senate

Plumbing the series of tubes

Screenshot of AOL on Geoworks

Did the internet somehow break while I was away? Did something change in the past 30 or so years since the internet went mainstream? Because there are a couple of weird undercurrents happening right now, in earnest, with great urgency, that seem to suggest that maybe something changed about the internet that really needs fixing. First, for some reason, laws requiring age identification are sweeping not just around the US, but globally. Why now? Well, at least in the US, the Supreme Court changed its mind and said it’s okay now. Sure, fine, whatever, they’ve been doing...

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Hatesgiving

Morhard Sworn In As NASA Deputy Administrator (NHQ201810170002)

Or, The Hate U Give (which I just learned was a book and a movie? Am I so out of touch?). Anyways, with the news that a Democrat has entered the Senate race in South Carolina to run against Lindsay Graham, I feel the need to say: Please do not give any money to a Democrat running a Senate race in South Carolina who does not have a reasonably chance of winning, or even a theory for how they would win (because they won’t). Democrats love giving money to candidates with nothing but a decent bio and...

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So what’s next?

This morning, we went over the preordained Republican takeover of the Senate. So, other than having to hear “Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says” over and over, what will the next two years look like? For the most part, you’d be correct in assuming that it’d look a lot like the last four years: With Democrat Barack Obama still the president, and a Republican-controlled House and Senate, it’s going to be a loud not much. Yet even with that caveat, we can still look into what a unified legislature is going to at least try, and perhaps...

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Alabama Republican candidate for Senate Will Brooke shoots ACA, completely rips off Sen. Manchin

A second quality advertisement today comes from Will Brooke, who is running in Alabama for the Republican nomination for the Senate race. Invoking the Second Amendment, he gets in his truck, taking a print-out of the Affordable Care act with him out to where he can shoot it with a handgun, a rifle, and finally in super-dramatic-slow-mo an assault rifle (that music!), before eventually putting the whole deal through a Will-Brooke-branded shredder. However, this is such a rip-off of Sen. Joe Manchin’s campaign ad from 2010:

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Republican Iowa Senate Candidate Joni Ernst wants to castrate Washington’s spending and make them squeal or something

[Sadly this ad is no longer on the internet.] Oh, man, it’s finally that time in the political cycle where we get back to some quality advertisements. Here we have Joni Ernst, a Republican from Iowa who is running for the Senate. In this spot, she basically says that she knows how to castrate pigs, so she’ll know how to stop spending, all while we hear the squeals of pigs in the background. It’s all kinds of creepy. Enjoy. And she was just endorsed by none other than the Killa from Wasilla.

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Christine O'Donnell "not a witch"

In her new 30-second spot, Delaware Republican nominee Christine O’Donnell—who claims to have “dabbled in witchcraft“—begins by making it quite clear that she is not, in fact, a witch. But, with that black top, dark backdrop, and pale skin, it might be fair to say “She look like one?”

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Alaska Republican candidate for Senate Joe Miller compares Senator Murkowski to a prostitute

Via Swing State Project. Alaska Republican (and tea party sweetheart) candidate for Senate Joe Miller : “What’s the difference between selling out your party\’s values and the oldest profession? http://bit.ly/93kXBr #teaparty #tcot #alaska #ak” The link is to the Daily Caller, which cites a report from the Daily Beast that someone inside Lisa Murkowski’s  senate campaign has said that if she does lose the Republican nomination, she might consider running under the Libertarian Party, because the deadline for filing as an independent has passed. As unlikely a scenario this is, it’s not even relevant yet, as it...

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Welcome to the Terrordome

Sometimes, it’s a little hard to like Majority Leader Harry Reid. Okay, not sometimes: Often. Sure, once in a while he’ll accomplish the historic passage of a Republican health care bill, but, generally, he’s blasé at best and offensively useless at worst. Or maybe just offensive. Offensive it is, again. Yesterday, in addressing the recent (cynical) outrage over the planning of an Islamic community center near the World Trade Center site, his spokesman, Jim Manley said, “The First Amendment protects freedom of religion. Senator Reid respects that, but thinks that the mosque should be built someplace else.”...

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Rand Paul is just afraid of imaginary beer

The Fancy Farm Picnic, a picnic held by the St. Jerome parish, is the traditional beginning of the campaign season in Kentucky. It’s a huge affair: so huge, in fact, that in 1985,  it was recognized in the Guinness Book of World Records as the “World’s Largest Picnic” for the consumption of 15,000 pounds of mutton, pork, and chicken at the 1982 picnic. Since it’s such an important event, you’d of course expect that Senate candidates Jack Conway and Rand Paul would have to make appearances. Democratic candidate Jack Conway made some news this weekend when he...

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63-37

Just moments ago, I watched the Senate finish voting to confirm Solicitor General Elena Kagan by a vote of 63-37. You\’ll note that I made a silly bet with Lady Blaga that the vote would be 60-40. So, I\’m paying the lady her Hamilton. Sen. Ben Nelson was the only Democrat to vote nay, while Republican Senators Lindsay Graham, Susan Collins, Olympia Snow, Judd Gregg and Richard Lugar voted yea. Scott Brown, as I expected, voted nay and released a statement to that effect, citing her lack of judicial experience. That said, Ben Nelson is the first...

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