LIVE AT FIVE10.5.10

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TOP NEWS

Sweden, Japan Latest To Issue Terror Warnings For Travelers to EU
Alerts sow travel confusion

Emanuel kicks off campaign for mayor
Greeted by hostile pedestrians & protesters

As Brit Wins Nobel For IVF, Indian Scientists Ponder Lost Opportunity
A tale of science, bureaucracy, and suicide

Gallup Poll Shows GOP In Good Shape With Likely Voters

POLITICS
Gloves Come Off Right Away In CT Senate Debate
McMahon hits Blumenthal with everything but the folding chair

Justice Kagan Steps In And Then Bows Out
Former Solicitor General has recused herself from 25 cases she handled at Justice before being appointed to the Supreme Court

Tea Party Express To Spend “Six Figures” To Finish Off Murkowski

MSNBC Launches Ad Campaign Stressing Its Political Bias

Federal Judge Busted; Bought Drugs From & With Stripper

Former VP Mondale: Obama’s “Idiot Boards” Cutting Him Off From The People

THE ECONOMY, STUPID
MasterCard, VISA Settle; AmEx Sued By Feds

Dow Declines As Earnings Season Approaches, Unemployment Report Due

Oil Trades Near Eight-Week High

With Market Share Trailing Kia, VW  To Change Approach, Start Building Cars That Appeal To Americans
So crazy, it just might work!

SPORTS
Brewers & Pirates Join Mets In Giving Managers The Boot

Former Mets GM Omar Minaya

Minaya spent too much for a four-year stretch out of the playoffs; Macha, Manuel and Russell also contemplating new careers

Twins Head To Playoffs Without Justin Morneau – Again
Hasn’t played since July 7; Twins won anyway

Michael Vick Week-to-Week With Damaged Rib Cartilage

Kobe Bryant Says Knee “About 60%”

Titans’ Defensive Coordinator Shot Refs The Finger, Fined $40K

FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS

Ralphie May Busted By Drug Dogs In Guam

Zack Snyder Tapped For Next Superman Movie

Spears Conservatorship To End Within Three Months

Ricky Gervais No Longer Big Fat Deal
Drops 40 pounds with girlfriend

Lohan To Do Rehab Photo Shoot To Raise Cash?





FOREIGNERS

CIA Drones Snuff Eight German Militants In Pakistan

Wilders, Freedom Party Join Dutch Government Coalition
Meanwhile, Wilders challenges biased judges in  appeals court trial

Bosnian Election Results Indicate Deep Ethnic Divisions

Buried Chilean Miners Could Be Home Next Week

In Communist Vietnam’s Facebookski , State Friends You!

BLOGS & STUFF

Jim Treacher –  10:10? Nein! Nein!

Nick Gillespie – Whose Was Bigger?

PowerLine – Get The Feds Out Of My Shower!

Don Surber – Daily Scoreboard

Mitch Berg – Cravaack Within Three Of Oberstar In MN-8?!?!

— compiled by Wombat-socho

What Did I Tell You About Her?

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Christine O’Donnell’s first TV ad of the general election campaign:

The American Spectator, July 27:

“[C]onservatives in Delaware have the benefit of backing an indisputably telegenic candidate. O’Donnell . . . has the kind of 100-watt smile that lights up a room.”

With a smile like that, she’s awfully hard to hate. The Castle campaign tried to demonize her and it backfired. Maybe Baldy the Tax-Hiking Wanker will have better luck. I doubt it.

She may not be a witch, but you can’t deny she’s got magic.

Photoshop by Carol at No Sheeples Here.

UPDATE: My filmmaker friend Ladd Ehlinger Jr. hates the ad — absolutely hates it. But he’s looking at it from a filmmaker’s point of view, whereas Ace of Spades sees the human side:

She has a useful amount of sadness in her, of whippedness, that pushes the right emotional button. She was beaten up — hard not feel sympathetic for someone beaten up.

Exactly. My point, however, is that TV is about images.

Forget the words. Just turn off the sound and look at it. The moment she flashes that first smile, the average person likes her. They can’t help it. It’s an autonomic response.

Whether “I like her” translates into “I want her to be Senator,” I can’t say. But we’ve recently elected a president whose chief politic assets are a resonant baritone voice and a vague resemblance to the Allstate man, so I think it unwise to underestimate the superficiality of voters in the Age of Image.

UPDATE II: Three Tweets:



As with everything else about O’Donnell, this simple ad seems destined to be controversial. If she wins on Nov. 2, all the criticism of her and her campaign will be forgotten. Victory has that effect in politics.

Bloggers: What Not to Do

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There’s some stuff you shouldn’t do if you want to be a blogger, like make an ass out of yourself the way Tommy Christopher did in writing a “column” about the One Nation Rally.

The scare-quotes around “column” are required because Tommy Christopher is such a lousy writer. Once upon a time, when columnists required the investment of ink and paper to get published, you had to be a good writer to become a columnist. Continue reading Bloggers: What Not to Do →

Franken for Wankin’

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Christine O’Donnell’s anti-masturbation message is clearly a threat to Al Franken’s lifestyle choice:

Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) will campaign this week for Delaware Democratic Senate nominee Chris Coons.
Franken . . . will stump Thursday for Coons, according to the Delaware Democratic Party.

Hey, hit the tip jar if you want me to go cover that. Meanwhile, a Wilmington News Journal columnist writes:

Coons should seriously consider resigning as New Castle County executive so he can put all his daily efforts into this campaign. . . . Coons is not running the county while he’s campaigning (some, of course, will say he hasn’t been running the county for months).

O’Donnell replied with a press release:

“Coons has been AWOL for months while cashing in his inflated, taxpayer-funded paycheck,” O’Donnell said. “He has continuously raised taxes on the people of New Castle County, while he offers them nothing back but an empty desk.” . . ..
“If Coons fails to show up for work every day in New Castle County, why should we expect him to show up for work in Washington while accepting money from taxpayers,” O’Donnell continued. “Many people in Delaware are struggling to find one job and going without a paycheck in the meantime, while their county executive is cashing his constituent-funded paychecks for one job, while campaigning for the next job.”

Kinda funny that Franken is campaigning in Delaware while Democrat Jim Oberstar is in trouble Minnesota.

CHRISTINE O’DONNELL for U.S. SENATE

Crazed Ewok Endorses Hard-to-Spell GOP Candidate in Minnesota 8th District; Cravaack Considers Restraining Order

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Chip Cravaack isn’t a name that rolls easily from the tongue, but after Ed Morrissey highlighted a poll showing the Navy-pilot Republican challenger surprisingly close to Democrat Rep. Jim Oberstar, Ace of Spades jumped aboard in his inimitable way. Check this guy out:

What Ace is doing — what I’ve been doing, and what we all should be doing now — is scouting around for good Republican candidates who might have a shot at winning if (a) the Big Red Wave comes in on Nov. 2, and (b) we can get these candidates some online contributions in a hurry. Continue reading Crazed Ewok Endorses Hard-to-Spell GOP Candidate in Minnesota 8th District; Cravaack Considers Restraining Order →

How Rich Republican Insiders Help Destroy the Party’s Grassroots Enthusiasm

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Anyone who’s ever had much dealing with the Republican Party establishment nods in recognition when Rush Limbaugh talks about “bluebloods” and “country clubbers” as the bane of the GOP.

Limbaugh himself is, of course, a wealthy man. However, Rush’s wealth is self-made, whereas the “bluebloods” to whom he refers are those who inherited (or married) money, and the “country clubbers” are the snobby know-it-all GOP insiders who look down on the party’s conservative rank-and-file.

This class divide within the Republican Party is a serious problem for the GOP because the tight-knit relationship between big-money donors and their well-connected establishment friends sends a message to the grassroots that their participation isn’t welcome. Continue reading How Rich Republican Insiders Help Destroy the Party’s Grassroots Enthusiasm →

Attagirl, Michelle! Malkin Endorses Tancredo for Colorado Governor

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A thing of beauty is a joy forever:

The GOP gubernatorial candidate in Colorado, Dan Maes, is now in full meltdown mode. . . . Republican primary voters were forced to choose between entrenched, ethics-challenged establishment candidate Scott McInnis and untested businessman Maes. GOP voters made the right choice given the options at the time. Maes and his supporters deserve deep thanks for sparing us a McInnis massacre. But it’s time to pass on the baton.
Plagued by mounting ethics allegations and other campaign woes, Maes’ candidacy has imploded. His fund-raising is on life support and Tea Party activists who initially buoyed his candidacy are abandoning him. Some GOP bureaucrats are more worried about the Republican ballot positioning/fund-raising consequences of abandoning Maes than they are about the destructive policies Democrat John Hickenlooper will put in place if he wins the governor’s mansion. It’s that slavish adherence to partisan interests over principle that led to the Tea Party movement in the first place.
Third-party challenger Tom Tancredo, who has pleaded for weeks for Maes to step aside, has eclipsed him. The writing is on the wall: There is one conservative in the governor’s race who can win — and it is not Maes. . . .

Read the whole thing. This is clearly a Scozzafava-type situation and I hope that those Republicans who constantly fret about third-party challenges on the Right will take note: Candidates like Doug Hoffman and Tom Tancredo only catch on with conservatives when the GOP candidate is truly hopeless.

In such a situation, having a viable third-party contender can be help prevent a complete disaster. That was the situation with Scozzafava and it’s the situation with Maes, and I’m thankful that Michelle Malkin has the guts to stand up and say so. Now, go give Tom some money.

TOM TANCREDO for COLORADO GOVERNOR

Warning: The Jokes You Tell Can and Will Be Held Against You in a Court of Law

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As someone who jokes about everything, I’m sick and tired of people who think that bad jokes are somehow a violation of their civil rights:

A skydiving instructor who joked with a female student that he couldn’t be falling for her because he’s gay has filed a discrimination suit, claiming he was cut loose from his job because of the quip.
Donald Zarda was strapped tightly to the woman, identified only as Rosanna, as they floated to earth in a tandem jump June 18, when he told her, “Don’t worry, I’m gay.”
Rosanna complained to his then-boss at Skydive Long Island in Calverton, Ray Maynard.
Zarda says Maynard accused him of “inappropriate behavior” and also said he had touched the student “in a way that made her uncomfortable.”
“I’m 100 percent gay,” Zarda told The Post.
“So, you’re accusing me — the gay guy — of touching the girl inappropriately?
“The situation is so bizarre.”

Bizarre. Strange. Weird. There’s another synonym here, somewhere.

Dealing with the humor-impaired is a career hazard every smart-aleck must face, but the answer to getting fired for making a joke isn’t to hire a lawyer and sue for “discrimination.” To do so is to become part of the problem, rather than part of the solution.

If Donald Zarda really wanted to fight this kind of stuff, he’d start his own gay tandem skydiving business: “We’re here, we’re queer, we’re strapped to your back.”

That’s just a joke, folks. Sue me.

(Via Memeorandum.)