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Category Archives: John McCain
This almost looks like the state of Michigan
…but really it’s just a straight-talking graph from our friends over at MoveOn.
Posted in Barack Obama, Blog, Domestic Affairs, Economy, John McCain, Things Republicans Like
Tagged tax cuts
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Even Old Birds Can Tweet
According to Daily Intel, as well as our very own Emily Ernst, beloved Senator/technological maverick John McCain has started his very own Twitter account. Apparently, the Senator himself is behind this effort, perhaps in an attempt to get a little bit more life blood pumping within is Blackberry fingers. This should be disheartening to Democrats everywhere – why is the supposed party of youth and… competency still lacking so far behind in the war for complete Twitter domination… tweetination? Tweet Congress notes that seven of the top ten most active Congressional twitterers (read 70% people!) are Republicans, and statistics show that John McCain is raking up followers at the same rate Palin rakes up moose meet for chili. (What?) Maybe the surplus of Republican twitter accounts can be explained by the fact that they are damn entertaining. Some of my favorite soundbytes (tweetbytes) from McCain include “YEs!! I am twittering on my blackberry but not without a little help!”, “I appreciate Senator Byrd speaking in favor of my Constitutional point of order” (so precious) as well as the fact that a) he seems to feel a that the governing rules of capitalization and punctuation only apply from time to time, and b) he has created himself a David Letterman (Tweeterman) type persona by listing what he calls the top ten “porkiest” projects everyday. At least now I know that if I ever feel un-text loved and uninformed about what’s happening to the hep-cats of the G.O.P. darling John is only a tweet away.
Posted in Blog, John McCain, Netroots, The Media
Tagged daily intel, GOP, John McCain, Republican Party, twitter
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Inside the Beltway
The District of Columbia’s nearly-600,000 residents pay federal taxes like all other Americans (except perhaps the few politicians who forget) and serve on federal juries and in the nation’s armed forces. Despite fulfilling these responsibilities of citizenship, however, citizens living in the so-called “capital of the free world” are denied voting representation in Congress.
Congress is currently considering the District of Columbia House Voting Rights Act (in the House as H.R. 157 and the Senate as S. 160), which would help remedy the situation by granting the District of Columbia voting representation in the House of Representatives. The bill is a political compromise that aims to attract Republican support to granting the heavily-Democratic District of Columbia a seat in the House. The bill would expand the House to 437 members, with one of the new seats going to the District of Columbia and the other going to heavily-Republican Utah, which is currently next in line to receive an additional House seat.
An effort to pass a similar bill failed in the 110th Congress. The bill passed the House, but fell three votes short of overcoming a Republican-led filibuster in the Senate. With expanded Democratic majorities in both houses in the 111th Congress, however, the bill is very likely to pass. It is likely to come to a floor vote in the House sometime this month. It passed the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs today by an 11-1 vote (Senator John McCain cast the single vote against the bill) and will likely come to a vote in the full Senate later this year.
Watch Colbert’s take on DC voting rights.
UPDATE: According to the AP, a preliminary Senate vote has been scheduled for February 24.
Joe the journalist
Joe the plumber (more formally known as Samuel J. Wurzelbacher) has found a new calling. The former fixer of pipes turned representative of real America will now serve as a correspondant for conservative website pjtv.com. Joe’s first assignment? Covering the current conflict in the Gaza strip. The plumber told a Toledo television station today that he just wants to help Isreal’s “Average Joes share their story.”
Oh Joe, I can’t wait for your insights…
Posted in Blog, John McCain, The Media, Uncategorized
Tagged isreal, Joe the Plumber, journalism
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Nate Silver: What a McCain Win Looks Like
So Nate Silver over at FiveThirtyEight has mapped out the most likely electoral map scenarios for a McCain victory. The whole post should be very interesting to anyone, whether you’re A) Extremely worried and convinced that the Democrats will manage snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, or B) Wondering why McCain hasn’t already conceded, or anywhere in between.
(DISCLAIMER: When I say “most likely”, it should be understood that this is a relative term. By Silver’s calculations, ANY McCain win is an extreme long-shot. He currently gives him a 3.7% (UPDATE: 1.9%) chance.)
This first map is apparently by far the most likely scenario in which McCain wins. (Occurring 169 times out of 10,000 simulations)
McCain's Most Likely Path to Victory
If this map looks familiar, that’s because it’s basically the same as 2004, except we pick up New Mexico and Iowa. The pickup of 12 electoral votes makes it closer, but we still lose by 11 (as opposed to 35).
This next map seems to be the one McCain’s campaign has been working toward, with all their efforts in Pennsylvania. Apparently, it is roughly tied with a couple others (around 40 occurrences in 10,000 simulations) as the second most likely.
McCain Wins Pennsylvania, and the Election
This would leave us with a painful, painful McCain victory, 270-268, and would probably lead to a pronounced rise in alcohol-related deaths among Democrats across the country. It would also cause me to avoid traveling to the state of Ohio ever again, even if it means going through Canada or Indiana on my way to, say, Washington D.C. Maybe I’ll just fly a lot more.
But take heart. Silver ends his analysis with this:
Also, there are some states that truly do appear to be “must-wins” for McCain. In each and every one of the 624 victory scenarios that the simulation found for him this afternoon, McCain won Florida, Georgia, Missouri, Indiana and Montana. He also picked up Ohio in 621 out of the 624 simulations, and North Carolina in 622 out of 624. If McCain drops any of those states, it’s pretty much over.
So if they call Florida, North Carolina, or Ohio for Obama early on, we can probably bust out the bubbly. But you already knew that.
Kid Gets Shocked By Idiot's Yard Sign
So some asshole in Chapel Hill, NC, was so pissed that his McCain/Palin sign kept getting stolen that he electrified it.
Major props to the kid.
Have you noticed everything is funnier on Fox News?
Posted in Blog, John McCain, Sarah Palin, YouTube
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John McCain Gets Excited
While I’m working on my witty political banter, I thought I’d leave you with this:
If McCain wins, Al Qaeda Wins!
In one of the most humorous turn of events, Nicholas Kristoff of the New York Times points out, Al Qaeda is really pulling for John McCain to win the presidency. As Kristoff pointed out in his Op-Ed piece, an Al Qaeda run website has officially endorsed John McCain in this years election. The reason behind this endorsement are truly logical, it seems they would face a serious recruitment problem if Barack Obama were to be elected. A man who would end the war in Iraq and build bridges to the Muslim world would in effect destroy the main issues that are drawing young men to groups like Al Qaeda. Without an American occupation in Iraq, what would recruiters use as an example of America trying to conquer the Muslim world? The greatest boost to recruitment for Al Qaeda, as Kristoff points out, was the forceful tactics of the Bush Administration when it came to dealing with any sign of a Muslim state. Including the destruction of any chance of a civil and unified Somalia. When the Islamic Courts in the process of bringing real peace to Somalia the Bush Administration stepped in and set the people of Somalia back twenty years. Its just to bad that no one on main street will read this piece, then again they are busy trying to deal with their mortgages. Yet another problem cause by Bush that McCain will do nothing to help.