Has the Breck Girl split from Elizabeth?

I’d remind the NY Post that there are perfectly legitimate reasons for a cancer patient to not be wearing a wedding ring…swelling, for example.  OTOH, it would be more surprising if the Edwards’ had a functioning marriage than it would be if they were separated.

More Obamascam from Ace

A Credit Card Payment Expert Explains the Depths of Obama’s Fraud

I had a strange idea while reading this, about the notion of chargebacks.  It’s been presumed that this isn’t an issue, as the contributors are willing accomplices.  BUT…what if Obama loses, or he wins but heat and light is brought upon the practices of his campaign, by Visa/MC? Could a bunch of well-heeled Obama donors claim credit card fraud, and ask for their money back? At the rate he’s been raising funds, there’ll certainly be leftovers, even after the walking-around money is paid. Or what if the merchant acquirer decides to sing? Could Obama put them out of business through chargeback claims? Could he have invented the “money-back guarantee” for campaign contributions? Could this even put a major dent in Visa/MC? And wouldn’t that be a lovely “unintended consequence” for a Commie? I don’t know jack about the credit card business, so maybe I’m full of crap. But I think there’s more here than meets the eye.

Then there’s Erica Jong, predicting a 2nd Civil War if Obama loses. Did Raymond Buckland screw your brains out way back when, or what? That’s certainly going to help their cause. Bring it on…

And in the further adventures of Jen Brunner, not only is the computer system “too fragile” to check ALLLL those ACORN registrations, but ACORN is deeply embedded in Brunner-land, with one of their national directors having been paid over $20K by the Brunner ‘06 campaign. I must admit that I’m impressed; I didn’t think it was possible to make Ken Blackwell look like an honest man. I understand that Marc Dann needs a squeeze now that Jessica Utovich is out of the picture; why don’t you go to him, Jen?

Mercy for Ashley Todd

They’re going easy on Sweet Li’l B-Cheek:

PITTSBURGH (AP) — A volunteer for John McCain’s presidential campaign agreed Thursday to enter a probation program for first-time offenders for falsely reporting that a Barack Obama supporter robbed and assaulted her and scratched a “B” on her cheek.

Ashley Todd, 20, of College Station, Texas, claimed the attack happened when a robber saw her McCain bumper sticker. Todd appeared before a city judge and waived her right to a hearing and was to be released from jail later Thursday.

Under the agreement, her criminal record will be expunged after if she stays out of trouble and gets mental treatment on probation. Most people spend a year on probation in the program, which is for first-time, nonviolent offenders.

You know, I was — and am — pretty hard on her, but this is probably the best outcome for the poor sick puppy.

Tim Mahoney’s oxymoron

His excuse for diddling, pimping, and paying off the help: “We had an open marriage!”

Funny, his wife doesn’t seem to think so. Or is she leaving because the gravy train is grinding to a halt?

Jumbo shrimp. Military intelligence. Open marriage. Honest politician.

222 stabs with a Phillips screwdriver

Pretty impressive. I wonder if she ever wrote anything protesting torture at Gitmo…I guess it’s not torture when HuffPo moonbats do it. At least she took herself out of the gene pool… not that she was ever really in it.

Kyle Gann thanks Sarah Palin

Composer/musicologist Kyle Gann has a bit of a hardon about Sarah Palin (and not in the friendly and literal way that some in the dextrosphere do), but this is such an acute observation in both politics and musicology that I can’t help quoting it in full:

We in American music owe a great debt to John McCain and Sarah Palin. Those two have so cheapened and tainted the word “maverick” that it will be at least a generation, maybe two, before anyone will be able to use the word non-ironically again. And that means, surely, that there will be no more talk about the “American maverick composers.”

As I’ve written here before, the musicological purpose of the word “maverick” is to legitimize certain handpicked composers despite the unconventionality (as compared with alleged European norms) of their composing methods, and to do so without de-marginalizing all the other composers who share those methods. What we need is for the methods themselves to be legitimized, so that a true pluralism of aesthetics can be accepted into discourse. The “maverick” image of Cage, Nancarrow, Lou Harrison, La Monte Young as lone dissenters – composers who, after all, had teachers, friends, students, protégés with whom they shared ideas and developed their creativity collectively – was always a palpable fiction. And no one who watched Palin vacuously self-identify as a maverick at the end of the vice-presidential debate will ever be able to use the word seriously again, thank god.

For my idolatrous GOP friends

The Reagan revolution was based on monetary inflation after the weekend of August 13, 1982, when the FED’s tight-money policy, which began in the fall of 1979 under Carter, was self-consciously reversed in the wake of the Mexican bank crisis. The Reagan revolution was also based on massive Federal deficits, beginning in 1983. While bureaucracy’s grasping hand did decline under Reagan, as evidenced by the reduction of pages in the “Federal Register” from 60,000 a year to under 40,000 a year in his first term, it started back up in his second term. It has continued to rise to its present 70,000 a year. — Gary North

Oh yeah, I guess I’m one of the haters

With time running out, reality paid me a visit today, and once again I had to settle for casting a vote to try to limit the damage… with no truly viable 3rd party contenders, it came down to voting either for a guy who at least seemed to want to discuss the issues or a man (and a woman) who have been doing their best to avoid the issues while spreading hate and fear, dividing this country in very scary ways to try to win. So mine was a vote against the BS and agenda of McCain/Palin, not a vote of faith in Obama or change. Deep inside, I hope he proves me wrong…but frankly, I am not holding my breath.

I’m not going to link the person who wrote this; she has enough problems in her life without a mess of strangers getting in her face…. like the strangers from the government who once pulled her from bed while waving guns in her face, for no reason except that she’d stepped on the local GOB structure. But I have to wonder about this “hate and fear” thing. Apparently:

1. McCain’s website had pictures of folks modeling their CafePress-fresh “Obama is a nigger” t-shirts.

2. McCain’s operatives tried to destroy the life of some poor working shlub who dared ask him a question, using information illegally obtained from government records.

3. McCain supporters have mocked the manhood and the religion of Joe Biden.

4. McCain cancels interviews whenever a journalist asks a question that is intended to be an application of journalism as opposed to not-so-covert cheerleading.

5. McCain has gone to the courts to stifle criticism, and if elected will use the Fairness Doctrine to shut down the Pacifica Network.

No, I’ve seen a lot of hate and fear in this campain, and it’s all come down to…wait, did I just get something confused?

Well, it worked. I am one of the haters. I hate everyone who voted for the bailout. I hate everyone who contributed to the current financial crisis. I hate every president after Grover Cleveland (yes, even Reagan and Coolidge). What I most hate are the folks whose hate tempts me to vote for a spendthrift, censorious old Democrat-wannabe just so I have something to shove up their asses.

There, I feel much better now.

Latest accident news

Rusty was in court again Monday. It was supposed to be the pretrial, but Judge Pittman had only ruled that morning on Nelly’s motion to have evidence from the blood test suppressed. Given that the prosecution had 2 witnesses that proper procedure was followed, Nelly had none, and there was certainly probable cause to do one, it was a legal Hail Mary pass, and Mary, I believe, is not fond of drunk drivers. Officer Herman is now a sergeant and working out of Lisbon, so Rusty didn’t get to tell the good news. She also said that Nelly “looked like hell.” Pretrial has been continued to the 7th. We suspect there’ll be a plea bargain, though it would neither surprise nor annoy me if Ms. Perp bulldozed her way into all 7 charges.

Meanwhile, Rusty got a replacement title to the Kia (she can’t find the original) so we may finally settle on that (since the lawyer told her the economics of contesting the settlement).

Larry Solak gets a Halloween present

…bad press for his opponent:

The adult children of four Portage County officials paid for their last year of college with taxpayer money meant to train the needy and unemployed for the workforce.One of those officials — County Commissioner Chris Smeiles — even voted to get his daughter’s college into the program and raise the amount of money she received.

The state auditor’s office is beginning a new investigation into the Workforce Investment Act program, a federal jobs training program shared by Portage, Geauga and Ashtabula counties.

Two recently released state audits of the program found that three children of the Portage officials received $28,000 to attend college, but were ineligible for the funds because of financial support they got from their parents.

Lisa Smeiles, daughter of County Commissioner Chris Smeiles, got $11,939 in 2006 toward her final year at out-of-state Messiah College, in Pennsylvania, where she was studying nursing.

Interestingly, the article nowhere mentions the political affiliation of the various transgressors (only Smeiles is up for election this time). Smeiles belongs to the party that cares most deeply and loudly about the poor, the one that’s been talking about Hope! and Change!