Week-long Welcomings from Moosylvania: Nov. 1st through Nov. 7th

November 1, 2015 JanF Community 130

Welcome to The Moose Pond! The Welcomings posts give the Moose, old and new, a place to visit and share words about the weather, life, the world at large and the small parts of Moosylvania that we each inhabit.

Welcomings will be posted at the start of each week (every Sunday morning). To find the posts, just bookmark this link and Voila! (which is Moose for “I found everyone!!”).

The format is simple: each day, the first moose to arrive on-line will post a comment welcoming the new day and complaining (or bragging!) about their weather. Or mentioning an interesting or thought provoking news item. Or simply checking in.

So … what’s going on in your part of Moosylvania?

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NOTE: The comments page will now split off after 20 or so left margin comments with the most recent comments on the current page. To see the older comments, scroll to the bottom of the page and use the link.

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52 Comments

  1. Good morning, Motley Meese! The week begins …

    It is 46 degrees in Madison WI, on its way up to 60. Sunny skies are in the forecast.

    Have a great day, all y’alls!!

  2. Don’t forget that today, Nov. 1st, is Set Your Clocks Back Day this year.

    At 2:00am this morning, Daylight Saving Time ended and … poof … you got back the hour you lost in the Spring. I hope you use it wisely!!

  3. Good morning, Meese! Woke up to softly falling rain, 52 F. now, 69 F. later. The rain wasn’t supposed to start until late tonight. This is just one more instance of how “they” always seem to get the weather forecast wrong for this area.

    However, the rain does reconcile me to cooking roast beef and Yorkshire for the midday meal. After the huge birthday dinner is over and I’ve recovered somewhat, hope to get some writing done. Will try not to think about politics too much today. GOS is as depressing as ever, best to give it a wide berth.

    We had a treat last night—our nephew in Australia used Facebook Messenger video to call us, so we were able to talk to our brother and sister-in-law in Melbourne. Like us, they’re a bit clueless with technology, but luckily the younger generation embraces it.

    Wishing a good day to all at the Pond and Beyond!

  4. Greetings Mooseketeers

    49 and cloudy up here in the Hills of NYS.

    Sigh. Shootings in Colorado and at Winston Salem University.

    So sad to hear about another major airplane crash.

    Pat Robertson is at it again:

    Pat Robertson says Halloween is the day when ‘millions of children…celebrate Satan’

    You know it as “Halloween,” the seemingly harmless holiday in which your kid dons the persona of a tiny cow or a pirate with some face paint and a plastic sword and consumes their weight in sugar. But the Rev. Pat Robertson — the conservative televangelist, outside-the-box thinker and man who once blamed the 2010 Haitian earthquake on a “pact to the devil” — sees Oct. 31st, uh, differently.

    “That’s the day when millions of children and adults will be dressing up as devils, witches, and goblins … to celebrate Satan,” Robertson said on his program “The 700 Club” on Thursday. “They don’t realize what they’re doing.”

    However outside the mainstream his views on Halloween may appear, Robertson is far from alone among Christians, according to a recent survey from LifeWay Research.The survey revealed that 3 in 5 Americans believe Halloween is ‘all in good fun,’ but 21 percent refuse to celebrate the holiday and another 14 percent avoid the pagan elements, LifeWay reported.

    I think I’ll add this to class discussion this week – since I’m showing students “Jesus Camp” which is a truly scary documentary film.

  5. Slept in, which turned out to be fine because my workout was called off. Watching Al Sharpton/Up/Melissa Harris Perry. Wondering when Alex Wagner’s show will replace Up. Leisurely breakfast, then church. I may start cooking early, make the quinoa for my lunch & let it sit. I found a recipe for baked oatmeal last week, going to try it. It calls for putting bananas on the bottom, but I can’t deal with them so I’m going to slice up a couple of apples instead. It says “berries”, so I got frozen cherries.

    I still have that great version of People Have The Power in my head

  6. Good morning, it’s 58 dark and rainy in Bellingham. I seem to have more trouble adjusting to this time change than the one in the spring…..I’m just sort of awake!

    We need to vote today so I’ve got to read several initiatives, all written in obscure deceptive language. I will use the Whatcom County Dems voting guidelines for reference, but I do try to understand what I’m voting for, and in this case, what I’m voting against. Tim Eyman is a conservative political activist who manipulates the initiative process and causes endless confusion…..

    Tim Eyman’s legal woes, K-12 funding loom over supermajority initiative

    Three times in the past decade, Washington voters have backed Tim Eyman initiatives tethering the Legislature’s power to raise taxes with a two-thirds supermajority requirement.

    The question is before voters again on the Nov. 3 ballot, in the form of Eyman’s latest, Initiative 1366.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Eyman

    • We don’t have referendums here but we do have ballot initiatives for amending the constitution from time to time. Our same-sex marriage ban was passed that way as was the stealth demotion of the left leaning Chief Justice of our Supreme Court. The wording is often deceptive and sadly it is up to each side to “explain” it in political ads.

      Most of the damage to our state is done by our Republican state legislature which now has a super-majority in the Assembly and a solid majority in the state Senate. I have been stunned at the speed with which good government can be dismantled. In Wisconsin, 100 years of progressive policies have been undone in 6 short years. There is a small hope that Senators, whose districts couldn’t be more tightly gerrymandered, might vote against the latest Assembly initiatives but if recent history holds true, they will vote party over state. I will be voting with my feet in a couple of years when I will have nothing to hold me here — I will find a place to live where progressive values are more than an inch deep and not so easily scraped away by a party intent on destroying them.

      • Living in Wisconsin has put you in the eye of the R storm. I hope you can find a safe haven so you can recover!

        • I have my eye on a state in the Northeast where I actually have roots. That state’s history goes back 400 years so maybe it would take 24 straight years of bad government to scrape it away. That will take care of me. :)

  7. Morning all! Too warm here this morning – where are my nice cool mornings of a couple of weeks ago! oh well, eventually even here it will get cooler I think. Baked oatmeal sounds great, let us know how it turns out! I make the steel cut oats in my slow cooker overnight, then eat oatmeal for breakfast (and occasionally snack too!) for several days – reheating in the microwave works great and it keeps for about a week. Brings back memories of my childhood in Tennessee when we lived in the country, and I was the first kid picked up by the bus in the AM, so I had to be up at the end of our half mile long driveway up to the highway by 6:00. My mom would make me oatmeal on winter mornings, when we were both up at 5:30, and I loved it, still do. But ugh, to think of getting up that early now lol!

    Another sign of retirement – when I was working, and had classes to prepare for Monday, I always tried to “hoard” my hour when the time changed, and not change the clocks till Sunday evening to give me the illusion of having more time to get my work done. Now? ah, just an extra hour to sleep in lol.

    Yes, GOS is really one long list of Hillary-hate diaries – and again, I like Bernie Sanders, but his supporters there are just not doing him any favors with this approach.

    I can’t deal with the news of another campus shooting – good golly. And as I prepare to teach my one class in the spring (two hours, one day a week, I think I can handle it), makes me nervous as well.

    Have a great November 1st everyone! I think turning back the scales along with the clock will be my new tradition!

    • exactly:

      I like Bernie Sanders, but his supporters there are just not doing him any favors with this approach

      When I read Sanders’ positions, I agree with him. But his supporters….. even if having a woman president in my lifetime wasn’t an important consideration, his supporters make it impossible to join them.

    • The campus shootings at least still get reported. Over the weekend, in Colorado Springs there some guy with an assault rifle who just started shooting people and killed 3 before he was killed. No motive and sadly it barely made the news. When mass shootings are no longer news, we have reached a terrible place. Unfortunately there is an impasse: the money in politics has made voting for things the people want over the things that one’s campaign donors want unattractive. The voters have shown that they can be duped so there is really no downside to grabbing the money and voting for the narrow special interests of the NRA.

  8. 47 and still dark when I got up 0552 CST this morning in Fay., AR. A misty, moisty morning at that, but it burned off by the time the washing machine finished so I got to hang my clothes outside after all (I vacuumed while they were in the washer just in case). Lemon muffins this week – put in the oven at 0700 and the house still smells wonderful at 1645. One vendor at the Market had Kentucky Wonder beans, so I got ham for my meat this week. Said ham will go into the oven in 15 minutes and the slowly dissipating lemon muffin smell will give way to baking ham. :)

    Lurked in last week’s diary yesterday afternoon – belatedly returning everyone’s holy day wishes/blessings in this one. (Also read and enjoyed Diana’s story.) For the 1st time in the 18 years I’ve been on this block I got no, as in zero, little kids coming to my house. I heard their voices up the street but they didn’t come far enough down the block to see my light I guess. Either that or the 15 pickup trucks and SUVs parked in the yards and on both sides of the street of the two houses across from me intimidated them – or their parents. (The houses are rented by college students who account for 7 of those vehicles so I assume the other 8 were family in town for Homecoming.) That many vehicles per house is against city ordinance but the kids are nice so I haven’t turned them in. My best friend and neighbor is thinking about it though. She didn’t get anybody this year either and one of the SUVs was partially blocking her drive.

    I’ve been ignoring the Hillary hate over at GOS – pootie diary, Lysis and scan’s Hillary news diaries, and community diaries are what keep me showing up. Last week was a very painful one for Kossacks. Every time I turned around somebody’d lost somebody – human or fur family or both. Jan’s candle was much in use.

    Mother used to say this time of year there’s an ocean liner shipping out for the Western Isles and a lot of folks want on that ship – rest of the time it’s tramp steamers and the like. Today is the 18th anniversary of my grandmother’s “shipping out” on the liner. Which considering my grandmother’s spirit and grace figures. Mother preferred tramp steamers – she “shipped out” in January. Both were strong women. I am blessed in having had them in my life. As I am blessed in having this community of strong women (and the strong men who love them) to light my way through my current stage of Life. Thank you. {{{HUGS}}}

  9. Bfitz, what an interesting remark:

    Mother used to say this time of year there’s an ocean liner shipping out for the Western Isles and a lot of folks want on that ship – rest of the time it’s tramp steamers and the like.

    The Western Isles…Avalon. That’s a nice thought. As for tramp steamers—ah! I’ve always fancied getting on one and just going wherever the cargo went. Of course, I’d have to be 40 years younger, well versed in martial arts, and “possessed of a competency,” as Jane Austen would have put it. But of course, I’m female, so even if all those factors came into play, I’d still be at a disadvantage. But it would be so redolent of Somerset Maugham to do something like that!

    • Mother always wanted to do a tramp steamer trip but Life happens and she never had the time or money. You’re probably right about the safety issues but I’m not sure my mother would have taken that into consideration if she’d ever had the time and money to just take off for an unknown amount of time to a variety of undetermined destinations.

  10. Good morning, meese! Monday …

    It is 50 degrees in Madison, on its way up to 69. Sunny skies are in the forecast.

    My body insisted on getting up at its normal wakeup time … which is now an hour earlier per the clocks. I hope that resyncs quickly. If I recall, the Fall adjustment is easier; I know that it takes me about 6 weeks to get my body back in sync when I lose the hour in the spring.

    The Republican presidential campaigns met in a closed door session last night to discuss debate formats. Apparently, they would like informercials where the candidates can speak to millions of cable TV viewers free of charge with no questions or at least certainly no expectations of factual answers. Ted Cruz’s campaign demands that all the moderators be Republicans! Essentially, all debates to be hosted by Fox. Then we have Ben Carson saying he will boycott future debates if his demands aren’t met. Huh? These guys are all screaming about getting into the debates and they are using “we will stay home” as their threat??? First, there is no way that the candidates will give up their place on the stage, any stage. Second, who is “we”? … the candidates are not likely to act as one, they are in a competition. That the RNC has been kicked to the curb is the big story: they have lost control of the nominating process and their party brand is in shambles. Grab popcorn.

    There is a gubernatorial election in Kentucky tomorrow to replace Democratic Governor Steve Beshear. It is ground zero for the mess that the Civil War and Civil Rights has made of the names of our two major political parties. In Kentucky, more people are registered Democrat because they refuse to be in the Party of Lincoln. But they elect Republicans to represent them in Congress and in the legislature. Is this the year they make the break and elect a Republican governor? It is a tossup. Also being voted on is the Houston anti-discrimination ordinance which has gathered national attention and national money.

    See all y’all later!

    • Here, from an article about the Kentucky governors race, the money quote:

      If Democrats can succeed in finding candidates with some moderate credentials, successfully separate them from the national party and exploit Republican divides and disunity, they can win.

      So if you can claim to NOT be a Democrat like the Kenyan Usurper, you have a better chance of winning but not because you espouse Democratic Party principles but because you propose enough non-Democratic Party principles to find the sweet spot to tap into 150 years of branding.

      In Kentucky, the Democrat is in favor of continuing their state ACA exchange and the Republican wants to dismantle it and end the Medicaid expansion. So it is better for actual human beings to pull for the Democrat. But I get an itchy feeling realizing that most of those Kentucky Democrats are only Democrats because they hate that Lincoln freed the slaves.

    • Here is a link to the letter that the Republican campaigns are sending to the networks. I hope the networks refuse.

      Several articles I read over the weekend suggest that the press is at a crossroads: they either push back or give in and lose whatever is left of their credibility. David Atkins at WaMo: Will the Press Recognize the Existential Threat and Fight Back, or Buckle Under?

      The press is facing an existential threat. With Republicans increasingly unashamed to tell grandiose lies and respond to any press criticism with derogatory insults and whines about media bias as well as blackmail threats to cancel appearances if the questions are too tough, the press must decide how to respond on two fronts. First, it must decide how to present an objective face while acknowledging that both sides do not, in fact, behave equally badly. Second, it must determine whether it will continue to ask the tough questions that need answers regardless of the threats made by the GOP, or whether it will meekly submit to the demands for kid-glove treatment.

      If the press chooses to assuage and give comfort to the GOP, it will lose what little credibility it has left. The Republican base will never accept mainstream journalists as fair arbiters—but the rest of us will lose what little respect we still have them. If the press stands up to the bullies and calls out GOP tactics and untruths for what they are, they will gain in respect what they lose from conservative hatemongers in the perceived objectivity department.

      The choice is clear: stand strong and call out the lies as they are, or fall further into the abyss as the Republican Party ramps up its threats and insults. It never pays to give a bully what they want, unless the bully has absolute power over you. The GOP does not hold that sort of power over the press. Indeed, the GOP has far more to fear from the press than the other way around.

      This: “It never pays to give a bully what they want, unless the bully has absolute power over you.” I actually wonder if the GOP does have absolute power over the press. The answer will be clear soon.

      • Thanks for the link to the Wa Monthly articles. I wonder if the more mainstream press people read them? This article on Crosscut is an interesting analysis of the impact of endorsements and voting in the Seattle elections.

        Times or Stranger: Whose endorsement drives votes?

        For voters seeking the ballot recommendations of Seattle media, but unwilling to sift through the many political and neighborhood blogs, there are but two options: The Seattle Times and the Stranger. With such a small sample of endorsements, each pick is closer to a boulder splash than the sprinkling of pebbles it used to be.

        The two papers’ editorial boards may not quite act like Seattle’s de facto political parties, but they at least serve a totemic role, giving a sense of identity to how one votes. The Stranger has positioned itself on the left, appealing to the young urbanists who live on Capitol Hill and Ballard and never missing an opportunity to insult the Seattle Times. The Times, meanwhile, continues to hold its ground as the voice of moderates — “socially liberal and fiscally conservative,” according to the editor of the Seattle Times editorial page, Kate Riley.

        ~snip~

        While the Seattle Times editorial staff maintains that its goal is mostly to inform, hugging objectivity as closely as it can, The Stranger happily rams its endorsements down your throat.

        • I used to be angry at our local rag and the compliant daily newspaper in Milwaukee for endorsing Scott Freaking Walker for governor in 2010. But in 2014, they had learned their lesson and endorsed Mary Burke. No one listened! So maybe no one listened the first time either and I can just direct my ire at their lazy reporting that led to a Walker free pass. One would have to hope that they were embarrassed that the national press cracked him open like a rotten peanut, something that they could have done more easily from their vantage point.

          Years of dealing with the mild-mannered Wisconsin media left Walker untested and unprepared for the national spotlight. He was used to being in his comfort zone, breezing through questions on state issues. He delivered his talking points then read them in the newspaper, and he was never grilled on U.S. foreign or domestic policy.

          When Walker hit the campaign trail, he was for the first time belittled by aggressive reporters and thrown off his game, delivering rushed and inconsistent responses.

          This guy reflects on his time in the Wisconsin media:

          As a former member of the media in Wisconsin, and later as a press secretary for the Doyle administration and the state Democratic Party, I never really considered the Wisconsin media to be timid.

          Then I worked on the East Coast, where the press hangs heads of disgraced politicians like hunters hang their trophies. […]

          Now I’m not saying the state’s press corps should toss their Midwestern manners out the window in exchange for East Coast tabloid outrage. However, politicians who are aggressively tested by their state’s media become better prepared for the glare of the national lens.

          So maybe endorsements mean nothing but certainly facts about the candidates would have helped.

  11. Greetings Meese

    Today we will be celebrating Dia de los Muertos/ Day of the Dead in class

    photo 8e455ba2-3101-4489-bb90-1f8cf9fc86b6_zpsnogek6et.jpg

        • I see that now!

          I stopped using Google as my default search engine when they wanted to take over my whole computer and link all of my various Google products, and some non-Google products, together. It seemed a bit intrusive. So now I just open it when I need a different search engine’s take on a particular topic.

  12. Good morning on this gray Monday! Here in NoVa the temp. is 48 F., going up to 66 F. Miss Pink Cheeks will be here in about an hour, so I must hasten to eat breakfast and get dressed, rather than fooling around as I usually do.

    Yes, it will be extremely interesting to see if the press buckles under pressure from the Rethugs! I’m not watching any more of the Rethug debates, it’s too depressing.

    Denise, you are bound to have an interesting discussion in class today. I thought about my departed ones over the weekend but their photos are packed away, so I wasn’t able to do any rituals. Besides, Sunday was wildly busy for me, cooking the birthday dinner for my nephew. Our house was empty for most of the day but no one came to see it. Have a feeling we’ll be living here for the duration!

    Wishing a good day to all at the Pond and Beyond!

    • Diana -will be seguing from a discussion of Samhain to Day of the Dead with the common theme of honoring ancestors.

      • Honoring the ancestors is very important. I looked at the link you sent me on Santeria and realized that the religion wouldn’t work for the story I have in mind unless I have the characters in the story revert to the original Santeria. Apparently it was woman-centered before patriarchy in the form of the Roman Catholic church took it over.

        I can hardly wait to get started on the story!

  13. Walked 1.6 miles this morning. I woke up before my alarm so I left the house early & got in 40 minutes.

    The state rep for southeast Austin has asked Gov. Abbott to apply for federal disaster relief. This area was just recovering from another Halloween flood year before last. There are at least 3 dead. Never ever drive over a flooded road. And Bastrop — they had the huge fires in ’11, fires again this summer & they got flooded because the fire had taken all the vegetation that would have held the rain.

    I listened to City of Blinding Lights on my way in. Soaring, energetic, gorgeous: “blessings not just for the ones who kneel, luckily”

  14. Happy All Souls’ Day and first Monday in November- 50 and foggy when I got up at 0600 in Fay., AR – heading for 72 and the fog is burning off. Hope the Press finds its Constitutionally-guaranteed spine but considering who owns the Media I’m not holding my breath.

    Hope everyone has a good day and week. {{{HUGS}}}

      • Molly Ivins was talking/warning about this 25 years ago. When I was living in KS (August 1992 through August 1997) I saw her live once – can’t remember who sponsored it, but it was about freedom of the press and her point was quite simply we won’t have a free press until the media monopoly is broken up. She thought the way to do that was public funding of political campaigns. I always thought she had the cart before the horse – we aren’t going to get public funding for political campaigns (or single-payer healthcare or full funding of public anything) until we break up that media monopoly.

  15. Good morning, 49 and cloudy in Bellingham today. After yesterday’s time change exhaustion it’s nice to wake up at a more normal time this morning, and with about 10 hrs of sleep I even have a feeling of energy! I’ll go to the pool soon, and then more real life house maintenance has to be done so my day will be busy.

    I need to have the carpets on the main floor cleaned and an annoying ripple re stretched so I won’t trip over it again, the storm window repairs should be done this week, and then the very dirty windows and gutters need to be cleaned. I hope I can get those things done before the family comes for Thanksgiving. They won’t care, but it’s important to me to make some progress on my long list of deferred maintenance.

  16. Happy Noontime everyone. Another warm sunny day here in Florida – so what else is new, right? lol

    I was waiting by the phone/computer for my 11AM scheduled phone call from the SSA district office to talk about my Medicare premium level, when I start paying in December, when my internet went kaflooey, and my landline phone with it. I spent a couple of minutes restarting the modem, which seemed to do the trick, but by then it was 11:15 and I was afraid I’d missed the call. So I called the DO and finally got a nice woman on the line who was very mystified as to why someone had set up a phone appointment for this, when what I needed to do was fill out a form and send it in with evidence I stopped working in May. I told her don’t ask me, I was just following orders, but of course, it makes more sense to send in the info than to talk about it on the phone. So, she directed me to the web site, I filled out the form and printed it out and now I have to drop it off at the office or mail it in and hopefully that will do it. I still have to go to the Medicare site I think to figure out how to pay the premium, since I’m not getting a cash benefit check yet for them to take it out of – I’m hoping I can set up direct withdrawal from my checking account.

    So Dia de los Muertes – I shall listen to “Dead Man’s Party” by Oingo Boingo as I check out this Medicare thing – have a great day everyone!

  17. Good Election Day morning Meese

    Hubby and I are getting ready to head out to vote – our polls open 6AM

    photo 7849b6d0-5997-486e-a7d5-784345ce6d3a_zpsnpkvxmpd.jpg

    Some important numbers:

    Election Protection:

    Election Protection (EP) – the nation’s largest nonpartisan voter protection coalition led by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law (Lawyers’ Committee) – will be standing by to make sure that all eligible voters across the nation have an equal opportunity to vote and to provide voters with information, guidance and assistance during the state and local General Elections.

    Voters may call 1-866-OUR-VOTE (1-866-687-8683) toll-free with any questions or problems that may arise. This English language hotline will be staffed live from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. EST on Election Day. Spanish-speaking voters may seek bilingual assistance through the 1-888-VE-Y-VOTA (1-888-839-8682) hotline, which will be open from 7 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. EST. Voters seeking multilingual assistance in Cantonese, Mandarin, Tagalog, Korean and Vietnamese languages should seek assistance from and 1-888-API-VOTE (1-888-273-8683), which will be live from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. EST. All three hotlines are staffed by trained volunteers and will be available to answer calls live on General Election Day.

    Vote411

    Election Day Problems?

    Call one of these hotlines:
    1-866-OUR-VOTE (866-687-8683)
    1-888-VE-Y-VOTA (en Español)

    • Those are great links, I am going to store them away for GOTV next year.

      What are you voting on today?

      • We have no propositions on the ballot in my area today – we do have the first Democrat black female candidate for State Supreme Court.

        Still early here – there were people voting however – I’m always glad to go, get in and out.

      • I put a voting diary up at orange

        Hope that all the folks making noise are going to actually vote ;)

        • You know, I am never sure if the complaining is just for show and all those folks actually do go to the voting booth and vote for the Democrat when push comes to shove. One certainly gets more attention by saying “I will never vote for that corporate ho” than by saying “I need to make a pragmatic choice based on who will be able to get things done” or “My candidate is not perfect on every issue but overall their record is good”. Although that might invite flamers in some quarters.

  18. Good morning, meese! Tuesday …

    It is 46 degrees in Madison, on its way up to 70. Sunny skies are in the forecast.

    The Foxification of the Republican Party is complete with all Republican presidential candidates agreeing that only Fox News is doing debates right. Trump is going to negotiate directly with all debate hosts and Jeb! haz a sad because he wants Telemundo kept in the debate mix (they were fired along with NBC), so he can show Hispanic chops. Poor, Jeb!! His party does not care about the Latino vote “any longer”:

    [The post-2012 Republican] autopsy report specifically recommended that the GOP “invest financial resources in Hispanic media” because “[i]f we are going to attract these groups to our Party and candidates, our budgets, and expenses need to reflect this importance.” The autopsy report also said that GOP surrogates should have “a high-level presence on all Latino media” in order to “help carry and sell our message to the Hispanic community.”

    Republican presidential candidates may need anywhere between 42 and 47 percent of the Latino vote, especially in key battleground states like Virginia, Ohio, New Mexico, Florida, Nevada, and Colorado, the polling group Latino Decisions found.

    Let’s see: Paul Ryan won’t address immigration, Marco Rubio says no path to citizenship in a Rubio administration, Donald Trump wants to ship 11 million people to Mexico. Message from GOP to Latino voters: received. Oh, and Asian Americans are not so fond of them either. Sucks for the GOP to be so welcoming to racist demagogues! Here’s hoping that the next autopsy report will be one for the party, not just one election.

    See all y’all later!

  19. President Obama on Republicans whining about CNBC:

    “They say, ‘When I talk to Putin, he’s going to straighten out,’” Obama said while speaking at a Democratic National Committee fundraiser in New York City on Monday. “And then it turns out they can’t handle a bunch of CNBC moderators.” His remarks were reported by the Hollywood Reporter.

    “I mean, let me tell ya … if you can’t handle those guys, you know then I don’t think the Chinese and the Russians are going to be too worried about you.”

      • They showed it on the Today Show, also, but probably to twist the knife a little bit. :)

        President Obama has great comedic timing. He is going to be a great asset to our nominee and everyone up and down the ballot when he hits the campaign trail for them next year. Another reason that running away from the Obama legacy might make you a left-of-the-left’s-left hero but will not help you win a general election. Most Democrats like Obama; some, like me, love the guy.

    • I loved that. He’s exactly right – they’re all “we’ll be tough” and then someone asks them a question — not even a hard or mean one, and they’re all crying because their fee fees were hurt. Yeesh.

      • The best article I saw on the truly sane questions asked at the debate was from Evan Hurst at Wonkette. There was a list that demonstrated that the questions were not gotcha … unless you were planning on bullsh*ting your way to the nomination, then they were clearly out of line. ;)

        I wonder how much non-wonky folks are paying attention to this brouhaha. It cannot possibly reflect well on the Republican Party. But then their own candidates do not reflect well on the Republican Party so the RNC may already be in “lalala can’t hear you” mode.

  20. Good morning, Moosekind! It’s a beautiful day for voting here in NoVa, flawless blue sky and sunshine—37 F. at 7:30 a.m., 72 F. later. Miss Pink Cheeks and I have a coffee date with my niece and Miss Pink Cheeks’ cousin at 10, after which we’ll all go to vote.

    I’m picking up Babylicious from day care again today, and will watch both children so DIL can vote after work. Freed of the necessity to pick up Babylicious, Younger Son can vote on the way home from work at 6:30.

    Our house has had no fewer than four visits from the campaign of our favorite candidate for the 86th District. Can’t wait to vote for Jennifer! We’ve had no visits at all from her Rethug opponent. Dear Goddess, I hope the Dems win this time. Our legislature is a disaster. One would think no women live in this benighted Commonwealth.

    Wishing everyone a good day!

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