The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age

    Costumes

    By oulipo on Wed, 10/31/2012 - 10:33am |

    A first post directly to dagblog, so howdy. And a deviation from my normal patter. A question: what is the popular costume for children (mediated by adults, I guess) in your region, this year? For adults (including teenagers)? 

    Please help me with this: I want to explain to moderates why they shouldn't vote Republican

    By erica20 on Tue, 10/30/2012 - 12:50pm |

    Ok gang I know this might be a fool's errand but humor me here.

    I have spent a lot of time thinking about why any reasonably moderate person would still believe that voting Republican is a good idea. Here's my latest theory.

    Richard Day's picture

    ACTS OF GOD

    By Richard Day on Mon, 10/29/2012 - 8:34am |
    Sandy Oct 28 2012 16.00(UTC).jpg
    Satellite image    		 18L 2012 5day.gif
    Forecast

    Chris Christie halts campaigning for Romney; gets back to NJ and praises Obama's handling of the coming storm of the century—so far.

    Obama cancels campaign appearance in Florida to get back to DC and act as Chief Executive during the pending and impending 'Perfect Storm'.

    Reality has set in.

    The first thing,let's kill all the pollsters

    By Flavius on Sun, 10/28/2012 - 12:46am |

    The Gallup tracking polls on which I've been wasting good space here aren't worth the effort. IMHO successive reports appear to show important changes which are purely the result of Gallup's methodology

    Consider Obama's rating in  the  polls issued on               

                 10/21                                 10/23                 and       10/26

    Winners & Losers

    By PeraclesPlease on Sat, 10/27/2012 - 5:16am |

    Winner - Lena Dunham, now the viral video Obama Girl 2012 along with monster book advance - I feel a bad Foreigner hit coming on...

    Loser - Donald Trump, still finding ways to look ridiculous post-The Apprentice

    Winner / Loser - Mourdock, finding the positive side to Richard Speck and Albert DeSalvo, and portrayed as Voldemort on Stephen Colbert, has earned himself a lucrative earlier-than-expected post-congressional Fox career. 

    4th Estate as 5th Column

    By PeraclesPlease on Fri, 10/26/2012 - 5:26pm |

    I disagreed with Emma a few days ago over the idea we needed more "hacks", but now I'm reconsidering...

    Bob Somerby as usual's doing a bang-up job tracking the media madness, and in 2 particular areas his observations fit together -

    1) the media pack has gotten chummier of late with its Groupthink as Twitter helps them align their stories (sad, but bars used to serve this purpose, and at least then you could say you got a buzz)

    What Gallup should report tomorrow

    By Flavius on Thu, 10/25/2012 - 10:54pm |

    Further to my two days' old post  " Obama's quick Gallup recovery".....after being mired at 45% in Gallup's tracking  poll of  likely voters Obama's % starting rising this week

    Poll published

    Tuesday.              46%

    Wednesday          47

    Thursday              47

    Mourdock/Warhol lunch at Palm

    By PeraclesPlease on Thu, 10/25/2012 - 4:30pm |

    Seen by society folks, Andy met Richy at The Palm, and seems Rich is the go-to-gal for heart-felt emotions, at least for this 15 seconds. Main theme - no such thing as bad publicity, and that new gig at Fox holding up God's values won't hurt at that, what with unexpected retirement. Mourdock took occasion to show he's man of the earth by not bitching about the vinaigrette dressing. And you probably thought he was a Hoosier or something...

    Romney sneezes; more proof he's presidential

    By PeraclesPlease on Thu, 10/25/2012 - 12:43am |

    By agreeing with every word the president said, Romney proves he's more presidential than the president.

    Ironically, for a guy who rode into town on the back of post-partisan politics, Obama seems to have forgotten the lesson he mastered in the first debate - "just shut up and everyone will hate you". ("Everyone" being anyone from 5 or so media outlets who rawk our world)

    "Veritasshole" James O'Keefe gets another one

    By erica20 on Wed, 10/24/2012 - 8:40pm |

    Does "Veritasshole" as applied to James O'Keefe of Project Veritas violate the DAG terms of service? Or would "Veritasshole" be considered a new and clever English word?

    Normally I am not much for profanity but this new term seems pretty apt as a descriptor for O'Keefe.

    For clarification, see today's video of the overly trusting (possibly stoned?) Pat Moran not catching on the the fact that he is being led down the garden path. Hint--watch the "full" version--it's much more clear that Moran is trying to humor someone who won't let him get away.

    Humanae, Caritas and voter disenfranchisement

    By erica20 on Wed, 10/24/2012 - 4:25pm |

    I want to get this out there: I feel uncomfortable writing something so speculative but I think that there is a possible theological aspect to this case.

    Colin Small, the young man who was caught throwing eight voter registration forms in a dumpster in Virginia, is a strong proponent of the Catholic Church's encyclicals Humanae Vitae and Caritas in Veritate.

    Obama's quick Gallup recovery

    By Flavius on Wed, 10/24/2012 - 2:26pm |

    Today's Gallup  tracking poll has Obama back up to a 47% approval rating. That compares with recent history as follows

    Gallup’s " likely voter" reports 

    Colin Small is very, very pro-life

    By erica20 on Tue, 10/23/2012 - 10:14pm |

    Here's an update and some context on Colin Small, the young man who was arrested in Harrisonburg, VA last week for destroying voter registrations.

    Where is the sacrificial nerd?

    By erica20 on Tue, 10/23/2012 - 3:50pm |

    Human behavior doesn’t always make logical sense, but in our increasingly plugged-in world, stories about human behavior have a certain predictability to them. Call it the power of gossip. If an event occurs, and the usual human interest debates about the event and people involved don’t happen, it’s a clue that we might not have all the facts.

    I’ve been following the story of Colin Small, a young Republican who was seen throwing out completed voter registration forms in Harrisonburg, VA, and got arrested for it. Turns out Small was employed by the oft-renamed firm sometimes and formerly known as Strategic Allied Consultants, sometimes and formerly run by disgraced Republican consultant Nathan Sproul.

    Who won?

    By Flavius on Mon, 10/22/2012 - 10:46pm |

    Huff post  at 10 50``Romney 44%   Obama  34%

    I'll add other votes as I get them

    CNN  Obama 78; Romney 22

    Huff post at 10 55    Obama 43
    Romney 38

    A couple of later results are below as comments since the system wasn't allowing me to post them as edits here.

    Good night

    Foreign policy: the NeoCons buggered it up. Every democrat knows it--and no Republican will admit it.

    By erica20 on Mon, 10/22/2012 - 4:13pm |

    The strange thing about tonight's debate is that telling the truth about foreign policy would be an electoral disaster for either candidate.

    The bizarre moratorium on mentioning George Bush or Dick Cheney, or saying anything accurate about their eight years at the helm, means that it's impossible to tell the truth about US foreign policy, or about our place in the world.

    Registration form trasher could have mailed them in. Seriously.

    By erica20 on Mon, 10/22/2012 - 3:19am |

    Well folks, this story, if it's a story, has taken a strange turn.

    Colin Small, an employee of a Republican firm, was hired to register voters, with an emphasis on registering potential Republican voters. Early in the afternoon of the last day of voter registration in Virginia, he was spotted throwing eight registration forms in a recycling dumpster near James Madison University, a dumpster which is thought to be just a five-minute drive from the Registrar's office where the forms were to be filed.

    Dems still without defense?

    By PeraclesPlease on Sun, 10/21/2012 - 2:08pm |

    Bob Somerby has been noting the month-long right-wing attacks on Susan Rice (over many columns). It seems that both Fox & CNN keep distorting and cherry-picking what Rice said and that her original next-day comments contained the bulk of what we know now:

    The consulate was attacked on 9/11. Information was incomplete, so hard to draw conclusions, but seemed a protest similar to Egypt's was co-opted by a Libyan militant group, that may or may not have ties with Al Qaeda.

    Foreign Policy Debate: Please proceed, Governor.

    By Oxy Mora on Sat, 10/20/2012 - 6:25pm |

    I don't think there are many who think Romney won't take another bite at the Benghazi apple on Monday night. After all, the host of the original 47% soliloquy is giving another fundraiser there in Boca Raton so why shouldn't Romney double down on his Libya attacks, even though he put his foot in his mouth the first time around on both accounts,

    But after reading David Frum's Daily Beast column this morning, I wonder if the stage isn't set for a broader critique of Obama's foreign policy in the Mideast. The broader argument of course is whether the entire strategy on the Arab Spring has been correct.

    Those Gallup numbers must mean that

    By Flavius on Sat, 10/20/2012 - 3:04am |

    Obama was leading Romney on Thursday

    For the 7 days to Wednesday R had a 7 point average lead. So

     

    R  7 times  53 =s                             371

    O              46                                   322

     

    Then for the 7 days to  Thursday R had a 6 point lead. That must mean that

    R   6 days  times                      53

         + 1 day (thursday) times      X

          Total                                            367  an average of  52.5

     

    O  6 days times                        46

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