“Amercia” is one reason why the Romney campaign needs a new copy editor. Here’s another.
that parallel structure will get you every time
and so will your family members apparently
That is not the Amercia of my dreams.
I don’t know, some Thanksgivings I just want to go all Dangerous Game on my kin.
Amercia - Land of the Free and Home of the Heavily Armed Granny Agnes.
Also it looks like there’s a kinky three-way going on in that stylized “R.”
New poll: Walker recall battle is a dead heat
Many Washington pundits have declared the battle to recall Scott Walker all but over, and at least one public poll has shown Walker with a five point lead. This has created a problem for labor and Dems, who worry that impressions that the race can’t be won could depress enthusiasm among Dems in a battle that will likely be decided by who turns out to vote.
But make no mistake: Dems and labor still think the race is a dead heat. They are supplying their own polling data to make the case, and to energize the base in the home stretch.
A new poll taken by pollster Celinda Lake — who is a Democrat but is well respected by polling professionals — has found that the battle between Scott Walker and challenger Tom Barrett is now deadlocked, at 49 percent each.
The poll — which will be released later today and was comissioned by the pro-labor Greater Wisconsin Committee’s political fund — also finds that independents are breaking towards Barrett, 49-44.
The poll is an automated one (which means it doesn’t include cell phones) that surveyed 600 likely Wisconsin voters from May 24-28, which means it was in the field until Monday of this week. Its sample: 43 percent Democrats and Dem-leaners; 43 percent Republican and GOP-leaners; and 13 percent non-leaning independents.
Today’s poll is reinforced by another internal survey released last weekby the labor-backed group We Are Wisconsin, which also found a dead heat.
A public poll taken from May 17-22 by Saint Norbert College found Walker ahead 50-45, though that remained in the poll’s margin of error. Union officials questioned its sampling, and a pollster for Barrett argued to Chris Cillizza that some of the public polling had been taken before Barrett mounted his TV ad offensive against Walker.
Also: Keep an eye out for the release this afternoon of another public poll from Marquette Law School, which will be closely scrutinized by both sides.
Today’s poll — like polling released by the other side — should be evaluated as part of the ongoing spin war over the course of the recall campaign, which is designed to help influence the outcome, or at least to prevent public polling from creating premature impressions that the race is over.
Indeed, even neutral Wisconsin political observers believe that public polling of this race may not be predictive, since turnout in a mid-year gubernatorial recall election is impossible to anticipate. What’s more, in this case turnout is expected to be far higher than in the 2010 election that installed Walker in power in the first place.
A new Marquette University poll puts Walker up seven now, but they’ve had problems with oversampling conservatives. Talking Points Memo’s polling average is much closer to this poll — 49.4% Walker to 48.6% Barrett.
Either way, you don’t see Team Walker running to the press with the Marquette poll. Everyone agrees that recall supporters have the superior organizational apparatus, which means that overconfidence can blow a close one for Walker — Walker supporters think he’s a shoe-in, they stay home. Recall supporters think Walker’s a shoe-in and a van comes to their house to take them to the polls.
(via arenaoftheunwell)
RIP Doc Watson.
Doc Watson, the blind Grammy-award winning folk musician whose mountain-rooted sound was embraced by generations and whose lightning-fast style of flatpicking influenced guitarists around the world, died Tuesday at a North Carolina hospital, according to a hospital spokeswoman and his manager. He was 89.
Watson died at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, where he was hospitalized recently after falling at his home in Deep Gap, in the Blue Ridge Mountains. He underwent abdominal surgery while in the hospital and had been in critical condition for several days.
Arthel “Doc” Watson’s mastery of flatpicking helped make the case for the guitar as a lead instrument in the 1950s and 1960s, when it was often considered a backup for the mandolin, fiddle or banjo. His fast playing could intimidate other musicians, even his own grandson, who performed with him.
The video is Doc Watson and the recently deceased Earl Scruggs screwing around in Doc’s back yard. Two greats.
In Wisconsin recall, the right believes they can’t win legit.
One week before Wisconsinites vote on whether or not to recall Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI), a conservative group is engaged in dirty tricks that have shut down the Democratic challenger’s campaign phones.
According to multiple reports, independently verified by ThinkProgress, the following spam text message is being blasted out to many Wisconsin cell phones:
FRM:WI@obamasaliar.com
SUBJ:Union Puppet
MSG:Tom Barrett is a Union Puppet who will give Union Thugs everything they want. Call & ask why 414-271-8050
Of course, the number is Barrett’s campaign HQ. According to the report, “The influx of calls following this spam text message has shut down phones at Barrett’s campaign, just seven days before Election Day and right as get-out-the-vote efforts are ramping up.”
There’s no evidence that Team Walker is involved in any of this, but it gives you an idea of how confident the right is that they can win this — i.e., they aren’t confident at all.
Barrett accuses Walker of signing recall petitions against Kohl and Feingold; Walker question-dodges as usual
Walker dodging questions yet again.
MADISON — Milwaukee Mayor and Democratic candidate for governor Tom Barrett continued to launch attacks at Governor Scott Walker on the campaign trail Memorial Day Weekend.
Sunday, May 27th, Barrett accused Gov. Walker of signing recall petitions in the past, when it has suited him.
“There are just so many questions Gov. Walker refuses to answer,” Barrett said.
“His whole objective is to attack me. He doesn’t have a plan,” Gov. Walker said.
Barrett and Gov. Walker faced off Friday, May 25th in their first debate. Barrett said during the debate that he believes Gov. Walker signed recall petitions against Wisconsin senators Herb Kohl and Russ Feingold back in 1997.
In Racine Sunday, Gov. Walker responded, saying Barrett is getting desperate and is trying to distract voters from Barrett’s record.
In West Allis Sunday morning, Barrett continued to press the issue, pointing out that Gov. Walker is now against recalls based on policy decisions.
“He refuses even to answer questions such as — did he sign recall petitions against Senator Feingold and Senator Kohl? The more questions he refuses to answer, the more people are asking themselves — why is he asking us to trust him when he’s not willing to trust us with the answers to these questions?” Barrett said.
“I don’t believe I did (sign the recall petitions), but I have nothing that strikes my memory from 15 years ago one way or the other. What they’re trying to do is divert attention away from the failed record of the city of Milwaukee. Unemployment is up, violent crime is up, taxes and fees are up and they don’t want to talk about our positive record in the state, which is working,” Gov. Walker said.
h/t: fox6now.com
Obama video mocks Romney ties to birther Trump.
This one’s kind of a hit and a miss for me. Sure, Donald Trump’s an insufferable blowhard and a clown. And sure, Team Romney’s decided that Trump’s birtherism isn’t all that big of a deal.
But the McCain stuff — isn’t this what liberals always do? We seem incapable of comparing one Republican to another without putting a halo around someone’s head. We’ve managed to wrangle ourselves into a position of constantly praising Ronald Reagan this way and now we’re going to start doing that with McCain?
Look, John McCain started backing off all the crazy shit only when it became obvious that it was hurting his campaign. Before then, he was all for the crazy shit. Hell, he even found a big ol’ pre-bundled package of crazy shit and made her his running mate.
Why can’t that be the message; McCain was awful, Romney is worse? Why does it always have to be “Why can’t [insert candidate we’re running against] be an angel like [candidate we’ve run against in the past]?” It’d be a lot harder for all the crazy shit to gain traction if we weren’t always trying to normalize it.
Former FDIC director: breaking up megabanks good for the economy
Seriously, how obvious does this have to be before we start trust-busting?
