One night, when I was drinking tequila . . .

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I’m shocked!:

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison say college students’ Facebook pages hold clues to which of them are at risk for alcohol dependence and abuse, Reuters Health reports.

Dr. Megan Moreno, from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, along with a team of researchers from her university and the University of Washington in Seattle, surveyed the Facebook pages, including photos and posts, of 224 undergraduates with publicly-available profiles.

According to the researchers, students who had pictures or posts about getting drunk or blacking out were more likely to be at risk of drinking problems, based on a screening test. That was not necessarily the case for students who merely mentioned alcohol or drinking on their pages.

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Did I mention that it’s Oktoberfest?

This is an open thread.

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Sarah Palin lists children as “senior staff”

U.S. first lady Michelle Obama stands with Karen Dudley, right, at her restaurant “The Kitchen” as she makes an unscheduled stop for lunch in Cape Town, South Africa, Thursday, June 23, 2011. Also pictured, left to right, daughters Malia and Sasha Obama, niece Leslie Robinson, nephew Avery Robinson. (AP/Charles Dharapak, Pool)

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Oh, wait:

Judicial Watch Obtains Documents Detailing the Cost to Taxpayers for Michelle Obama’s Family Trip to Africa

Judicial Watch, the organization that investigates and fights government corruption, announced today that it has obtained mission expense records and passenger manifests from the United States Air Force related to the June 21-27, 2011, trip taken by First Lady Michelle Obama, her family and her staff to South Africa and Botswana. Judicial Watch obtained the documents pursuant to an August 19, 2011, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Air Force (No. 11-1496)). Judicial Watch is investigating the purpose and itinerary of the trip as well as a breakdown of the costs to taxpayers.

On June 28, 2011, Judicial Watch filed a FOIA request seeking the mission taskings, transportation records, and passenger manifests for Michelle Obama’s Africa trip. Documents were only provided after Judicial Watch filed suit:

According to U.S. Department of Defense’s published hourly rates for the C-32A aircraft used for the trip, Judicial Watch calculated the total cost to American taxpayers was $424,142 for use of the aircraft (34.8 flight hours x $12,188 per hour). (The C-32 is a specially configured military version of the Boeing 757.) Other expenses – meals (off the plane), transportation, security, various services, etc. – have yet to be disclosed.

The passenger manifests confirm the presence of Obama’s daughter’s, Malia and Sasha on the trip. The two girls are listed as “Senior Staff.” The manifests also list Mrs. Obama’s mother, Marian Robinson, and niece and nephew, Leslie and Avery Robinson, as well Mrs. Obama’s makeup and hairstylist (Carl Ray and Johnny Wright).

The expense records also show $928.44 was spent for “bulk food” purchases on flight. Overall, during the trip, 192 meals were served for the 21 passengers on board.

The professed purpose of Michelle Obama’s trip to South Africa and Botswana was to encourage young people living in the two growing democracies to become involved in national affairs; and during her scheduled stops in Pretoria and Cape Town, South Africa and in Gaborone, the capital of Botswana, the First Lady used the opportunity to speak on education, health and wellness issues.

The trip also included such tourist events as visits to historical landmarks and museums, plus a nonworking chance to send time with Nelson Mandela, a meeting that Mrs. Obama described as “surreal.” The trip ended with a private family safari at a South African game reserve before the group returned to Washington on June 27.

“This trip was as much an opportunity for the Obama family to go on a safari as it was a trip to conduct government business,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “This junket wasted tax dollars and the resources of our overextended military. No wonder we had to sue to pry loose this information.” (emphasis added)

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Remember when the Obots and the media (but I repeat myself) went nuts over Sarah’s $150,000 shopping spree that wasn’t? All the money the RNC spent on clothing, make-up and stylists for Sarah and her family during the 2008 campaign was from private donations. (It was considerably less than $150,000 after most of the clothes were returned unused.)

Michelle took her family on a vacation at OUR expense.

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Vandals and Goths

Slackerfest

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Occupy Wall Street Causing Problems On Main Street

Zuccotti Park is more of a granite-clad pedestrian plaza than a park. On a normal weekday, pre-protest, the area would be crowded with “suits” eating their lunches or drinking their coffees, courtesy of the nearby food trucks, sandwich shops and pizzerias. Today, it’s difficult to navigate the area moving north to south, as pedestrians and onlookers encounter human roadblocks once they hit the Liberty Street and Broadway intersection. Double-decker tour buses roll by the park to allow patrons to snap pictures of a “real New York City protest,” while clogging crosswalks and slowing traffic. These days, the sidewalks opposite the park are empty except for camera crews setting up their shots, and the few people walking by have their backs to the businesses, their eyes fixed on the growing commotion across the street.

For Tzortzatos, the “occupation” has resulted not just in a loss in business. “I’ve had a lot of damage from the protesters,” she said. “I’ve had to put a $200 lock on my bathroom because they come in here and try to bathe. The sink fell down to the ground, cracked open, pulled the plumbing out of the wall and caused a flood. It’s a no-win situation. If I open the restroom for one, 30 people line up outside, disrupting my business.”

A manager at the nearby Essex World Cafe — who asked to remain anonymous — shared similar complaints. Referring to three young men waiting at the end of the counter, he explained, “They want to use the toilet, the phones, we give them free water and free ice. They sit here and don’t buy anything, but they recharge their phone batteries with our plugs, and I tell them, ‘Hey, if you guys are going to come, I need to do some business here. We are suffering, too!’ And then they start with their own words, going against you.” The three young men eventually left the cafe, each carrying large containers the staff had filled with hot and cold water for them.

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I’m sure those bankers are about to cave in and renounce greed any day now.

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I’d scream too if my career was about to be ruined

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Ace of Spades:

CBS Reporter Sharyl Attkisson Says WH Spokesman Screamed and Cursed at Her Over Fast & Furious Investigation [JWF]

House Republicans today called for a special counsel to investigate the massive Fast & Furious scandal following the devastating revelations reported Monday by CBS News reporter Sharyl Attkisson, one of the few in the “mainstream” media actually reporting on this.

Today Attkisson appeared on The Laura Ingraham Show and detailed the reaction of White House and DOJ spokesthings when she questioned them last Friday.

[...]

1:31 – In between the yelling that I received from Justice Department yesterday, the spokeswoman–who would not put anything in writing, I was asking for her explanation so there would be clarity and no confusion later over what had been said, she wouldn’t put anything in writing–so we talked on the phone and she said things such as the question Holder answered was different than the one he asked. But he phrased it, he said very explicitly, ‘I probably heard about Fast and Furious for the first time over the last few weeks.’

6:05 – Laura: So they were literally screaming at you?
Attkisson: Yes. Well the DOJ woman was just yelling at me. The guy from the White House on Friday night literally screamed at me and cussed at me. [Laura: Who was the person? Who was the person at Justice screaming?] Eric Schultz. Oh, the person screaming was [DOJ spokeswoman] Tracy Schmaler, she was yelling not screaming. And the person who screamed at me was Eric Schultz at the White House.”

7:33 – Laura: Do we know the exact number [of guns] that went over to Mexico?
Attkisson: We know more than 2,000 in Fast and Furious and I will soon be reporting on the fact that that is not the only case. 2,000 for that operation according to the agents involved.

8:28 – …Is it sort of a drip, drip. And I’m certainly not the one to make the case for DOJ and White House about what I’m doing wrong. They will tell you that I’m the only reporter–as they told me–that is not reasonable. They say the Washington Post is reasonable, the LA Times is reasonable, the New York Times is reasonable, I’m the only one who thinks this is a story, and they think I’m unfair and biased by pursuing it.

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This is the part that caught my attention:

They say the Washington Post is reasonable, the LA Times is reasonable, the New York Times is reasonable, I’m the only one who thinks this is a story, and they think I’m unfair and biased by pursuing it.

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Sounds like the White House has got everyone else in the media to cooperate except for Sharyl Attkisson.

Good for her.

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Fast and furious sweeping

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I knew I smelled astroturf

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New York Times:

On Wall Street, a Protest Matures

“I think a good deal of the bankers should be in jail.”

That is what Andrew Cole, an unemployed 24-year-old graduate of Bucknell University, told me Monday morning in Zuccotti Park, the epicenter of the Occupy Wall Street movement. Mr. Cole, an articulate young man dressed in jeans, a sweatshirt and with a blue wool beanie on his head, had just arrived by bus from Madison, Wis., where he recently lost his job.

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Oh, poor baby!

Oh, wait! Professor Jacobson:

The New York Times does not tell us where Cole was working prior to being laid off. Must be construction, or perhaps one of those state workers brutalized by the evil Gov. Scott Walker and the Koch Brothers. Or perhaps some heartless business which puts profits over people.

No, a simple Google search reveals that Cole is a professional progressive operative, having worked — according to his LinkedIn profile – for the past three years for the Progressive Patriots Fund, which he still lists at his employer:

September 2008 – Present (3 years 2 months)

Trained and dispatched by Senator Russ Feingold’s PAC to work in the field for Eric Massa’s congressional campaign in New York’s 29th district. Responsibilities included volunteer recruitment, voter contact, and coordinating the GOTV push for a campaign satellite office in Canandaigua, NY.

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There’s more, but you gotta go over to Legal Insurrection to read it.

Now you might say that proves nothing. Maybe.

But I know someone who gave a measly $500 to a Republican candidate once, and eight years later that fact was offered as proof that the entire PUMA movement was a GOP ratfucking operation.

She wasn’t a professional political operative. Andrew Cole is.

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“It wasn’t MY money”

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I told ya he was making a great soundbyte for the RNC. It turns out he made two.

(h/t Hot Air)

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SHOCKER – CNN tells the truth about 2008

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Well, not the WHOLE truth, but a little bit of it:

It is often assumed that Barack Obama used his gifts as an orator and his aspirational rhetoric to energize young and minority voters in a way that allowed him to wrest the nomination from Clinton, the candidate favored by the Democratic establishment. This is a nice story, but it is not completely true. For one thing, Clinton actually defeated Obama in the popular vote.

[...]

Indeed, it appears that the real brilliance of the Obama campaign was to realize fairly early that a true majority was not achievable.

In response to this fact, and having an edge in the early caucus states due to superior grass-roots organizing, the Obama campaign subtly changed the understanding of the rules. It acted as if the nomination would be determined by the delegate count after the caucuses and primaries, regardless of whether an absolute majority had been achieved. What this did was to lower the overall number by more than 800 votes (the superdelegates), and consequently change the threshold of victory.

Since most Americans are unfamiliar with how the nominating process works, this was a fairly easy story to sell. The press for the most part cooperated. Once this fiction was accepted, any other result would be seen as undemocratic. Indeed, Clinton’s complaints about this unofficial after-the-fact rules change were portrayed as a divisive form of sour grapes. After all, following Sen. Obama’s post-Super Tuesday February romp through 10 states, it became obvious that Sen. Clinton would not be able to win under this new threshold.

Ultimately, and most importantly, the elected and unelected leaders of the Democratic Party accepted the Obama campaign’s spin. This was crucial to Obama’s success, since a real victory at the convention depended on these superdelegates ignoring the fact that Clinton was the stronger general election candidate in swing states like Pennsylvania, Florida and Ohio. In the end, it was the endorsement of these superdelegates — again, party leaders and elected officials — that forced Clinton to concede the nomination.

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That’s mostly true except for one teensy little fact – without the RBC decision halving the number of delegates from Florida and Michigan and giving Obama ALL the undecided delegates plus four of Hillary’s from Michigan, she would have led in the pledged delegate count too.

Oh, and it wasn’t superior grass-roots organizing in the early caucus states, it was fraud. And there was nothing subtle about any of it, they lied and the Democratic establishment and the media helped them lie.

But at least they finally told a little bit of the truth.

(h/t Riverdaughter)

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Run, Sarah, Run

Today is Run, Sarah, Run day.

Starting today I (and anyone else who wants Sarah to run) will be posting this simple message to her in any way we can – blog, twitter, facebook, smoke signals, scribbles on the palms of our hands.

(Edit: I just realized there is a #RunSarahRun tag on twitter now. Use it!)

We start today and don’t quit until she’s in.

RUN, SARAH, RUN.

Obama gives Republicans winning soundbyte

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President Obama: America ‘Not Better Off’ Today than Four Years Ago

Calling himself an “underdog,” President Obama today said the faltering economy is a drag on his presidency and seriously impairing his chances of winning again in 2012.

“Absolutely,” he said in response to a question from ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos about whether the odds were against him come November 2012, given the economy. “I’m used to being the underdog. But at the end of the day people are going to ask — who’s got a vision?”

The American people, he conceded, are “not better off” than they were four years ago.

“The unemployment rate is way too high,” he said of the 9 percent jobless rate, the highest in more than half a century.

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You can watch a clip of the interview here.

It’s really a simple question. “Are you better off than you were four years ago?“

Any president that receives a “No” in response has some ‘splainin’ to do if they want to be reelected.

Sadly, I was better off four years ago and I don’t feel real optimistic about the next four no matter who wins.

But I was doing a lot better twelve years ago.

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It’s a really bad word and nobody should use it

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“View” Co-Host Approves Of Whoopi Using The N-Word, Not Walters

In the ‘Hot Topics’ segment on “The View” this morning, the ladies discussed a Washington Post story about a rock with the word “N****rhead” written on it at the gated entrance of a hunting camp leased and frequented by Rick Perry and his father.

Host Barbara Walters used the n-word while explaining the story, causing co-host Sherri Shepherd to take offense. Shepherd says she didn’t like the way Barbara Walters said it. However, Shepherd was okay with Whoopi Goldberg, the main host of “The View,” using it. Shepherd explained herself:

“When I heard you (Whoopi) say it, it was fine. You said it a different way. When I heard you (Barbara) say it, I didn’t like the way you said it. Because when you say it, you say [inaudible]. And I don’t like [inaudible],” Shepherd said.

This left Barbara Walters confused and wanted to know the proper way to say the n-word. However, Shepherd told Walters there is no right way for her to say it.

Walters said the n-word once in the segment while Whoopi Goldberg used the word nearly a dozen times.(edited)

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The “N-word” is the vilest word in the English language. It is hypocritical and disgusting for progressives to keep using it over and over in order to smear Rick Perry.

The N-word should be removed from our active vocabularies. White people should not use it. Black people should not use it either.

It is part of our history and will remain in our literature. But maybe some day when teens and young adults read Huckleberry Finn teachers will have to explain to their students what it means because those young people will have never heard it before.

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