Mitt's in the tank

The McCain campaign has considered putting Gov. Mitt Romney on the bottom of the ticket. I wonder if they liked what they saw:

While Mitt Romney's set of paid PR minions are busy pushing out Mitt for Vice President spin, McCain campaign insiders say that while it's true they have polled Romney on the bottom of the ticket, the data confirms that such a move would be a political disaster for the party.

"Mitt tanks the ticket," says a McCain insider. "We lose fiscal conservatives. We lose social conservatives. We lose Catholics. We lose evangelicals. All the groups were spending time and money on bringing into the camp would be lost. He just doesn't help us enough to do something like this, as much as Mitt might think we should. He doesn't even win us Massachusetts."

Reached for comment, Sean Hannity said he would continue promoting Romney on his radio show as the best choice for vice president, because he knows the economy and "might" win Michigan. 

All kidding aside, my first reaction to this was very foolish.  I got excited.  Then I stepped into McCainWorld.  In McCainWorld, staffers see this polling info and say "See, a conservative like Romney sinks the ticket.  We need a moderate.  A maverick."  So instead of going for someone like Gov. Sarah Palin, they'll go for someone like Gov. Charlie Crist.

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Our Lord and Savior descends from the heavens and lands in Afghanistan

Obama is in eastern Afghanistan right now. Oddly enough, no reporters came with Him.  The fawning media must be having withdrawal symptoms, now that they've been denied His presence. 

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 10:58 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Dispatches From The Front

My brother is a Captain over in The Desert. He sent me some photos recently of life over there right now. Here is life on the base.

He said it is so shitty on base, the dust is the least offensive thing there.

I bet in Arabic, that says, "DPUD kicks Ass!"

Funniest thing is, He called on the 4th around 8PM STL Time and could hear the bottle rockets and shit going off back here in the background. He said it was what he heard when he first arrived there every night. Now, it's quiet. Except for when some hajji (the derisive term they use for the locals) has a "workplace accident" in his house.

I guess it must be safe enough for them to wear their standard covers on base. But they still have to have their M-4s (I think) at all times.

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"She Just Deserves Extra Love"

Take me pointing to this article as proof that we don't need universal healthcare and the less-well-known fact that I do, indeed, have a heart.

When she was just 2 weeks old, Emma Grace lay on an operating table, scrawny arms and legs spread out, tiny body dwarfed by the giant room full of steel and high-tech gadgetry. Her chest was raised so a surgeon could get to her faulty heart.

 No feet were pacing outside on her account, no eyes darting for updates.

 Before she learned how to smile or hold a gaze, Emma was given up twice — by her 23-year-old birth mother, a drug-user, smoker and drinker who knew she could never care for the baby, and by a 48-year-old adoptive mother who backed out when she learned of Emma's heart condition and of her own pregnancy by in-vitro fertilization.

Don't worry, it has a happy ending.

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Under the radar

China and Russia both slapped down a UN effort to condemn Zimbabwe's crooked election a few days ago.  What Sino-Russian alliance?

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The Amazing U.S. Economy

Via Coyote Blog (I love this place, especially the environmental stuff) I find a fascinating article on just how great our economy is and has been through the years. 

Most impressive is just how much leisure time the average American has now.  Too bad it seems that most of us spend that time whining and bitching about how hard we have it.

I'd suggest reading the whole thing.

Posted by: Moron Pundit at 11:38 AM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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Slipping in the polls

Damnit, we didn't even make the top five.  I mean, we got whupped soundly by France, people!  France!

Come on, we can do better than this!

Posted by: Sean M. at 02:21 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Anheuser-Busch to merge with giant Belgian brewer InBev

The agreed upon price for the buyout of Anheuser-Busch was $70 a share, up from the $65 initially proposed.  The company will now be known as Anheuser-Busch InBev. 

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 10:41 PM | Comments (11) | Add Comment
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Tony Snow has passed away

He was only 53.  Our prayers and condolences to the Snow family.  (h/t)

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 07:28 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Some brief comparisons

Chad at KURU Lounge looks at where McCain was held in Hanoi Hilton vs. where we hold Gitmo detainees, and also a prison cell at San Quentin for comparison to that. My only criticism would be that after seeing the pictures for comparison, I wouldn't call where McCain was kept at Hanoi Hilton a cell as much as much as I would a fucking hellhole of a dungeon. 

As much as I don't agree with McCain on policy or governing style, the utter horror he went through in service of the nation should always be paid due respect.

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The latest on the missile defense system

Co-blogger Cuffy has his latest post up about the missile defense system at Perfunction.

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Breakdown of voters by enthusiasm

Interesting, and I'll be curious to see what effect the enthusiasm gap and the age demographic ultimately have on the election.  I think the organization factor, racial  and cultural demographics also need to be kept in mind, in particular how blue collar white and Hispanic voters break.  McCain is going to be at a huge organizational disadvantage because he has no base he can rely on for volunteers and donations, and little support online, while Obama has a fairly potent base (for now) and is using the intarwebs pretty effectively.  It isn't necessarily going to break McCain, but it doesn't help. 

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 10:57 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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What's The Worst That Could Happen At The Beijing Olympics?

I know it's Slate, so I should say a Hail Mary as penance right there. But this article about the potential for problems at the Olympics is fairly informative.

Some of the leading potential disasters are fairly well-known: Tibetan protests, terrorism, pollution, bad food, and government meddling with the broadcast signals are standard issue.

But what are some "outside the box" hazards the Games will potentially face?
Personally, my favorite is an attack of algae

Photographs in the Chinese media showed rickety wooden boats overflowing with green mounds of algae collected from the sea. One photo showed a young boy crouched on a beach beside piles of the leafy glop as a dump truck carried off a large load of algae. State media reported that 100,000 tons of the algae had already been taken out of the water. Much of it was being transported to farms as feed for pigs and other animals, according to news reports.

Residents of Qingdao have been anticipating the city's Olympic moment for several years.

One local newspaper reported that 11,000 college students had volunteered for cleanup duty during the weekend. Several companies organized teams of employees to help.

The massive algae outbreak comes as some sailing teams are already in Qingdao preparing for the Olympics.

Photographs in the Australian press showed an Australian team seemingly stuck in a carpet of algae during a training run.

But locusts seem to be knocking on the door for recognition as well.

  According to Gao, five regional specialized teams had also rushed to the affected areas to help with pest eradication.

    The region's three areas close to Beijing have 1.3 million hectares of grassland suffering locust plague, including 560,000 hectares severely hit.

    "The first generation locusts this year in the areas have already hatched," Gao said. "The harm they do is obvious."

    Locusts are a major destructive pest on grasslands. Locusts have been afflicting large swathes of grassland every year in Inner Mongolia, which has about 78 million hectares of grassland, or one fifth of the country's total.

    In August, the grassland region will encounter a peak of second generation locusts. However, there have been no reports of large swarms of the pest flying from the region to Beijing in recent years.

Kinda makes me glad that I will be at home watching the Games.

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Our Lord and Savior to vote in favor of the FISA bill

And some of the Nutroots are throwing a shitfit.  You are not He Who Is Barack, you betrayed us!

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U.S. Out of Iraq Now!*

Looks like the Iraqis are looking to take over for our boys over there:

Iraq will not accept any security agreement with the United States unless it includes dates for the withdrawal of foreign forces, the government's national security adviser said on Tuesday.

The comments by Mowaffaq al-Rubaie underscore the U.S.-backed government's hardening stance toward a deal with Washington that will provide a legal basis for U.S. troops to operate when a U.N. mandate expires at the end of the year.

On Monday, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki appeared to catch Washington off-guard by suggesting for the first time that a timetable be set for the departure of U.S. forces under the deal being negotiated, which he called a memorandum of understanding.

Rubaie said Iraq was waiting "impatiently for the day when the last foreign soldier leaves Iraq".

"We can't have a memorandum of understanding with foreign forces unless it has dates and clear horizons determining the departure of foreign forces. We're unambiguously talking about their departure," Rubaie said in the holy Shi'ite city of Najaf.

It is a testament to the year's success in Iraq that they feel comfortable enough with the situation to begin pressing us to leave. I think the left will be astounded by the Bush administrations smiling acceptance of timetables from Iraqis when they were rejected outright when suggested by Democrats.

Of course, the difference is obvious to anyone with a brain.

Anyway, politically this is terrible news for McCain. Without the stark difference on the future of Iraq to lean on, I'm not sure he has anything to recommend him to the voters. If victory is complete by November, I'm positive I'll sit it out.

I've been predicting for years that Bush would have the troops mostly out of Iraq or on their way before he left office and this is just another piece of supporting evidence. I can't wait to watch the liberal retards try to reconcile that activity with their conspiratorial world view.

Time for some head-splodey.

* - Well, not "now."  I think both the Bush administration and the Iraqi government need a timeline established but for different reasons.  The military needs it so they can start drawing down forces in a relatively peaceful zone and reinforce Afghanistan while the Iraqis need it to make a show of independence to their constituents. 

The end result will be a drawdown at or above the rate suggested by Obama but leaving a rather hefty rapid-reaction force to deal with any upticks in violence.  Also, they'll help force Iran to think a few extra times before doing anything stupid. 

Posted by: Moron Pundit at 12:15 PM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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Venezuelan Army resisting Chavez efforts to turn it into ideological enforcement tool

Chavez already had a General, Ángel Vivas Perdomo detained and interrogated, and many officers have resigned or been sidelined as a result of efforts by Chavez to seize control of the military. 

Chavez has also removed Catholic priests as chaplains, and installed priests from his puppet "Reform Catholic Church", made up of renegade pro-Chavez former Catholic priests, and is trying to force the military to adopt a Marxist salute and slogan in the style of the Cuban military.  A lot of military folks in Venezuela aren't happy about Chavez running roughshod over their traditions, and some noise is being made.

You know guys, you could uh, deal with this Chavez problem.  It'd save North and South America a lot of trouble, would probably make things much better in Venezuela and South America at large and you'd break the hearts of the sniveling Marxist vermin here in the US too.

***Thanks for the link See-Dub, be sure to check out the rest of what we've got at doubleplusundead***

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Bozo the Clown dead at age 83

In related news, alexthechick declares Bozo quote, "a good clown."

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It's not just good, it's good for you

Oh, great:

Having intercourse more often may help prevent the development of erectile dysfunction (ED). A new study reports that researchers have found that men who had intercourse more often were less likely to develop ED.

Analyzing a five-year study of 989 men aged 55 to 75 years from Pirkanmaa, Finland, the investigators observed that men reporting intercourse less than once per week at baseline had twice the incidence of erectile dysfunction compared with those reporting intercourse once per week. Further, the risk of erectile dysfunction was inversely related to the frequency of intercourse.

I mean, oh, great! Yeah, uh, that's what I meant. Uh-huh.

(h/t)

Posted by: Sean M. at 07:55 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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Are you ready for the new Joss Whedon flick?

Trailer below the jump for my fellow nerds.

(h/t)
more...

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DC Mayor Reacts to Heller

Mayor Adrian Fenty's full statement is here. Key, predictable, quote:

“I’m disappointed in the Court’s ruling and believe introducing more handguns into the District will mean more handgun violence,” said Mayor Fenty. “But I want to emphasize that at this moment, our gun laws remain in effect. It may be several weeks before there are changes to announce.

“In the meantime, I have directed the Metropolitan Police Department to implement an orderly process for allowing qualified citizens to register handguns for lawful possession in their homes.

I checked the web site of DC's only Republican City Council member, but there wasn't a statement.  Get your act together, Carol.

Posted by: It's Vintage, Duh at 11:38 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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