All the news that’s printed to fit

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I’ve seen the above graphic is several places now, and even though I don’t know where it originated I’ll give credit to our friend Joseph Cannon.

The point of the graphic is that us Americans are woefully uninformed (or misinformed) about world affairs. I won’t dispute that conclusion.

My question is whether this is something being done to us, or is it something we do to ourselves?

The US media is like informational fast-food, tasty but not very nutritious. But even before Al Gore invented the Internet it was possible to get international magazines and newspapers, and nowadays all the information you can ask for is just a google away.

So who is really to blame?

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The Heat is Off

Hey, remember how Politico was the Herman Cain harassment story hub for about two weeks? Remember how there were two, then four, then five, then four again, then only two who spoke? One, of course, filed an actual charge.Then she filed another charge at her very next job. The other one didn’t even work for Cain.

This event started around the time Cain’s 9-9-9 plan had put him at the front of the pack, polling near 30%. After the allegations and his response, his numbers dropped in a matter of days. The media credited the loss of faith by women and others. Of course, at the same time, Cain had made a number of mistakes and outright incorrect statements.

Now, Herman Cain is in third place. He’s polling at about 15%. Somehow, the serious charges against him have lost their steam. That’s due to one simple factor. No one really cares about smearing the guy in third place. One of the funny things about Newt Gingrich being in first place now is that scandals have pretty much been wrung out of him. Heck, the infamous divorce story has been debunked by his daughter.

One sign that a political smear doesn’t have staying power is that it goes away when the candidate doesn’t have staying power. This story disappeared faster than most.

Sarah Reconsider Ad

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C4P:

Your contributions have made it possible for us to run the Palin reconsider television ad next week in the Sioux City, Iowa market. Thanks to everyone who chipped in to make it possible.

You’ll be able to see the ad that will be shown on televisions on KCAU-TV across the Sioux City, Iowa market on this blog and on youtube when it goes up next week. If you have any ideas on how to get this story more attention, let us know and feel free to push it yourself to people who may be interested. The target date for this ad going up is now November 29th as the Thanksgiving holidays pushed our initial target date of November 28th back. At the very latest, we expect to get it up on the Sioux City market on the 30th.

What we do next after the television ad goes up is a more difficult question. If this ad is able to build some momentum for the Governor, the best way to keep that momentum going may be to commission a national GOP primary poll that includes the Governor as one of the options. We’ll see if it’s possible given our resources. We’re open to other ideas but the greatest challenge may be that time is running short for her to reconsider.

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It’s nice to think about but I wouldn’t hold my breath.

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Ron Paul sounds sane and rational

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I got this video over at Glenn Greenwald’s blog. He uses it as a hook to show how the major media try to suppress unorthodox ideas. You should read Glenn’s post. He is on my daily “must read” list.

I put the video up to demonstrate that Ron Paul is only crazy part of the time. For most of the clip he sounds like a liberal Democrat.

I like Ron Paul as a congressman because he says stuff nobody else will say. But I would never vote for him as POTUS.

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The war on drug users

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Radley Balko tells a tale that will shock you:

A year and a half ago she was beaten by a neighborhood thug outside of a city bar. It took months of do-it-yourself sleuthing, a meeting with a city alderman and a public shaming in a community newspaper before the Chicago Police Department would pay any attention to her. About a year later, Shaver got more attention from cops than she ever could have wanted: A team of Chicago cops took down her door with a battering ram and raided her apartment, searching for drugs.

Shaver has no evidence that the two incidents are related, and they likely aren’t in any direct way. But they provide a striking example of how the drug war perverts the priorities of America’s police departments. Federal anti-drug grants, asset forfeiture policies and a generation of battlefield rhetoric from politicians have made pursuing low-level drug dealers and drug users a top priority for police departments across the country. There’s only so much time in the day, and the focus on drugs often comes at the expense of investigating violent crimes with victims like Jessica Shaver. In the span of about a year, she experienced both problems firsthand.

[...]

Arresting people for assaults, beatings and robberies doesn’t bring money back to police departments, but drug cases do in a couple of ways. First, police departments across the country compete for a pool of federal anti-drug grants. The more arrests and drug seizures a department can claim, the stronger its application for those grants.

“The availability of huge federal anti-drug grants incentivizes departments to pay for SWAT team armor and weapons, and leads our police officers to abandon real crime victims in our communities in favor of ratcheting up their drug arrest stats,” said former Los Angeles Deputy Chief of Police Stephen Downing. Downing is now a member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, an advocacy group of cops and prosecutors who are calling for an end to the drug war.

“When our cops are focused on executing large-scale, constitutionally questionable raids at the slightest hint that a small-time pot dealer is at work, real police work preventing and investigating crimes like robberies and rapes falls by the wayside,” Downing said.

[...]

The most perverse policy may be asset forfeiture. Under civil asset forfeiture, police can seize property from people merely suspected of drug crimes. So long as police can show even the slightest link of drug activity to a car, some cash, or even a home, they can seize it. In the majority of cases, most or all of the seized cash goes back to the police department. In some cases, the department has taken possession of cars as well, but generally non-cash property is auctioned off, with the proceeds then going back to the department. An innocent person who has property seized must go to court and prove his property was earned legitimately, even if he was never charged with a crime. The process of going to court can often be more expensive than the value of the property itself.

Asset forfeiture not only encourages police agencies to use resources and manpower on drug crimes at the expense of violent crimes, it also provides an incentive for police agencies to actually wait until drugs are on the streets before making a bust. In a 1994 study reported in Justice Quarterly, criminologists J. Mitchell Miller and Lance H. Selva watched several police agencies delay busts of suspected drug dealers in order to maximize the cash the department could seize. A stash of illegal drugs isn’t of much value to a police department. Letting the dealers sell the drugs first is more lucrative.

Earlier this year, Nashville’s News 5 ran a report on how police in Tennessee are pulling over suspected drug dealers and seizing their cash along I-40, often without bothering to make an arrest. The station combed through police reports showing that officers spent 10 times as long policing the side of the interstate where a drug runner would be leaving after he sold his supply — and thus would be flush with sizable amounts of cash — than on the side where he was likely to be flush with drugs. The police were letting the drugs be sold in order to get their hands on the cash.

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Where I live in California’s Central Valley used to be a popular spot for meth labs. The Mexican drug gangs would set up in isolated farm houses and cook 20-30 pounds of crystal meth a week.

So then came the drug cops. There were all kinds of state and federal grants to add more cops, more prosecutors and to form special task forces. With all the cops around, the drug gangs moved their labs somewhere else.

But even though the meth labs are gone the drug cops are still here, because you can’t EVER reduce the number of cops. An politician who tries will be accused of being soft on crime.

And we’re not really any safer because those drug cops don’t do anything but look for drugs. They don’t hunt rapists and murderers, they don’t look for drunk drivers. Since we don’t have meth labs anymore they search for pot farmers.

We still have those.

BTW – Jeralyn tells a funny joke.

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Poor Baby

The new Mitt Romney Ad:

I’m no fan of Mitt Romney, but he may actually have an idea of what it would take to unseat Obama. The ad itself is pretty boiler plate stuff about how he’ll fix everything and repeal Romneycare Obamacare. What I enjoy is the media’s reaction to the ad.

“If we keep talking about the economy, we’re going to lose” is played from a recording of Barack Obama’s own words. Apparently, he was quoting a McCain aide when he spoke those words in 2008. First of all, that’s why you have to watch what you say. This reminds of a similar incident when Red Eye’s Greg Gutfeld pulled parts of Obama’s biography where he was quoting a sleazy friend.

Then there’s the fact that every quote preceding the one in question basically turned out to be a promise Obama failed to deliver. At least he’s telling the truth that the economy is a losing issue for him. Of course, there’s no way the media will fact check Obama in a Romney ad, so instead they and the White House went into overdrive outrage.

This is the key. It’s how Sarah Palin began to crack Obama. It’s how Netanyahu made Obama lose it about 10 seconds after the camera was off. You have to make him angry. You have to make him a joke. You have to treat him like a bad student. The media will follow. The DNC has produced 2 ads already to counter a line to whom most people who saw the Romney ad probably didn’t even pay attention. Someone’s pissed and they took time out of their schedule to whine about it.

Romney’s people are getting smart. They said it was taken out of context, but Obama took it out of context 3 years ago. Then they said that they’ll keep doing these ads just because it enrages the White House. Jay Carney even brought it up. I guess jobs was the number 2 priority in that press conference. If this keeps up, I might not have to hold my nose the whole time I vote for Romney.

Occupy boring

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I was looking through the latest stories about the Occupiers and I came to the realization that they are no longer newsworthy. In fact, they’re boring.

The Occupations that remain are essentially homeless encampments and the occasional small protests would not even be local news if it weren’t for the “Occupy” name. Mocking them is like jeering at the Special Olympics.

Actually that’s unfair – the kids in the Special Olympics work hard and accomplish something.

So unless and until the Occupiers do something newsworthy I’m not wasting any more front page space on them. I may still post things in the comment threads though.

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Occupy Anarchy

Ever wonder about the insistence that OWS has no leaders, agenda or goals?

Matthew Continetti:

But they might as well be talking to rocks. Both left and right have made the error of thinking that the forces behind Occupy Wall Street are interested in democratic politics and problem solving. The left mistakenly believes that the tendency of these protests to end in violence, dissolute behavior, and the melting away of the activists is an aberration, while the right mistakenly brushes off the whole thing as a combination of Boomer nostalgia for the New Left and Millennial grousing at the lousy job market. The truth is that the violence is not an aberration and Occupy Wall Street should not be laughed away. What we are seeing here is the latest iteration of an old political program that has been given new strength by the failures of the global economy and the power of postmodern technology.

To be sure, there are plenty of people flocking to the tents who are everyday Democrats and independents concerned about joblessness and the gap between rich and poor. The unions backing the occupiers fall into this group. But the concerns of labor intersect only tangentially with those of Occupy Wall Street’s theorists and prime movers. The occupiers have a lot more in common with the now-decades-old antiglobalization movement. They are linked much more closely to the “hacktivist” agents of chaos at WikiLeaks and Anonymous.

[...]

Anarchism is often dismissed as merely the rationalization of hooligans. But that is a mistake. Anarchism has a theory and even a canon: Bakunin, Kropotkin, Goldman, and others. Anarchism’s purpose is to turn the whole world into one big Fourierist phalanx. “At every stage of history our concern must be to dismantle those forms of authority and oppression that survive from an era when they might have been justified in terms of the need for security or survival or economic development, but that now contribute to​—​rather than alleviate​—​material and cultural deficit,” writes Noam Chomsky in an introduction to Daniel Guérin’s classic, Anarchism. Dismantle “the system.” Then we’ll be free.

[...]

This permanent rebellion leads to some predictable outcomes. By denying the legitimacy of democratic politics, the anarchists undermine their ability to affect people’s lives. No living wage movement for them. No debate over the Bush tax rates. Anarchists don’t believe in wages, and they certainly don’t believe in taxes. David Graeber, an anthropologist and a leading figure in Occupy Wall Street, puts it this way: “By participating in policy debates the very best one can achieve is to limit the damage, since the very premise is inimical to the idea of people managing their own affairs.” The reason that Occupy Wall Street has
no agenda is that anarchism allows for no agenda. All the anarchist can do is set an example​—​or tear down the existing order through violence.

Just as hostility to property is inextricably linked to utopian socialism, violence is tightly bound to anarchism. “Anarchists reject states and all those systematic forms of inequality states make possible,” writes Graeber. “They do not seek to pressure the government to institute reforms. Neither do they seek to seize state power for themselves. Rather, they wish to destroy that power, using means that are​—​so far as possible​—​consistent with their ends, that embody them.” What seems aimless and chaotic is in fact purposeful. By means of “direct action”​—​marches, occupations, blockades, sit-ins​—​the anarchist “proceeds as if the state does not exist.” But one who behaves as if the government has no reality and the laws do not apply is an outlaw, not to say a criminal.

When you see occupiers clash with the NYPD on the Brooklyn Bridge, or masked teenagers destroying shop windows and lighting fires in downtown Oakland, you are seeing anarchism in action. Apologists for Occupy Wall Street may say that these “black bloc” tactics are deployed solely by fringe elements. But the apologists miss the point. The young men in black wearing keffiyehs and causing mayhem are simply following the logic of revolutionary anarchism to its violent conclusion. The fringe isn’t the exception, it’s the rule. The exception would be “direct action” that took care to respect the law.

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There is a reason that anarchists tend to be young, single males with no children. That is the only group dumb enough to find the idea of chaos appealing.

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Amazing Viral Video

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The amazing part is this girl is only 10 years old:

Angie Vazquez and her band, Los Vazquez Sounds, have people all over buzzing about their cover of Adele‘s ‘Rolling in the Deep’ — 1.16 million to be exact.
The Mexican trio posted their rendition of the hit song, and it has since become a viral sensation, boasting over 1 million views in less than a week. Ten-year-old Angie is joined by 15-year-old Abelardo on guitar, bass and piano, as well as 13-year-old Gustavo Vazquez on drums. Watch out, Jonas Brothers!

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This is an open thread.

(h/t The Other McCain)

Open Letter To President Mark G. Yudof, University of California

Dear President Yudof,

I am writing to you as a female academic concerned about the double standard & sexism currently on display within the University of California system.

As you well know, two separate incidents of alleged police brutality, one at UC Berkeley and one at UC Davis, have caused quite a problem for the UCal system. In the case of the Berkeley incident, police used batons to violently beat back a crowd of admittedly unruly students. In the case of UC Davis, police are accused of pepper-spraying sitting students who impeded a sidewalk.

I am a supporter of free speech and the right to assemble, but I am concerned about the unequal treatment that Chancellors Katehi and Birgeneau have received, and may continue to receive.

Junior Professor Nathan Brown has spearheaded the movement to oust Chancellor Katehi, creating the most arrogant call for resignation that I have ever read with his “Open letter.” His rhetoric is well beyond the pale, and he is increasing his hostility by trying to frame her as “Chemical Linda Katehi” in his latest blog post. This is incredibly dishonest and hyperbolic, and an insult to what students at Greek & American universities are trying to accomplish today. It is also an insult to the very real violence, and deaths, happening in places like Egypt, Syria, Yemen, etc as the so-called “Arab Spring” unfolds. He is obviously hostile to women in positions of authority and something should be done to reign in his sexism. He and his cohorts in his own department, and the faculty of the Physics department who are helping him, should be reminded of the damage such hyperbole and abusive rhetoric causes.

(Update: Since this letter was first published, Professor Brown has denied authorship of the post containing the offensive “Chemical Linda Katehi” rhetoric. To my knowledge, the blog on which it appears was the first to publish his “Open Letter” outside of UC Davis. It was, in fact, posted to Bicycle Barricades within 5 hours of it being posted near midnight to the UC Davis Faculty Association website, thus the confusion. It has since come to light that the Bicycle Barricades is run by a close associate of Brown’s.)

But he and his cohorts are not my only concern. I am also concerned that Chancellor Katehi may have to pay a higher price than Chancellor Birgeneau, on whose campus actual violence happened. It is fair to ask why the students and faculty of UCal are NOT organizing a similar campaign against him. This smacks of sexism at its worst, and it has no place on university campuses. If Chancellor Katehi is forced to resign or is fired, but Chancellor Birgeneau is not, the women of America and women in academics will have no choice but to conclude that the UCal system is hostile to women.

The details of the unequal treatment and about the Chancellor’s involvement in these events have been spelled out in an article I wrote for The New Agenda, an organization that fights against sexism in all areas of American culture. I invite you to read the article, as it presents the case for how these two Chancellors are being treated and reminds the public of the imbalance of genders represented at the top levels of academics today. It also asks fair questions, such as:

Is being pepper-sprayed worse than being physically beaten? Worse than the scenes of professors and student being dragged off by their hair, as happened at UC Berkeley? Why is Chancellor Katehi being singled out amidst of sea of male figures of authority who have called for police assistance in dealing with the protests, including a male Chancellor and several male mayors? So far the biggest targets for Occupiers’ complaints about official reaction to their protests have been Chancellor Katehi and Mayor Jean Quan, of Oakland. Why?

I am writing to you in hopes that you will clearly think through your next actions, and provide Chancellor Katehi with support, as well as speak out against the sexism masquerading as reasonable protest on the UC Davis campus. Students and faculty can protest the police actions without trying to tear down one of the few women in leadership in academics. They should do so because there is no proof whatsoever that either Chancellor knew beforehand what police action would be taken, or coordinated the actions that did happen with them. In fact, it has been reported in a local paper that Chancellor Katehi specifically told UC Davis police NOT to use violence against the students. There have been no such reports from Chancellor Birgeneau, to my knowledge.

So why is she being singled out? And what will you do about this situation? The women of America, especially women in academics are watching.

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If you would like to express your support for Chancellor Katehi, here is the list of e-mail addresses I sent my letter to. Feel free to copy and paste.

While we were eating turkey

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Aircraft Carrier CVN-77 Parks Next Door To Syria Just As US Urges Americans To Leave Country “Immediately”

Yesterday we reported that the Arab League (with European and US support) are preparing to institute a no fly zone over Syria. Today, we get an escalation which confirms we may be on the edge. Just out from CBS: “The U.S. Embassy in Damascus urged its citizens in Syria to depart “immediately,” and Turkey’s foreign ministry urged Turkish pilgrims to opt for flights to return home from Saudi Arabia to avoid traveling through Syria.” But probably the most damning evidence that the “western world” is about to do the unthinkable and invade Syria, and in the process force Iran to retaliate, is the weekly naval update from Stratfor, which always has some very interesting if always controversial view on geopolitics, where we find that for the first time in many months, CVN 77 George H.W. Bush has left its traditional theater of operations just off the Straits of Hormuz, a critical choke point, where it traditionally accompanies the Stennis, and has parked… right next to Syria.

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Before Obama puts any US troops in harms way he should obtain congressional approval. Any military action should be a NATO operation and he should seek UN authorization as well.

Personally, I oppose any direct US military action. Let someone else be the world’s policeman for a while.

BTW – Iran won’t be happy about this.

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Here We Go Again

Governor Reagan, who in most cases does typify his party, but in some cases there is a radical departure by him from the heritage of Eisenhower and others.

-James Earl Carter

If a poll were taken today, Jon Huntsman would be first, Romney second. Cain, Bachmann and Gingrich would be near the bottom. That poll would be of people who will be voting for Barack Obama in 2012. The idea that radical and extreme candidates are bad and will lose elections is firmly held in the minds of Republicans. In reality, it mostly applies to Democrats.

In 2008, Mitt Romney tried to claim the conservative mantle against “maverick” John McCain. The same people who like Huntsman but will settle for Romney now were the ones who thought Giuliani was a shoo-in for 2008. Instead, the primary voters liked Mike Huckabee, who became Romney’s focus of attack. Now, Romney is trying to thread the needle.

I’d like to say it’s a matter of picking the more solidly conservative candidate, but there’s a problem in the Republican Party itself. Republicans have had a taste of power since 1994 and grew accustomed to it. There has been an effort to consolidate power and moderate candidates. It almost always means defeat for Republicans. These people would rather a Democrat win than let a Tea Party candidate take their job. Alaska, Nevada, Delaware and NY-23 proved that.

Then there’s Sarah Palin. She was a last-minute choice when someone managed to talk McCain out of his “fusion” ticket with Joe Lieberman. I imagine the strategy was that disaffected Democrats who supported Hillary Clinton would prefer a female running mate. For the sake of gravitas, it should be a governor. Between the governor of Alaska and the governor of Hawaii, Palin was the better fit.

What followed was one of those political accidents like Teddy Roosevelt or Calvin Coolidge where a person outside of the political machine made it to running mate. Palin is the model of a citizen politician. She started in the PTA and eventually made it to governor. She is the GOP’s closest thing to an ambassador to the Tea Party Nation and she’s a solid conservative. And Democrats who don’t like Obama like her.

Winning this election means going hard negative on Obama. The Republicans who might otherwise sit out the election need to be energized and those thinking of voting Obama again need their spirits crushed. Romney may be capable of it, but we know for certain Sarah Palin is. Republicans had better stop listening to Democrats warning of extremism. If your opponent prefers a candidate, run screaming to the one they mock.

Musical Quarterbacks

Carson Palmer

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When the NFL season started a little over two months ago, these were the starting quarterbacks in the AFC West:

Denver Broncos – Kyle Orton
Kansas City Chiefs – Matt Cassel
Oakland Raiders – Jason Campbell
San Diego Chargers – Philip Rivers

Things have changed:

Chiefs claim Orton off waivers

Kyle Orton has a new home in the AFC West.

Orton was claimed off waivers Wednesday by the Kansas City Chiefs, who were in the market for a veteran quarterback after losing Matt Cassel to a season-ending injury to his throwing hand.

Orton was released by the Broncos on Tuesday, six weeks after he was benched following a 1-4 start. The former Chicago Bears starter, who passed for 3,000 yards each of his first two seasons in Denver, became expendable when the Broncos opted to go with Tim Tebow as their starter.

[...]

Several other teams were interested in Orton, including the Bears, but the Chiefs were highest in the order of waiver priority and landed him. He’s expected to report to the Chiefs on Thursday, though it’s unlikely that he’ll be up to speed in time for Sunday’s game against Pittsburgh.

If that’s the case, Tyler Palko will make his second consecutive start. He was 24 of 37 for 230 yards and three interceptions in his first NFL start, a 34-3 loss to New England on Monday night.

[...]

Now it appears that Palko will have to fend off Orton to keep the starting job.

[...]

Orton, a former Purdue star, was a fourth-round draft pick and appeared on the way to stardom when he assumed the Bears’ starting job for 15 games as a rookie, winning 10 of them.

[...]

His stock never higher, Orton was traded along with a package of draft picks to Denver for Pro Bowl quarterback Jay Cutler. In a curious twist of fate, it was an injury to Cutler that sparked Chicago’s interest in claiming its former starter off waivers.

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Jason Campbell was playing good until he broke his collarbone so the Raiders traded for Carson Palmer, who refused to play his final year with Cincinnati. Palmer is 2-1 as a starter for the Raiders.

Orton got benched then cut, and will likely be starting soon for Kansas City because Cassel is out for the season. Meanwhile, Philip Rivers is the only AFC West QB to start every game and the Chargers are in the middle of a 5-game losing streak.

Best of all, the Chicago Bears (who originally drafted Orton) lost their starting quarterback (Jay Cutler) to a broken thumb last week. Jay Cutler originally played for the Broncos (2006-2008) before being traded to Chicago for Kyle Orton.

The Raiders play the Bears in Oakland on Sunday.

So, current AFC West starting quarterbacks are:

Denver Broncos – Tim Tebow
Kansas City Chiefs – Tyler Palko
Oakland Raiders – Carson Palmer
San Diego Chargers – Philip Rivers

BTW – The Oakland Raiders (6-4) are all alone in first place and today I am truly thankful for Carson Palmer.

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It’s a Wonderful Life

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In my house watching It’s a Wonderful Life is a holiday tradition.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING FROM THE CRAWDAD HOLE!

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FLASHBACK – The Great Alaskan Turkey Massacre of 2008

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One of my favorite Thanksgiving memories was watching Keith Olbermann, Cenk Uglier and the other members of the PDS Brigades make total fools of themselves over the death of a couple turkeys.

Where did they think those things came from, the frozen food section of Whole Foods?

What are some of your favorite Thanksgiving memories?

(This is another one of those open thread thingies.)

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T-Day minus 1 open thread

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What are your plans for tomorrow?

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DeOccupyXmas

Demonstrators Plan to Occupy Retailers on Black Friday

Some demonstrators are planning to occupy retailers on Black Friday to protest “the business that are in the pockets of Wall Street.”

Organizers are encouraging consumers to either occupy or boycott retailers that are publicly traded, according to the Stop Black Friday website.

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Verum Serum:

Good idea. In fact, here’s an idea for cutting back on shopping this Christmas. It’s something I’m launching now with absolutely no forethought. I’m calling it DeOccupyXmasList. It’s really simple. Here’s the plan. If you have an occupier in your life, scratch them off your Christmas list. That’s it. Your holiday shopping has now been de-occupied. Wasn’t that easy?

Remember, they don’t want anything this year. No new video game consoles or games. No iPhones or iPads. No new cameras or laptops. No cashmere sweaters or hipster hats. No gift certificates to the local head shop and absolutely no cash. Save your filthy capitalist lucre and help your son, daughter, niece, nephew or smelly friend be true to their revolutionary ideals. It’s a win-win scenario.

If you feel you must get something for your Occupy-minded relative or friend, please make sure it’s a local product worth less than $10, so maybe a small bag of oranges. It’s cheap and will help them resist camp scurvy over the winter.

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No Occupiers in my family. I raised my kids right – they may be selfish, self-centered brats but they have jobs.

Okay, I admit that two of them supported Obama, but nobody is perfect.

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It’s almost over

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There was a GOP debate last night. I didn’t watch it.

There are only about two or three weeks of campaigning left, then everyone’s attention will be diverted by the holidays. January 3rd is the Iowa Caucuses, then there are about ten primaries and caucuses before Super Tuesday on March 6th. California votes in June. (Full schedule here)

Barring some new scandal or controversy the GOP field is pretty set. It’s going to be Romney vs. Not-Romney.

Michele Bachmann was the first Not-Romney, then came Rick Perry. Herman Cain had a shot at it and now Newt Gingrinch holds the position. Rick Santorum hasn’t been able to gain traction, Jon Huntsman should have run as a Democrat and Ron Paul is Ron Paul. Tim Pawlenty must be kicking himself.

The real question is whether all the Not-Romney votes will coalesce around one candidate. I predict it will be down to two candidates by February and over by Super Tuesday.

I could hold my nose and vote for Romney.

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I’m not watching another GOP Debate

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Especially not one that will star Newt Gingrinch. If you held a gun to my head and told me to choose Newt or Obama, I’d tell you to pull the trigger.

You can watch the debate if you want. This is an open thread.

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Occupy Long March

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Washington Post:

The protesters embarked on the 231-mile-trek with a $3,000 check from Occupy Wall Street. But the marchers soon found they didn’t need the money, as they received donations of food and cash, cigarettes and deodorant from local residents and passersby. Occupy movements also sprang up or grew larger in their wake in places such as New Brunswick and Trenton, N.J.

While some of the original 21 marchers dropped out because of missing toenails, shin splints or fevers, new marchers have since joined, so that more than twice as many protesters will arrive in Washington Tuesday.

On Wednesday, the Occupiers intend to hold a “day of action,” to shut down part of the city in protest of the failure by 12 lawmakers to reach a deal that would ease the tax burden on the “99 percent.”

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How many dropped out, how many joined, and where did they join?

But wait! There’s more!

Oops..wrong time to Occupy the super committee

A group of Occupy Wall Street protesters have spent the last two weeks marching 230 miles from New York City to the nation’s capitol. A blast “action alert” emailed this morning describes their plans upon arrival in Washington, DC:

Together we will march to McPherson Square where they will hold a press conference at noon, followed by a General Assembly afterwards to discuss the planned actions. Shortly after, they will march to the Capitol to bring the message of the 99% directly to the Super Committee.

One small problem — the “super committee” has already declared failure and gone home. And the House and Senate adjourned last Friday.

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For $3000 they could have chartered a bus, rode in comfort, and arrived in time to harass mic check the super committee.

All is not lost. They can spend Thanksgiving shining the batsignal on the Washington Monument. That’ll show Congress!

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