• Hot Off The Presses - Politics, Schmolitics

    Sure You Can Shove Your Delicious Religion Down My Throat, Flying Spaghetti Monster! #RomneyShellshocked

    More delicious schadenfreude, with extra red sauce, O Most Holy and Comforting Flying Spaghetti Monster! Here’s a funny commenter at the Atlantic named slownews, replying to a religious lunatic person by pointing out the awesome truth behind her faith-based irrationality: slownews says: AULANDA replies (to slownews) slownews – God’s word may have been rejected by some but not all. God will finish what He started with His creation and He will do it His way. Reject Him if you choose, He hasn’t rejected you. Remember that when you face judgement that is certainly coming. ———- The Creator is the Flying…

  • Hot Off The Presses - Politics, Schmolitics

    Evolution Is A Thing Is The Song I Want To Sing

    When I’m happy, I sing. I’ll be singing this for a while. Ohio really did go to the president last night.   And he really did win. And he really was born in Hawaii. And he really is -legitimately- President of the United States. Again.   And the Bureau of Labor Statistics did not make-up a fake unemployment rate last month. And the Congressional Research Service really can find no evidence That cutting taxes on rich people grows the economy.     And the polls were not skewed to over-sample Democrats. And Nate Silver was not making up fake projections…

  • Hot Off The Presses - Politics, Schmolitics

    Triumph Of The Reality-Based Community Against The Forces Of Darth Rove And Emperor Adelson

    I’m really, really satisfied with the election results. Thank God for Nate Silver, or thank probabilities, anyway. He kept me sane all evening when the electoral count had Romney up until California and the rest of the West Coast reported in with a WHAM! BOO-YAH! and put the electoral total over 200 in the blue column. As almost every “battleground” state smoothly went blue except for North Carolina and stubborn Florida, it looked better and better still. First, remember Rove famously dismissed reality as not really fitting in with his plans: Back in the days of the Bush Administration, the…

  • Hot Off The Presses - Politics, Schmolitics

    Looking Back at GOP Ops In The War Against Voting: Projection As a Tactic

    If a GOP spokesgoon complains loudly about… anything shady at all, you can be that the GOP is accusing their opponent of doing the very same thing they are already doing more thoroughly, and with better funding right from the top. Buzzfeed has published the most bizarre set of emails between right wing operatives freaking out during the Scott Brown/Martha Coakley race in January of 2010 that I’ve ever seen. The plot, hatched by a strange alliance of high-profile conservatives, was to have James O’Keefe and his “crew” catch the SEIU in some kind of voter fraud similar to what…

  • Hot Off The Presses - Only in Utah...

    Oh The Immodesty! Utah Homecoming Hemline Flap

    Toole (pronounced Two-Willuh) is a community west of Salt Lake in the western mountains south of the Great Salt Lake. A lot of the area economy is based on mining, and it’s probably a heavily Mormon-majority area, although there’s been a lot of development in the last few decades. I had some relatives by marriage out that way but didn’t visit long enough to get more than a fleeting impression of dry foothills and endless miles of salt desert along the highway around the southern end of the lake. Just look at these immodest homecoming dance dresses! Um. Okay, anywhere…

  • Hot Off The Presses - Politics, Schmolitics

    YouTube: Young El Paso County CO Voter Registration Volunteer Fails Civics

    This story kicked off the whole “Nathan Sproul, GOP Vote Fraudster, At It Again” narrative. All the old stories came out from 2004 and other years. And the national GOP was forced to fire him after the Florida registration fraud story made it clear that the GOP was paying for Republican voter registrations again (and pretty much NOT paying for Democratic registrations). Then some state GOP organizations fired him some more. Time to create a new name, eh? It’s a reliable predictor of Republican shenanigans: whatever accusation they make against Democrats, they are surely doing more of it. ACORN registration…

  • Episcopal - Hot Off The Presses

    Smallest Jewish congregation in U.S. fights for survival in Mattoon IL

    MATTOON, IL— Proud to be known as the heart of the Illinois Bible Belt, the residents of Mattoon fill dozens of Christian churches. Theres also one Jewish congregation, which has the distinction of being the smallest Reform synagogue in North America. The membership? Four households. The Mattoon Jewish Community Center isnt a center at all but a group of dedicated congregants who meet in Trinity Episcopal Church. Even at Yom Kippur — the holiest of Holy Days, when this week synagogues in Chicago were packed — the worshippers at this prairie outpost strained to hit double digits. via Smallest Jewish…

  • Hot Off The Presses - Notty Problems: Even Leaving Doesn't Solve Them - Only in Utah... - Politics, Schmolitics

    If You Want To Understand Mitt Romney, read Glenden Brown at OneUtah.org

    Also cross posted at Daily Kos, Glenden Brown offers a perspective on Mitt Romney from behind the Zion Curtain. In Mormon culture, hierarchical status confers respect.  Authority in Mormonism is rarely questioned.  Mormon authorities are bad at explaining why they’re doing what they’re doing because within Mormonism they have the ultimate conversation stopper – “God said so.”  I think Romney is genuinely confused when his public assurances aren’t simply accepted as fact.  Why should people want to see his taxes when he’s said there’s nothing illegal in them?  His odd, robotic public persona is the political version of the Mormon…

  • Hot Off The Presses - Politics, Schmolitics

    My Tammy Duckworth Yard Signs Look Great! @Tammy4Congress #IL08 #itsmybirthday

    UPDATE: Fixed my dumb typo in the title. Also too, added the latest poll for the district: Joe Walsh, Flailing in the Polls, Sticks it to the 47 Percent Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.) probably could have picked a better time to come rushing to the defense of Mitt Romney. On Tuesday, a new survey from Public Policy Polling showed the first-term tea partier trailing Democratic challenger and Iraq war vet Tammy Duckworth by 14 points (52–38) in his Chicagoland district. Just 35 percent of voters said they approved of his job performance. Oooh, BURN. What a delicious update. Hee!! I forgot that I’d…

  • Hot Off The Presses

    The Olding Of America – Retailers Brace For The Silver Tsunami

    The future will be brighter, more colorful, and easier to navigate for all us Baby Boomers, so we’d better start thinking about the custom paint jobs and pinstriping we want on our Hoverrounds and Rascals. Oy. CHARLOTTE, N.C — CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Easier-to-chew foods, brighter lights in stores and bigger, clearer fonts on packaging: Those are a few of the changes marketers discussed at a conference Friday about how to sell to aging consumers. via Companies set sights on aging consumers | McClatchy