juggernaut nation

The day is finally here. The day when a legion of little old ladies diligently ensure that voters - many of who are themselves little old ladies - cast their ballots.

Hillary Clinton is expected to win, but by how much?

Pennsylvania voters are hard to peg, and it’s going to take more than a single benchmark - in this case bitterness - to gauge what will happen before the tally.

That hasn’t stopped people from trying.

The Seattle Times takes a stab at it. The BBC, here. Reuters and Obama’s perceived race problem in Pennsylvania, here. The Chicago Sun-Times explores the state of the Obama brand. The Dallas Morning News hits on the role of Reagan Democrats in PA. And so forth and so on.

Many opinions, few guarantees. It’s a closed primary, but not all of Democratic Party members are loyal Democrats. Sometimes they’re the Democratic representative of those politically active households scattered across the state. The couple where one spouse is registered Democrat and the other Republican. They may vote entirely one party in the Fall, but in the Spring they want help the other party elect the weakest candidate.

Sounds silly, but it’s not uncommon when you have a closed primary.

There’s been a surge of voter registration, mostly Democrats. This can’t entirely be attributed to Obama’s appeal among younger voters. It can’t entirely be attributed to the aforementioned tactic among Springtime Democrats hoping to see a McCain v. Clinton showdown in November.

Then there’s the weather. Don’t laugh, with the second highest senior citizen population in the U.S., Pennsylvania elections are vulnerable to rain. In November, perhaps snow. But, it’s a sunny, beautiful Spring day so it’s likely to help Clinton as older voters - hell, even young, lazy voters - won’t have the weather as an excuse not to vote. It will be in the upper 60s, lower 70s, so sweaters will be still be required, of course.
This helps Clinton. But, by what margin will she win?
Editor & Publisher notes one unusual poll. Time has it at Hillary 52, Obama 42, with four percent undecided and two percent not saying.

But what people will actually do once they’re behind the proverbial curtain is another thing.

I’d like to think the polls are wrong, and Obama takes it by two. But it’s likely Hillary by at least four, no more than seven.

Author Michael Chabon’s excellent Post-Gazette piece on Pittsburgh, race and Obama.

Axl Rose has responded to Dr. Pepper’s promise to give everyone in America a free can of it’s bubbly-goodness if Guns N’ Roses releases its long-awaited Chinese Democracy album this year. Well, not everyone gets a can.

Take it from this guy.

The two really do have more in common than you might think. Both got caught doing a little crack in a D.C. hotel room.

From the WSJ. When the question of whether Spitzer’s troubles will tarnish the image of the Democrats as reformers, we get this:

“I think we’ve learned from a number of these instances that people make a distinction between public corruption and personal failures,” said Democratic pollster Mark Mellman. “If I understand the facts, this is a case of personal failure.”

Actually, when you’re the governor of a state where prostitution is illegal, and you have a hooker from that state travel to your hotel room in another state, then you’re breaking state and federal laws. Ever heard of the Mann Act?

Will Spitzer be charged for being a john? Given his history, maybe he should.

But let’s not brush this off as a “personal failure” just yet. Bottom line is he contributed to the operation of a large, international prostitution ring and had a fucking good time doing it.

When it’s the little people, it’s called crime.
When it comes to politicians they call it “personal failures.”

So yes, Mark Mellman, some of us do see the distinction.

Jackass.

The only question I have is what in the world Hillary Clinton is going to do to get the spotlight back on her “comeback.”

We Americans love our crusaders, because bigger they are the harder they fall. And New York Governor Eliot Spitzer is in a full spin without a parachute. The affidavit is here.
This is great on so many levels the head spins. Absolutely, spins.

First, it’s the first really good political scandal since you-know-who and the semen stained you-know what.

And it’s even better because it involves hookers. Prostitution is a crime, after all and Spitzer - a privileged, Ivy Leaguer with a penchant for do-goodery - was once New York’s Attorney General and worked in the Manhattan district attorney’s office.

The sex isn’t the scandal, it’s the fact that despite all the apologies and emoting Spitzer will do to make his family and him feel better for themselves, he won’t have the courage to address the underlying morality of prostitution laws.

Not to mention how he drew attention to himself because he liked expensive hookers. At least she was a New York hooker.

On the day before Valentine’s Day, even.

“Happy Valentine’s Day, honey, you’re off the hook tonight - I already got laid.”

Leprosy - yes, leprosy - is rearing its ugly head in Arkansas, of all places?

Well… not quite. And it’s also called Hansen’s Disease, but according to the Arkansas State Department of Health there isn’t an outbreak of either leprosy or TB in Northwest Arkansas.

But that’s what Arkansas’ KFSM News 5 reported earlier this week, a claim that the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported as false on Saturday.

KFSM’s original story, which according to the DG the station still stands behind, has disappeared from their site. It does have an update that mirror’s the DG report, that state health officials have debunked the statements of the sole doctor quoted in the original report. Her name is Dr. Jennifer Bingham and apparently she’s just a bit off on her fears of a leprosy pandemic.

Here’s the video.

The original story made it look as if more doctors than just Bingham were concerned. The News 5 report said “medical community” when it actually meant one uninformed internist.

This is a prime example of what can happen when news stories are single sourced. Bingham said there were nine cases, and this is true. But none were new and were all being tracked by state health officials.

I love this quote from the DG story, from the state Health Department’s lead guy on infectious diseases, Dr. James R. Phillips.

“We have had leprosy in Arkansas since forever,” Phillips said.

I guess this means the only thing unclean about Arkansas these days remains Bill Clinton.

Strangely enough, a man who spent his life working to make a better life for lepers in India, Baba Amte, died Saturday, Feb. 9 at the age of 93.

One of the last two American World War I veterans has died.

With apologies to the Beastie Boys. It’s been months, and in that time a lot has happened. Got married, bought a house - never try this within a month’s time - and out in the wider world the Presidential primaries are grinding on, the Super Bowl is over and the groundhog saw it’s shadow.

And these dumbasses can’t find anything better to occupy their taxpayer supported time. What’s next, signs that read, “Don’t feed the fatties?”

The month long hiatus is over. Sorry, but moving into a new house, on top of the wedding plans, just made it impossible to post these last few weeks. But expect a new post bright and early tomorrow. Until then, this from Benny Hill. Enjoy.

Via Adelaide, Australia, the wire story tale of the Belgrade man found naked and dead in a bear cage at a zoo this weekend. Great quote that really illustrates the difference between America and other parts of the world:

“There’s a good chance he was drunk or drugged. Only an idiot would jump into the bear cage,” zoo director Vuk Bojovic said.

In America, there would have been a 20 minute press conference with no less than three officials pointing out how well everyone worked together to remove the body from the bear cage, another person to assure everyone that eating a person probably wouldn’t harm the bears - however, they would have to be destroyed once a vet made sure they were fine -  and another to suggest the beer festival attended by the dead guy is “out of control” and how in the future “certain measures” must be taken to make sure it never happens again. Oh, and another to lean in every two minutes, no matter what is being said, to assure everyone the bear attack wasn’t terror related.

So raise a glass to the latest naked drunken dumbass and pray for Masha and Misha while you’re at it. Or vice versa, whatever you think is more appropriate.

This out of New Mexico, two fellows - Herb Beck and Christopher Steelman - have landed themselves in the pokey over poker. NBC affiliate KOB has the story of these two dumbasses plotted to kill Matthew Sowash by placing his feet in a box full o’ rattlesnakes. I like this part especially (brackets added by yours truly because it seems as if KOB doesn’t proofread):

Bob Myers of the Rattlesnake Museum in Albuquerque said killing someone [with a rattlesnake] is comparable to trying to kill with a bb gun.

“The venom of a rattlesnake is relatively mile and does not usually cause a life threatening bite,” said Myers.

Seems as though some Indiana residents are getting sick and tired of watching their property taxes go up and up, so they dunked a bag containing their tax assessments in a lake in protest.

This illustrates a theory I hold, that most people accept a certain amount of taxation as a way of life and are willing to pitch in a fair share. It’s really only when questions of fairness arise that people question a tax bill, because as government - local, state and federal - officials prove time and again, most people won’t bat and eye at how elected officials dole out the dollars.

What I really like about this tax protest is these people don’t just want their property taxes reduced, they want them eliminated.

Who would have guessed Hoosiers could be so radical?

On a Monday morning after a week-long break, a look at Patterson Mohrman, 4, doing his thing on a skateboard.