_slang#A.

Thanks Mar. She’on our FB Album with ic of the Llamma too! Off for the trek!

Mr. Krugman, in a column titled “Responding to Recession” says recent statements by the presidential candidates and their surrogates about the economy are quite revealing.

Yes, this morning Krugman reads like he’s channeling FDL.

On the Democratic side, John Edwards, although never the front-runner, has been driving his party’s policy agenda.

Bilbo, you beat me to it!! I was just about to call attention to that line myself! And he actually comes out and says Obama isn’t all that progressive. I love Krugman.

Hi, BSRH! AWATT = Always Wrong, All The Time.” “Tickety-poo” is something my mother always used — to me it’s always meant humming along just as it should, firing on all cylinders.

I’m thinking that on the morning after Super Tuesday the thing to do is to have a huge breakfast buffet, featuring everyone’s favorites. Someone (maybe Elliott?) posted a link to French toast waffles the other day and they sound delicious…

Bilbo, you beat me to it!!

Actually, Marion, I read Krugman first thing this morning and was sitting here on pins and needles waiting for your post. I didn’t want to steal your thunder. You’re just going to have to start getting up a little earlier. *g*

Super Tuesday? that soon? I have opened a file and preserved the names of those who expressed interest or offered suggestions. How do we get organized?
About organized. tea not yet made and email not working. Also snowing. Gotta’ go for a while. Will check back for your response. Bye pups, glorious morning wherever you are. here, it is snowing.

yes that was me *s*
and I’m still waiting for them to happen here. I’m craving them. The maple syrup hot and there will be cinnamon.

Did you say 372 more days?

Raven -

Congrats on the new furry child…any way to see her other than FB?

You’re right. Let’s think November for the huge buffet. Hmmm… maybe those French toast waffles for Super Tuesday…

Yep, 372 it is. Tell you what — the hell with Super Tuesday. Let’s have those French toast waffles when we hit 364, less than a year to go!

OT. Re: tickety-poo

Safire over at the NYT tells us about tickety-boo (Marion’s is almost certainly a derivation of this). Interesting read.

On Language; Tickety-Boo and NASA, Too

This outmoded British colloquialism, meaning ”in order, in good shape,” equivalent to the American hunky-dory or, as NASA engineers would now say, all systems go, seems to me (and to Webster’s New World etymologists) to come from the expression “That’s the ticket!”

Rudy Giuliani may regret late show

…The “Sunshine State”, which votes on January 29th, will be Mr Giuliani’s first – and possibly his last – stand in the 2008 election, part of an audacious strategy that envisages a Florida win followed by a triumphant sweep a week later on “Super Duper Tuesday”, when 22 states vote and hundreds of delegates are at stake.

Mr Giuliani’s “late-state” plan defies the conventional wisdom that only victories in the early-voting states can build the momentum needed to capture a party’s nomination…

my bold

I’m thinking that on the morning after Super Tuesday the thing to do is to have a huge breakfast buffet

Works for me, that’s the week [and possibly even the day] when I fly out to my new place in California for real. No more being a visitor.

Am I counting the right 364? Jan. 19-20 2008 is a Sat./ Sun. What’s your preference?

Well, those waffles would go quite nicely with “Pull Up A Chair,” don’t you think?

Bells will be ringing the next Inauguration Day, a real and true celebration.

and egregious, you will be welcomed out there with bells ringing so you may as well have bells on.

WASHINGTON JOURNAL
On Our Program . . .
The Michigan Democratic & Republican primaries are held on Monday. Mark Brewer of the Michigan Democratic Party & Saul Anuzis of the state’s Republican Party discuss issues raised by the vote. And Beth Fouhy, political reporter for the AP, speaks to us about Sen. Hillary Clinton’s (D-NY) appearance on “Meet the Press.”

7am – Newspaper Articles & Phones
7:30am – Mark Brewer, Michigan Democratic Party, Chairman
8am – Saul Anuzis, Michigan Republican Party, Chairman
8:30am – Beth Fouhy, Associated Press, Political Reporter
9:30am – Newspaper Articles & Phones

More than the usual tinnitus? j/k

Thanks, Elliott. Looking forward to it, in between being completely petrified.

And from his Island Lair, Kos heard his call and sent his followers in Michigan to do for the GOP what the GOP has always done for the Democrats in the State’s open primary.

My bold.

Fairvote.org has a list showing which states have open, closed, and other type primaries: Primaries: Open and Closed. But, it shows NH as closed and I thought there was talk of crossover voting in NH. Am I misremembering already?

Yes, and it’s also ahead of the Superbowl which will have the almost entire attention of some people who frequent the lake and its allied territories/Sovereign blognations. So where/how do we start?

man, it was just this past week, but iirc you can register that day in NH. but I could be misremembering that :)

Note also from the Ombudsman column in the Sunday NYT that Kristol is probably going to get a year tryout, and then that’s it. The firestorm of protest works.

Well, sheez, if the best Kristol has to offer is a recycling of mush he published in 2004 the Paper of Record should just pull the plug right now.

Note also from the Ombudsman column in the Sunday NYT that Kristol is probably going to get a year tryout, and then that’s it. The firestorm of protest works.

Why did he even get a chance to start with? I mean, really, when has he ever been right? Ever?

What’s it gonna take?

When will people realize that voting integrity needs to be front and center in our efforts in the blogosphere?

- Hand count and machine count locations, when calculated statewide, show an eerie statistic:

Clinton Optical scan 91,717 52.95%
Obama Optical scan 81,495 47.05%

Clinton Hand-counted 20,889 47.05%
Obama Hand-counted 23,509 52.95%

…- A single private entity had control over coding for every memory card in New Hampshire. According to the contract for LHS Associates, this firm requires a right of access to any voting machine at any time, services the machines, maintains the machines and handles repairs, replacements and troubleshooting on Election Day.

- Ken Hajjar, a key employee of this sole source private entity, LHS Associates, has a criminal record for narcotics trafficking. The state of New Hampshire knew of this conviction but approved the contractor anyway. According to a complaint filed with the New Hampshire Attorney General, Hajjar had called the Dan Pierce radio show in 1999 and threatened to rig an election.

http://www.bbvforums.org/cgi-b…..71287.html

Bev Harris at BlackBoxVoting.org has proven to be very accurate and honest now after several years of doing this work. Her latest post is called “Red Flags over New Hampshire,” which was posted after they had time to go over numbers and analyze, and not a knee-jerk reaction. The commenters, Bev, and the other regulars there are debating whether these differences are based simply on demographics, or if there is enough evidence to pursue further investigation. It’s looking like they’re going to conclude there’s this goes well beyond demographics and that there’s a lot that doesn’t add up.

IMHO, the way the Clintons are exploiting the “results” of NH now, as if she’s the Underdog and that the polls were wrong, just as Shrub did in the 2004 Selections, adds to my distrust. Yes, polls can vary and are not completely accurate. I still cannot remember such extreme and across the board inaccuracies in polls before. It’s almost as if this the storyline is tailor made for Hillary.

Ruturd Murdoch holds fundraisers for Hillary. The Clintons have proven that they will not rock the Establishment’s boat, while the other candidates are running on “boat rocking.” Seems to me that there’s motive on the part of BigMoney to keep an Insider in the White House, rather than let some Outsiders come in and be unpredictable. Thus, Clinton and McCain are their only two choices at the moment, and either one will do.

I suppose this can all be dismissed as crazy conspiracy talk. Oh well, the fight goes on…

Ah, a year?!? Let’s see…anything big going to happen in the next year?

Oh yea, just a Presidential election and Congressional races that at the moment show huge Liberal gains. The Noize Machine will do anything they can to stop that from happening, hence The “Bloody Wrong’s” NYT contract.

Really, what else could anyone possibly argue in favor of hiring The Man Who’s Always Wrong? He’s there to sway the public discourse as much as he can before Nov.

There is another POV to be considered for NH and all primaries.

There was a closely reasoned analysis based on county by county results and use of machines (or mainly it turns out, not) on DKos that arrived at the opposite conclusion.
Author begged the progressosphere not to resort to count-conspiracies every time a result does not tally with expectations. Especially expectations established by polling.

By DemfromMi, me thinks. Discussed at the Lake. Anyone got the link?

OT-I wanted to make sure everyone saw this.
I’m in.

Actually, I fat fingered the diarist’s name. It’s DHinMI

http://www.dailykos.com/storyo…../85/434176

also, it’s worth noting that exit polls showed the same margins for suburban/urban versus rural voters. The latter set would have been hand counted.

Let’s not forget, Attaturk, according to Hillary and others, the polls are not to be trusted! See? You must believe this so each and every caucus/primary can be stolen!

OT-I wanted to make sure everyone saw this.
I’m in.

Thanks for posting that link to the “John Edwards: $7 Million Dollars In One Day – Make It Happen” diary, I recommended it.

I just hope they don’t buy a blimp with that money.

Hello from Michigan.

Yes, our primary is jacked up (and because of Clinton supporters, I’ll add).

But really, it’s still OUR primary, no matter how bad it looks.

Butt out and get your own, Kos.

Hi Rayne!

Don’t know about that, but BBV and the very active commenter crew are doing just that. Using the Sec of State’s office as the main source, and providing tons of links and documents directly from the SoS’s office, it’s looking like the NH election system is either very disorganized, or there is manipulation going on.

I’ll look for what you’re referencing since BBV is reporting just the opposite. Diebold machines, and the most easily manipulated ones no less, were used in the overwhelming majority of NH counties according to BBV. I’ve been reading BBV since the 2004 Selections, and they admit when they’re wrong, which is very rarely. So far, they seem to be suggesting that there’s a lot wrong in NH.

BBV is almost single-handedly taking down the electronic voting industry. They have won lawsuits in court, and have won a settlement from Diebold that helped fund their activities. BBV is non-partisan and includes people from all political persuasions.

Hardly a “count-conspiracy” organization.

I guess I’ll go see what some anonymous poster at DKos has to say.

Hey Rayne!

Scarecrow’s up!

Thanks for the link. DH should do a little more homework before getting so worked up. From DH’s post:

However, the incentive for hacking them is not very great, because unlike with the paperless voting, again, there’s the paper trail. So if there were ever a recount—and there was after the 2004 election, when a survey of New Hampshire voting districts chosen by the Nader campaign showed there was virtually no difference between the scanned tabulation and the hand recount—the malfeasance would be easily discovered.

The whole optical scanner paper trail argument was shown to be meaningless by BlackBoxVoting.org about three years ago. Tons of info there about about this. Funny DH brought up the the Nader recount. BBV has been all over this for quite some time as well:

http://www.bbvforums.org/cgi-b…..71260.html

Isn’t it quite obvious that there’s plenty of “incentive” to rig an election if you feel you won’t be caught? We have BigMoney interests spending hundreds of billions, if not trillions on invading countries and killing hundreds of thousands of their people in the process, along with thousands of our own soldiers. You don’t think they’d be up for a little vote manipulation?!?!

I don’t understand such vitriol against those looking into this issue. Perhaps people like DH are frustrated with people with knee-jerk reactions claiming conspiracies around every corner, but places like BBV are much more thorough that anyone else I’ve seen covering this issue, and they think elections have been stolen in America.

Yes, the demographics of NH most certainly could explain those results. That’s why BBV is analyzing that exact issue right now, and so far the numbers don’t seem to back up the demographics argument. I trust them to come to a reasoned and well-researched conclusion about this issue soon.

Knowledge is power. I wish the Netroots would gain more knowledge about voting integrity in America. Otherwise, much energy and money will be wasted if elections continue to be manipulated.

Hey Ellie, egregious! nice to see you folks!

Vade retro, Satana

I don’t think that Michigan Dems should be tempted into this gambit of crossing over to vote for Mitt in hopes of sabotaging the Republicans. No, it’s not that I imagine that cross-voting is immoral. I’m worried about blowback and unintended consequences.

Until and unless we get the powers of the presdiency back into reasonable bounds, I think that the very worst, most dangerous, sort of president to have in office, is someone as talented, smart and industrious as Romney, who is also as ideologically flexible, and owes his presidency to the Republican coalition. Romney is also the most likely of their field to emerge as a compromise candidate if they have a contested convention. I seriously doubt the wisdom of strengthening his position, in any way whatsoever, and certainly not now, when what is intended as a small boost to keep him viable, instead might well give him the momentum to surge ahead on the back of the highly volatile momentum of a nomination campaign. Ditto for voting for Huckabee, or McCain.

If you’re a Michigan Dem feeling the need to cross-dress and take a walk on the wild side in tomorrow’s primary, please vote for Fred. No, not that that choice is entirely immune from the potential for blow-back. But at least Fred really has no chance of winning, but could be kept in until Mega Tuesday by a win in MI. And every contender of theirs that stays in until Mega Tuesday increases the odds that they will have a contested convention. This year, such a contested convention is likely to turn into the Minneapolis Mauling. Bring it!

But if the DNC eventually allows delegates from Michigan to be seated and allocated to candidates, then anybody who voted cross-party and not for ‘uncommitted’ has supported HRC’s candidacy, assuming the race comes down to her or one other Dem. All ‘uncommitted’ Dem votes would be awarded to ‘uncommitted’ delegates, who in turn would be free to vote at the convention for somebody other than HRC.

The screwing of this primary by HRC’s supporters when we get to the convention, assuming a lot of Dems cross over and fail to keep her under 50% in Michigan.

Michigan’s delegation to the Democratic convention

I assume that, whatever happens, Michigan (and Florida) will eventually be allowed a full delegation with full voting privileges at the Dem convention.

If the Dems don’t have a contested convention, those votes won’t mean much, but the winner of the nomination, who will at that point control the party, will insist on giving the delegation full voting rights so as not to offend Michiganders (and Floridians!) who will be voting on Election Day.

If the Dems do have a contested convention, the cry will go up to treat the January 15 event as a “beauty pagent”, and allow MI to put on real primary/caucus/convention at a later date to elect their delegates. And that cry will surely be heeded, because this arrangement would be in everyone’s interests. Michiganders would get delegates who could vote. The candidates would get a chance to increase their delegate totals. The party insiders would welcome any opportunity to get some candidate enough pledged delegates to avoid, or at least shorten, any floor fight over the nomination.

I’m not a proponent of crossing over to vote for anyone. I was just suggesting to Michigan Democrats that if they do cross over, it might not be wise to pull the lever for Romney as suggested by Attaturk. But I don’t think that worry over the results in terms of Michigan’s participation at the Dem convention should be a big factor for anyone considering a tactical vote in this primary. The party was stupid to try to punish Michigan for going early. Not only did delegitimizing MI and FL have the effect of increasing our own chances for a contested convention (by weakening the influence of votes that could push our side to an early decision), but, as I reason above, the punishments aren’t going to stick anyway. Nothing demonstrates lack of control more clearly than punishment that you can’t make stick.

I guess I’ll go see what some anonymous poster at DKos has to say.

Frontpagers there typically have pseudonyms, not anonyms: see

http://www.dailykos.com/special/about2

Mr. Kristol regurgitates an earlier column without attribution and gets paid again for it by the Times? Just shows his Republican street cred, and the groveling of his new daddy at the Times.

It’s behavior familiar to graduate assistants, who know or know of professors turn that into an art form. My favorite was an Australian who so frequently quoted his earlier masterpieces (as if retelling the story of the Penge Bungalow murders), that titters quickly gave way to boredom. But then he was also given to correcting his students’ English. Enough said.