The Grizzly Groundswell needs money to grow, and Chad Everson is selling a pair of pottery wheels to help get it done.
I’ve met Chad and I can tell you his eye is on the ball. Like us at Red State, he’s working hard to encourage local conservative activism. We say “Get Local,” he says “Effect your backyard,” but it all means the same thing.
Just look at the sidebar at the Grizzly Groundswell: I count 44 states plus DC represented in the GG Blog Network, and 21 states in the GG Radio Network. They’re doing something useful over there.
So if you can use a good quality pottery wheel, I hope you’ll take a look.
Clearly only the English-speaking left is obsessed with ensuring hatred of America, Christians, and Jews is well represented on Wikipedia. Judging by the top edited articles in different language versions of the site, anyway:
English Wikipedia 1. George W Bush 2. Wikipedia 3. America 4. Christ 5. 2006 Israel Lebanon war French Wikipedia 1. Events in 2005 2. Events in 2004 3. Algeria 4. France 5. Wikipedia Japan Wikipedia 1. One Piece (characters) 2. Mai Hime 3. One Piece 4. Bleach 5. Gintama
Yes, Japan’s are all about TV shows. Which is the one area where Wikipedia geneally can be trusted, as it turns out.
No.
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Senator and former Kleagle of the Ku Klux Klan in West Virginia Robert C. Byrd is giving up his chairmanship of the Senate Appropriations Committee on January 6, 2009, a short 14 days before Senator Barack Obama is to be inaugurated.
To those who say that it is unfair of me to juxtapose these two surely unrelated events, allow me to quote from the press release from Byrd’s office:
I have been privileged to be a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee for 50 years and to have chaired the Committee for ten years, during a time of enormous change in our great country, both culturally and politically. I have learned that nothing is quite so permanent as change. It is simply a part of living and should not be feared. To be serving in the Senate at such a momentous time in our history fills me with enormous pride. I endorsed President-elect Obama because I believed that we had taken the wrong course both at home and abroad. I am delighted with his victory. I was an early critic of the war in Iraq, as was the President-elect, who decried this war even before he was running for a United States Senate seat. I wish our new President every success with his commitment to unite us as one people.
Doth the Senator protest too much? If he wanted to join in HopeChange™ so badly, why wouldn’t he stay on another year, or at least another two weeks in some symbolic form? Surely the former Majority Leader would be given that leeway by his caucus.
Regardless, I wonder if Senator Reid and the gang will let him keep some post, perhaps becoming CoChairman of the Joint Select Committee on Soft Desserts, joining new colleagues to vote on what flavor pudding the Congress gets to eat at lunch.
I bet he picks vanilla.
It’s going to happen, and we all know it: after two close elections, some Democrats are going to claim that Obama’s margin of victory over John McCain was a large, overwhelming repudiation of the Republican party, and that it was possibly even a historical turning point of partisan political realignment.
There’s just one problem with that theory: It’s not true.
See the image to the right (and click for the full version): It’s a complicated chart, but it has a lot to say. On it are illustrated the popular vote and electoral vote victory margins of every Presidential election 1900-2008, assuming Obama gets North Carolina and McCain gets Missouri. This also only counts Republicans and Democrats, and third parties are ignored.
Also on the chart are the mean Popular Vote and Electoral Vote margins since World War II, that is, counting the 1948-2008 elections. From that we can see one fact right away: Obama’s victory is below average. We can also look at the tiny bars representing the 2000 and 2004 elections to see that comparing with those races is simply not any kind of standard to use when judging an election.
Eisenhower 1952 and 1956. Johnson 1964. Nixon 1972. Reagan 1980 and 1984. Those elections set the standard for a blowout. Obama? His win doesn’t look like those other Presidents I just listed. He’s just slightly below average, sorry.
So rest at ease, Republicans. Even if this win isn’t a fluke, it’s not a permanent game changer.
This really deserves a link here: RS Roundtable: Suicide at the Council of Elrond:
An anniversary has recently passed. On October 25, 3018 Third Age, Elrond Half-elven, son of Eärendil of the line of Thingol, bearer of Vilya the great Ring of Power, made a critical decision for his people.
Rather than allow the last remaining outposts of the Elves at Imladris and Lothlórien continue without disruption from the outside world, he chose to invest the Elves in a grand global fight to rob Sauron of his power permanently, in the process destroying the Rings of Power of his own and Galadriel’s. At the Council of Elrond, a Fellowship was constructed, representing Elves, Men, Wizards, Dwarves, and Halflings, all united by a supposed common cause.
But where are the Elves now? All gone West. Was this great act of foreign policy by Elrond a self-destructive act? Would Elves not have been better off allowing Sauron to remain, acting as a counterweight to the Men, and preventing Men from being an undisputed hyperpower in Middle-earth?
Update: It’s 6am in California, and I wake up to see that LA County is still passing Proposition 8 with what CNN calls 100% of precincts in. It’s a very narrow, roughly 22,000 win out of about 2,500,000 votes cast, but as I said, a tie was there enough for it to pass. The counties that defeated Prop. 8 are all in except tiny Yolo county, and some sizable counties that are passing it are still out including Riverside county.
The remaining 8% of California precincts would have to go roughly 75% against, 25% for in order to overcome this statewide lead of approximately 375,000 votes out of maybe 9,750,000 votes cast. 52-48 in favor, statewide? A thank you to Barack Obama may be in order.
Yes, that is what I said. CNN’s Proposition 8 exit poll says ‘whites’ defeated the measure 53-47, ‘latinos’ passed it 51-49, ‘asians’ defeated it 53-47, ‘others’ were split 50-50, but ‘African-Americans’ passed it 70-30. That group being 10% of the electorate means that group alone provided a 390,000 vote margin of victory.
Did Obama turnout flip Proposition 8? We may never know for sure.
End Update
It’s still early, there’s still half of LA County and half of California still counting, but Proposition 8, which would amend the California Constitution to restore the traditional definition of marriage, is leading statewide 52-48, and in LA County 53-47. Traditionally LA County comes in later and decides things, swamping any conservative-friendly measures that aren’t ahead by enough. But if LA County is passing this thing, or ends up close to a tie, then we could have traditional marriage truly restored in California. It could hang on because much of the Bay Area’s done counting, and a lot of the places still counting are passing it by 10, 20, 30 points, such as my own Riverside county where it’s up 63-37 with 45% left to count.
Traditional marriage could be restored in California. Think of what kind of message that will send to Americans. Think of all the kids who will have more stable family lives as a result. This is a bigger deal than it may seem for the long-term well being of Americans.
Consider that in San Francisco County, Proposition 8 lost 77-23, McCain lost 85-13, and Pelosi’s Republican opponent lost 72-(other parties 19)-9%. There are people in San Francisco who voted for Obama, who voted for Pelosi, Sheehan, or a Green, but who voted to restore traditional marriage. Amazing, isn’t it?
It’s enough to make a person smile, even.
Point one: There’s no need to start pointing fingers within the party. This election was on style, not substance. No faction’s to blame, and no policy is at fault. We know this because Obama won. He ran on no ideas at all.
We all went into this together with the wrong idea. We just need to learn how to win again, rather than try to pin the loss on somebody. No, I don’t even blame John McCain and the mavericks like him.
Point two: This isn’t the end of America. Our values are more resilient than Obama is strong. Our civil institutions are stronger than Obama is socialist. Our nation is greater than any one man, including the President. We will endure anything that happens under his Presidency.
Point three: This is no time for ‘purging’ anyone. This it time for regrouping and winning again.
Point four: 1980 didn’t come just because President Carter was that bad. It came because Republicans and conservatives worked hard, prepared for 1980, got a good candidate, and worked within the party for victory.
Point five: 2010 comes before 2012. Let’s focus on getting 435 excellent candidates for the House, 33 excellent candidates for the Senate, and excellent candidates for Governor and state legislator.
Point six: If you’re pushing a candidate for 2012 right now, you’re not to be taken seriously.
And The Steves said Let there be Mac: And there was Mac
And The Steves saw the Mac, that it was good: and The Steves divided the Mac from the darkness.
Every year, as regular viewers will know, The Simpsons has a Halloween episode, and the credits of the episode are altered so that the people have ‘spooky’ names. Bat Groening is one solid example. This year they just couldn’t have fun with it, no. They had to get political. One of the nicknames tonight was “Hockey Mom.”
Get lost, losers. If you can’t just have fun without getting political, I’ll just have to pass on buying Seasons 1 and 2 on DVD, as I almost did last week. I’ll pass on that permanently.
Maybe I’ll buy Cheers instead, if it’s out. A season with Doctor Crane in it.