We're getting the distinct impression these people would not have taken a loss well.

We were reading an article today in Politico.com about the massive voter turnout that never happened when we ran across this:

It sort of calls into question some of the vaunted ground game discussion, the whole turnout machine,” said a Democratic strategist who did not want to be quoted by name criticizing Obama’s campaign. “The GOTV effort was redoubled in 2008 compared to 2004, but it did not seem to make that big of a difference.”

…. And these were the guys that won?

And check out Obama Transition Team honcho, Valerie Jarrett, on Meet the Press over the weekend talking about how Obama is prepared to “take power and being to rule Day One.”



Obama… dude… we’re trying to give you an even shake, here – but you need to get a grip on your website and some of your followers. This is getting beyond one or two simple slip-ups and/or gaffes and speaks directly to the perception of your imperious nature and the unreasonableness of your supporters.

(We were walking to the pub Saturday evening to watch some football and we came across a house that had a bunch of cars out front and red, white and blue balloons in the front yard. In that same front yard there was a sign that read “Obamanos”. Seriously, who the hell has a house party because their candidate got elected? Who in a white middle-class neighborhood does this…? Unreal.)

Then again, maybe we should be thankful Obama got elected. Given what we’ve seen to date, we’d hate to see what may have happened had Obama actually lost.

Happy Birthday, U.S. Marine Corps!

Congratulations to the men and women of the United States Marine Corp which turned 233 yrs. old today.

It's morning in America

The Federal Reserve is refusing to identify the recipients of almost $2 trillion of emergency loans from American taxpayers or the troubled assets the central bank is accepting as collateral.

Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said in September they would comply with congressional demands for transparency in a $700 billion bailout of the banking system. Two months later, as the Fed lends far more than that in separate rescue programs that didn't require approval by Congress, Americans have no idea where their money is going or what securities the banks are pledging in return.

For those of you out there who still think the myriad of bailout plans that have been approved and those which remain out there for consideration are a good thing because “we had to do something”… enjoy your steaming bowl of something with a big fat side of “we told you so”.

What is your favorite NBA team's Myers-Briggs typology?

Here’s a cool little political spectrum/personality trait-like graph we pulled from AOL Fan House that charts team quality (bad on bottom and progressing upward on the “Y”-axis through the better teams) and offensive tempo (plodding, walk-the-ball-up-court on the left progressing rightward on the “X”-axis to uptempo, fastbreaking… Showtime! offenses).




By this reckoning, the Lakers have the best and and one of the most uptempo team in the Association and we are inclined to agree. Laker center and wunderkind, 21-year old Andrew Bynum missed the 2nd half of last season and is just getting his sea legs underneath him again after playing so well before his knee injury. Because the Lakers played the last half of last season and made it to the Finals without him, its like they added a #1 overall draft pick-caliber player to the roster this season.

How stacked is this Laker team? We caught a little of a replay of a Lakers/Suns first round playoff game from 3 years ago where the Lakers had a starting lineup of Smush Parker, Kobe, Lamar Odom, Kwame Brown and Luke Walton. Good lord…. Only Kobe remains a starter and Lamar comes off the bench as a sixth man.

Another way to look at it is through the eyes of our little brother, “Matty” who asked us the other night how it is one can know how deep the Laker roster is. This didn’t take much thought knowing the utter disdain our brother holds for the play of this person so we replied, “Is it because Luke Walton and his game doesn’t see the light of day from the end of the bench?” Bingo. Hey, we like Walton. Smart, hard-working and completely void of any real NBA caliber athleticism. A starter 3 seasons ago to riding high pine this season so maybe Matty's one up on us.

The 4-0 Lakers take on the 3-3 Houston Rockets this evening at the Staples Center.

Line of the Day

"I’m off to the Mall to sell razor blades so people can scrape off their “Question Authority” bumper stickers"

More here from Lileks.

H/T: Baseball Crank

Is it too late to re-enlist, er..., re-enroll?

We suppose this is what Obama meant by that civilian defense corps or whatever the hell he was talking about. This from the change.gov website:

The Obama Administration will call on Americans to serve in order to meet the nation’s challenges. President-Elect Obama will expand national service programs like AmeriCorps and Peace Corps and will create a new Classroom Corps to help teachers in underserved schools, as well as a new Health Corps, Clean Energy Corps, and Veterans Corps. Obama will call on citizens of all ages to serve America, by developing a plan to require 50 hours of community service in middle school and high school and 100 hours of community service in college every year. Obama will encourage retiring Americans to serve by improving programs available for individuals over age 55, while at the same time promoting youth programs such as Youth Build and Head Start.

(emphasis ours)

Except that the Obama people must’ve got word there was a Constitutional amendment that prohibits the government this sort of behavior so they changed the language to “setting a goal” with a $4,000 college tuition rebate at the end of that rainbow.

Bad parent, KT, ponders what it is his children did to subject themselves to this mandatory volunteerism and also what sort of work, er, community service you’re getting from a 16 yr. old at $40/hour.

And we wonder what’s to keep colleges and unis from simply jacking up their tuitions the corresponding $4,000. Almost wish we were back in high school again to subvert all this non-sense.

Skipping breakfast this morning means...

...11 A.M. carne asade taco combo from Burritos Santana. Hooray, Us!

What..? No lesbian cracks.

Right out of the box: here’s the President-elect at his first news conference handling hard-hitting questions like what sort of dog he is going to buy for his daughters when he drops a Nancy Reagan/séances reference when answering a question about what living ex-Presidents he has talked to.



Check out the quizzical reaction of the guy over Obama’s left shoulder who is thinking Obama meant to say Eleanor Roosevelt because the guy probably knew Eleanor Roosevelt.

Oh well. We look forward to at least 4 years of these moments of comedy gold.

Because sometimes one's inner muse is best left there

If you’re big fans of college football as we are, then you’re probably aware that the folks in the southeastern quadrant of the nation take things a little more seriously than elsewhere. It’s this seriousness that leads to passion and it's that passion that leads to, uhhhh, “artwork” that is best rendered on velvet.

Here a leathery and completely unsuspecting Steve Spurrier is viciously attacked by, my god, the school mascot while (not flinging his visor) on the sidelines.



Pic courtesy Deadspin... with reader comments and more awsome artwork.

Our favorite: "I liked the one of Knowshon Moreno and Matt Stafford playing poker better." -Bobby Big Wheel

Dear Obama, please protect us from your supporters Pt.III

Video below is from a Finnish doc on Obama fans and in demonstrating a strong case for home schooling, the featured North Carolina teacher makes the election a “teachable moment” by ridiculing those kids with the balls to admit they were pulling for McCain.

Amazingly, she claims on camera that she plays it straight with the McCain kids.



If schools want to ban bullying, they would do well to start with this woman.

And you think that is bad? Wait four years when people may have audacity to vote for someone in order to dethrone Obama as the sitting President.

H/T: Hot Air

Really..? The whole team?

Coming to a Late Show with David Letterman near you, Oxford University researchers have compiled a top-10 list of irritating phrases...

The phrases appear in a book called Damp Squid, named after the mistake of confusing a squid with a squib, a type of firework.

The researchers who compiled the list monitor the use of phrases in a database called the Oxford University Corpus, which comprises books, papers, magazines, broadcast, the internet and other sources.

The database alerts them to new words and phrases and can tell them which expressions are disappearing. It also shows how words are being misused.
As well as the above expressions, the book's author Jeremy Butterfield says that many annoyingly over-used expressions actually began as office lingo, such as 24/7 and "synergy".

The list:

1 - At the end of the day

2 - Fairly unique

3 - I personally

4 - At this moment in time

5 - With all due respect

6 - Absolutely

7 - It's a nightmare

8 - Shouldn't of

9 - 24/7

10 - It's not rocket science


Can we add “thrown under the bus” and “in the tank” which have been beat unmercifully into the ground in this past election cycle and which we vow to never use again as we may have been guilty of aiding and abetting.

Our all-time favorite/irritating, though, is sports announcer guy stating: “He has literally carried this team on his back” Blood-boiling irritating.