Monday Open Thread
I hate Mondays. I overslept this morning because I forgot to set my alarm.
I love the internet though. Parody moves at the speed of light. Remember the Conservapedia Conservative Bible Project? Well, now we have the LOLCat Bible Project. Or perhaps, the Conservative Bible Project is a parody of the LOLCat Bible Project?
Blessinz of teh Ceiling Cat be apwn yu, srsly. This is the lolcat Bible Translation Project, a project dedicated to translating the entire Bible into lolspeak. The Project started in July of 2007 and so far we have most of the Bible translated!
If you’re not familiar with LOLCats, visit the I Can Has Cheezburger? site.
Here’s on of my favorites: The Song of Solomon:
Solomones Song of Songz, kthx.
Teh Beluved:2 Let him kiss me wit da kissus of hiz mouf i wuv hees mouf kissus–
for ur luv be moar delitefool den cheezbugrz. Srsly, Ai Pwnz!3 Yu has a flavr I liekz;
yer name is like smellz poorded out.
Deh oter chikz luv yu too!4 Take me wit yu plz, come on!
Letz go! the king bringme into hiz chamburz, k?
Teh Friendz:we liekz u k? we delitez u,
we wil praiz ur luv more den cheezburgers, rly!
Teh Beluved:Ai luv yu!
5 I am teh dark, and i be purdy.
Oh doters of Jehroosahlum,
dark liked the couches of Kedar, liek chaakalatz
like teh curtains of Solomon dat ai climez al dai.[cont…]
Tags: Open Thread
Yeah. I overslept also. Mrs. Geek apparently turned off the alarm by killing the volume of the radio last time. So this AM it went off, but inaudibly. Then when I got in for my meeting that I was running late for, the meeting had been canceled. Sigh. Monday.
I did get to go to the Italian Festival in Wilmington yesterday. Spent some time talking to Al Mascitti, drinking some wine and checking to see if Harris McDowell was walking funny. But the bummer was that many of the restaurants ran out of food and wine before I got there. Damn.
Mondays need not inspire dread. The Employee Satisfaction Revolution is nigh. Just sayin’
Why is Charlie Rangle still chairman of any committee? why has he not been expelled from the House? It’s not like the Dems could ever lose his seat. The party of corruption continues to pretect it’s own.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0qNGYxUwmU
Boomtown Rats
Good Monday for me. Krysten Sinema, State Representative from Arizona, was in town this morning and she visited 9th Street Books to talk about her book, Unite and Conquer. What a dynamo she is, and she shared some very interesting strategy ideas with the assembled progressives. I’ll get back to you with a book review after I’ve read it.
no questioning of the Dear Leader is allowed:
Beth Butler, longtime director of Louisiana ACORN, fired in wake of Obama flap
NOLA.com ^ | 10/12/09 | Gordon Russell
Beth Butler, the longtime executive director of Lousiana ACORN, was terminated by the organization’s national leadership today, just two days after local ACORN leaders ripped President Barack Obama’s planned itinerary for a trip to New Orleans this week.
The criticism of the Obama itinerary was actually voiced by Vanessa Gueringer, an unpaid volunteer who heads ACORN’s Lower 9th Ward chapter.
“I’m thrilled that he’s coming,” Gueringer said Saturday. “But,” she added, in remarks aimed at the president, “we want to see that change that you ran your platform on. We want to see the hope that symbolized your campaign in our neighborhood.
The comments prompted an immediate rebuke from ACORN chief executive Bertha Lewis, who said Sunday the remarks were “without authority and do not reflect the position of the national leadership.”
Mrs Isotope wrote:
I do set the alarm for 0500 every work morning, but I really don’t have to; I’ll awaken at 0448 naturally, workday or not.
With all respect, Gibson’s in over her head again.
http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009910120330
Highlights:
1. “Candidates must live in Delaware and be registered to vote here for at least a year before the election.”
States can’t impose a one-year residency requirement for Congress.
2. “Hoff said Carney will need to shake the perception that he can’t raise funds — in the gubernatorial race, he pulled in $1 million, compared with $2.5 million for Markell.”
Carney raised more money for a primary during a recession than the President of the Chamber of Commerce did for the primary and general combined while running for governor in 2000 when everyone was feeling rich. Yes, Carney raised less than Markell. He also is shorter than Wilt Chamberlain [who died 10 years ago today]. But he is an excellent fund-raiser and a multi-talented athlete.
3. “Castle’s decision last week not to seek re-election guarantees the first real contest in decades for Delaware’s lone seat in the House.”
We’re 55 weeks from the election, and no Republican has even cobbled together an exploratory committee. Gibson’s talking up Kovach with his career total of 1,540 votes? The vapid Greg Lavelle, he of a flaccid 63 percent against our game last-minute volunteer Chuck Old? Or Charles (38%) Copeland, the Adam Eaton of Delaware politics?
Yo –
I don’t know about your first point, but imagine there’s more there than meets the eye.
Point 2: Note that Gibson is quoting Hoff, so your beef is with him, not her. Also note that he’s referring to the PERCEPTION, not the reality. Clearly, $1 million is a ton of cash. But when you’ve got big party backing and your opponent outraised you by more than 2-1, that’s a PERCEPTION issue. Delaware politics have also changed substantially in the last 10 years since Burris ran his sad little campaign – mo’ money!
Point 3: Regardless of who the Republican contender is, this *is* the first REAL contest in decades. For the first time since the early ’80s, someone with the name Carper or Castle will not be running for this seat – no incumbent! That’s a wide-open field by anyone’s mark. You’re reading “real contest” as “competitive contest,” but that’s not what the article says.
I have to agree with anon. I read the article in the paper before JM’s criticism and it didn’t really register with me. It is the first real race in years because it’s an open seat.
Following up on my earlier post… my take on the “perception” issue is that it’s not about raising money, really. It’s about the perception that Carney is a dull candidate who wasn’t able to get anyone really excited about his race for governor. It’s the perception that the only support he had came from party leaders and other incumbents and politics-as-usual folks like Thurman Adams and Ruth Ann Minner – the Old Guard. It’s the perception that he can’t galvanize ordinary people and motivate them like Markell did.
(However, that said, it’s clear Scott Spencer is no Jack Markell.)
I don’t know if that’s what Hoff meant, but that’s how I see it.
I don’t agree with the perception that Carney can’t raise money. His 1st fundraising haul was impressive to the powers that be. His name was mentioned several places as having strong fundraising.
Gibson’s trying to conjure a race where there is none. Carney’s established his fund-raising chops, no credible competitor is in sight and Carney is clearly en route to win his first term in Congress by a bigger margin than Castle won his eighth or ninth.
Anon and Gibson may think this makes for a “real contest,” but I don’t. See also El Som’s hammer of a Tuesday afternoon post on this topic.
JM:
I’d like to ask you – what example would YOU give of a “real contest”? Markell v. Lee? Give me a break.
As much as I like El Som’s stuff, he got this one wrong. It IS a wide-open race, if only for the fact that neither Carper nor Castle will be on the ballot for Congress. No incumbent means it’s a wide-open race.
Anything could happen to Carney between now and next fall to make him stumble. He could pull a Biden and say something incredibly stupid. Something incredibly damaging could come out via FOIA from his time as No. 2. The GOP could do a very tough campaign linking him to Minner. Or someone could ask him a very simple question – like “Why do you want to be in Congress?” – and watch him do a Ted Kennedy with Roger Mudd.
My moral is this: Don’t count your chickens before they’re hatched. You could end up with Scott Spencer.
A real contest is one with reasonable doubt about the outcome. Yankees v. Angels. Sestak v. Specter. Sam Shipley v. Tom Evans. Anon conjures the phantasmagoric [“If Greg Lavelle electrifies the crowd by saying, ‘I paid for this microphone'”]. I’ll stick to reality, which as Colbert has noted, has a liberal bias.
By the way, Gibson massively botched a fact that was central to her theme: Carney’s fund-raising. Carney raised over $2.1 million in his race for governor.