Moderately Funny Open Thread

Posted on January 22, 2012 by lmsinca

Happy play off Sunday all.  Today I’m a SF fan, what are you?

Filed under: 2012, comics, Uncategorized | 47 Comments »

Republican Presidential Nominee

Posted on January 21, 2012 by okiegirl

Apparently Newt has had a resounding victory in the SC primary today. As of this post, Newt has a 15-pt lead over 2nd place Romney (who has a comfortable lead over 3rd place Santorum and 4th place Paul). See election results.

Any thoughts about what this portends for the R nomination?

Filed under: 2012, GOP, Republican primary | Tagged: | 25 Comments »

Pieces & Bits (Saturday Morning Ramblings)

Posted on January 21, 2012 by Michigoose

Funniest headline of the day. So far.

Housekeeping note:  I’ll be working on the FAQ this weekend, so if you’ve got something you’d particularly like to be included, please go to the comments for that page (tab at the top) and stick your question/answer in.  Any chance anybody ever captured a copy of the old one over at the Blogger site?  I didn’t keep my working copy after I posted it over there. . .  😦

Why is this pork when it’s at a Federal level and stimulus when it’s at the state level?

As for the broader issue of fixing state transportation, Snyder said spending the money now would be preferable to spending five times more several years from now as conditions deteriorate.

Lawmakers are expected to start introducing legislation as early as next week to raise more money for roads and bridges through higher vehicle registration fees and changes in the way gas and diesel fuels are taxed. The Michigan Chamber of Commerce has for several years backed increasing money for improving the transportation system.

I’m not saying I disagree with this priority at all (having driven from Ann Arbor to Gaylord and back during the holidays while visiting family), but it was bad when a Democratic President wanted to do it, so why is it good when a Republican Governor wants to do it?

I saw this on the news last night (evidently, so did AllButCertain). Who knew the Prez could sing, too?

While this isn’t his best version of it, anybody who loves cats–Left, Right or Center–would enjoy Kevin Drum’s Friday Cat Blogging.  I try to click on it last thing every Friday before leaving work; it’s a great little stress reliever.

Steve Benen (the Political Animal at Washington Monthly) has started doing a Friday afternoon roundup of Mitt Romney’s most egregious lies of the week.  I hadn’t heard several of this week’s quotes, but number six (“I went off on my own. I didn’t inherit money from my parents.”) has to take the cake for lamest lie I’ve heard in a long time.  I mean, c’mon, Mitt!  If the check was big enough for BYU to name the school after your Dad, you gave it away only because you needed to for tax purposes.  This is another example of Mitt wanting to have it both ways–yes, he inherited a bunch of money from his Dad that he didn’t need for himself because he was a successful, wealthy businessman–so he donated it to his alma mater.  But the implication that he came from middle class roots is just laughable.

In preparation for tomorrow’s games:

Etta James remembered

-Mark

Filed under: 2012, Infrastructure | 252 Comments »

Republican Debate #17

Posted on January 19, 2012 by okiegirl

Watched the R debate tonight. Seemed to me the gloves came off, and it got pretty cutthroat at times. Anybody else watch? I didn’t keep notes, but there were some statements that really struck me. One example: in a litany of what Obama is doing wrong, Romney included that Obama “wants the government to run this country.” Really? As opposed to whom or what? The government is the surrogate for the people as expressed by our votes.  It was notable that  Romney has already pivoted sharply to the general election.

Notes/commentary by anyone else?

A few links from Ashot:

All about the Benjamins….and Newt’s marriage(s)

EJ Dionne thinks Gingrich won and may have done enough to win South Carolina.

I thought Jennifer Rubin had a few good lines in her take on the debate.

And last, but not least, The Fix weighs in on winners (Santorum, Gingrich, Mitt not on taxes) and losers (Ron Paul).

Filed under: 2012, Debates | 56 Comments »

Faux Morning Report

Posted on January 19, 2012 by lmsinca

I thought this was sad.   Our oldest daughter is a photographer and while she specializes in digital, who doesn’t, her first love was the darkroom and film. (Reuters) –

 Eastman Kodak Co, which invented the hand-held camera and helped bring the world the first pictures from the moon, has filed for bankruptcy protection, capping a prolonged plunge for one of America’s best-known companies.The more than 130-year-old photographic film pioneer, which had tried to restructure to become a seller of consumer products like cameras, said it had also obtained a $950 million, 18-month credit facility from Citigroup to keep it going.The loan and bankruptcy protection from U.S. trade creditors may give Kodak the time it needs to find buyers for some of its 1,100 digital patents, the key to its remaining value, and to reshape its business while continuing to pay its 17,000 workers.”The board of directors and the entire senior management team unanimously believe that this is a necessary step and the right thing to do for the future of Kodak,” Chairman and Chief Executive Antonio Perez said in a statement.

I really don’t have the economic experience or knowledge to interpret this data, but here it is.U.S. stock index futures pointed to a lower open on Wall Street on Thursday ahead of key earnings from Bank of America and Morgan Stanley.  Housing starts, weekly jobless claims and CPI data are all due at 08:30 am, while the Philadelphia Fed Business activity index is due at 10:00 am.  Note to ATiM contributors:  These would be useful updates as reported.In company news, Morgan Stanley’s head of European oil research predicts BP will likely agree to pay the U.S. Department of Justice $20-$25 billion next month to settle all charges around the Deepwater Horizon rig blast and Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

 European shares inched higher on Thursday on hopes Greece would reach an agreement on a bond swap deal with its private creditors to avoid a messy default and that bank’s earnings in the United States would be strong.  Spain drew strong demand at a debt auction which sold more than 6.6 billion euros ($8.46 billion) of bonds with maturities of up to 10 years on Thursday in its first test of market sentiment for euro zone bonds this year.  U.S. stocks jumped to their highest since July on Wednesday as the International Monetary Fund seeks to raise $600 billion to help countries hit by the European debt crisis and forecast-beating earnings from Goldman Sachs.

Filed under: 2012, Morning Report, Uncategorized | 21 Comments »

Wednesday Admin Open Thread

Posted on January 18, 2012 by lmsinca

Ask your questions and discuss problems in this thread today.  I don’t want to disrupt another thread and the conversation going on there.  Hopefully, we won’t need these threads much longer.  At some point we’ll put up a FAQ tab but it may take a little time.  Michi did the last one and did a fantastic job but I don’t expect her to do it again without some help.  Maybe if she starts it, we could all add to it and then edit each others q & a’s.  Unless of course she wants to do it again….. 🙂

Update:  After reading comments from last night it appears there are issues with various mobile devices and your ipad.  Any suggestions or has anyone found a work around these issues they’d like to share?

Also, in thinking about the FAQ page, perhaps we could all just write a brief paragraph regarding a feature or use of the format and then michi could just edit and put into the q & a form.  I’m trying to think of a way we can all contribute to the process so it’s not so much work for one person.

Update II: 

Internet to Shut Down Wednesday to Protest SOPA and PIPA

Less than 24 hours after I noted that we’ve won a brief respite from SOPA, the bill’s chief sponsor said it’s back on track for mark up in February.

But a number of the world’s most popular websites – including Wikipedia, Twitpic, Reddit, Imgur, Mozilla and WordPress – are “going dark” on Wednesday January 18th to protest the censorship bills (SOPA and PIPA).

In addition, Google and other web titans will place prominent messages on their front pages urging their readers to oppose the draconian bills.

This could affect us today so don’t panic…..it’s only one day.

Filed under: 2012, administrative, FAQ, Uncategorized | 9 Comments »

New Admin Post

Posted on January 16, 2012 by lmsinca

I thought I’d put up a new admin post in case there are still questions, suggestions, comments etc. regarding the new and improved All Things in Moderation blog.  I’d like to thank everyone for their diligence, creativity and patience since Friday when Kevin moved us here.  Just to recap, blogger made some changes we couldn’t live with so here we are.  We’re still waiting for a few people to sign in and/or find us so it seems somewhat logical to keep another open thread up for the next day or so.

Kevin should be checking in Tuesday or Wednesday  to add our logo at the top of the page, and possibly make some other changes, so we’re not quite done yet.

Anyway, glad you followed us over here for those of you who have, and welcome to those of you who are just now signing in.

Dropped this photo in just to see if I knew how and because I’m thinking of my garden already.  A Farmer’s Market in Spain.

Filed under: 2012, administrative, Uncategorized | 29 Comments »

Wisconsin Goes At It Again

Posted on January 15, 2012 by msjs0315

The deadline for this year’s crop of recall signature gathering was yesterday.  Something close to 1.5 million signatures will be carted to the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board (GAB) on Tuesday.

And the fun begins again.

Because of a recent court ruling, the GAB will need far longer than its mandated 31-day limit to deal with the paperwork.  A new software system and some 4 dozen extra employees will be needed to scan and verify the signatures, and the best guess for when recall elections may be held is late spring to early summer.

This favors the D’s, who can use the extra time to build name recognition and campaign war chests for their challenger candidates.

But pretty much everything else favors the R’s, which gets me wondering why the D’s decided to go through with it.

First, there is inertia.  Last summer’s recall elections demonstrated that it’s basically impossible to unseat an incumbent who got at least 52% of the vote in the prior election.  Of the four state senators likely to face a recall election this year, all surpassed that threshold.  Even if the incumbent squeaked by in the last election, it’ll be tough (remember Alberta Darling barely won her 2008 state senate race but successfully fought off a strong recall challenger last summer).  BTW, Walker won the governor’s race with 52.25% of the vote, putting him in the ‘inertia will out’ column.

Second, there’s money.  Due to a quirk in the state’s campaign finance laws, those R’s facing possible recall have been able to raise unlimited amounts of cash from individuals since mid-November.   Their D challengers, whomever they may be, can’t.

Third, there’s name recognition.  The R incumbents have it.  The challengers, especially those who enter the 4 state senate recall contests, may well not.

Fourth, the D’s have a depth-of-bench problem.  They need a strong statewide candidate to told onto retiring Herbert Kohl’s US Senate seat.  And a strong statewide candidate to unseat Gov. Walker.  It’s not clear they’ve got one such person, let alone two.  Current sentiment towards D’s from the Milwaukee and Madison areas isn’t high in other parts of the state and the D’s can’t win without rural/small city swing votes.  Every article I read still wistfully mentions former US Senator Russ Feingold, even though he’s been consistent and adamant about not running.   Now that signature gathering is over, voters will inevitably ask, “If not Walker/Kleefisch/Fitzgerald/Moulton/Wanggaard/Galloway, then who?”  The longer the D’s wait to present their answer, the more it hurts them.

Fifth, it seems more strategically important in the short term for the WI D’s to retain Kohl’s US Senate seat and ensure Obama wins Wisconsin in November.  Anything else is a distraction.  The D’s then can focus on developing homegrown talent to unseat Walker and a few state senators in 2014.

Filed under: 2012 | Tagged: , | 6 Comments »

Sunday Morning Political Post

Posted on January 15, 2012 by Michigoose

Because, after all, we are a political blog!

“The State”, South Carolina’s biggest newspaper, has endorsed Jon Huntsman this morning. As they say,

Mr. Huntsman is a true conservative, with a record and platform of bold economic reform straight out of the free-market bible, but he’s a realist, whose goal is likewise to get things done. Under his leadership, Utah led the nation in job creation, and the Pew Center on the States ranked it the best-managed state in the nation.

He also is head and shoulders above the field on foreign policy. He served as President George H.W. Bush’s U.S. ambassador to Singapore and President George W. Bush’s deputy U.S. trade representative and U.S. trade ambassador, and the next entry on that resume is even more impressive: He was a popular and successful governor in an extremely conservative state, well positioned to become a leading 2012 presidential contender, when Mr. Obama asked him to serve in arguably our nation’s most important diplomatic post, U.S. ambassador to China. It could be political suicide, but he didn’t hesitate. As he told our editorial board: “When the president asks you to serve, you serve.”

I would like to test embedded blockquotes, said Kevin Willis, editing this post. This should be removed later.

We don’t agree with all of Mr. Huntsman’s positions; for but one example, he championed one of the nation’s biggest private-school voucher programs. And with George Will calling him the most conservative candidate and The Wall Street Journal editorial page endorsing his tax plan, independent voters might find less to like about his positions than, say, Mr. Romney’s or Newt Gingrich’s.
What makes him attractive are the essential values that drive his candidacy: honor and old-fashioned decency and pragmatism. As he made clear Wednesday to a room packed full of USC students on the first stop of his “Country First” tour, his goal is to rebuild trust in government, and that means abandoning the invective and reestablishing the political center.

As a Utahn, and a liberal who wishes the Republicans would put up a realistic candidate, I’d love to see Jon Huntsman get the nomination. I still don’t think he’ll make it past South Carolina because I don’t the the Republican primary voters are in any mood for anything realistic, but there’s always hope for 2016.

Now the Dems just need to start thinking about 2016!

Filed under: 2012, politics | 91 Comments »

Mayhem in Tampa?

Posted on January 13, 2012 by msjs0315

This is a bitcomplicated.  On a dare from a Republican friend, I went and read the Rules of the Republican Party, as adopted at the 2008 nominating convention, henceforth known as the Rulebook. (sorry, it’s a pdf)

I’ll start with the RepublicanParty’s Rule 16.  In part, it says that if a state selectsits delegates before the Party says it can, “the number of delegates to thenational convention from that state shall be reduced by fifty percent (50%)”  (Rulebook, page 25).

The next item relates to the “beforethe Party says it can” part.  Rule 15(b)of the above cited document states that only Iowa, New Hampshire, SouthCarolina and Nevada can hold delegate selecting events prior to the firstTuesday in March but not before February 1 (Rulebook, page 18).

But in 2010 the RNC revisedRule 15(b).  This was something of abiggie, as the GOP doesn’t normally change these rules in betweenconventions, per page iv of the Rulebook.  The revised rule furtherstipulates that if any state other than the excepted four held an earlyprimary/caucus, the state “shall provide for theallocation of delegates on a proportional basis.”

Well, so much for the rules.

As of this writing, Iowa, NewHampshire and South Carolina all moved their events into January, and otherstates—Florida, Michigan, Colorado, Maine and Arizona—are all holdingprimaries/caucuses prior to the first Tuesday in March.  So, in theory each should: (a) have thenumber of delegates going to the nominating convention halved; and (b) have toallocate delegates proportionally.

Except that won’t be thecase, either.

It turns out that the delegate-assigningevents in Iowa, Colorado and Maine are non-binding so they get to retain theirfull delegation numbers.  And Floridagets to keep its winner-takes-all-delegates status, although its delegate count has been halved.

Is any of this making senseyet?

OK, how about Rule 38?  “No delegate or alternate delegate shall be boundby any attempt of any state or Congressional district to impose the unit rule.”(Rulebook, page 37)  Translation: Winner-take-allmay not be after all.

Depending on how angry and howdivided the GOP is when the delegates head to the convention in Tampa, theRepublican Party’s rules, and the candidate(s) with supposedly the mostdelegates, could face some potentially fascinating challenges.

Or everyone could unite under the common goal of defeating Barack Obama.  And if that’s the case, the GOP shouldn’teven bother with many of these rules for 2016.  After all, Rule 42 states “Rules 25 through 42 shall be the temporary rules of the next national convention” (Rulebook, page 40), so they won’t be in force after this summer anyway.  


I haven’t read the Democratic Party’s Rulebook, largely because no one’s dared me to.  It may well be in the same shape.

Filed under: 2012, GOP | 5 Comments »

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