more than half-a-million more Americans voted for Democratic House candidates than for Republican House candidates. There was no split-decision. The Democrats won both the presidential election and the House election. But the Republicans won 55 percent of the seats in the House. ... How could this be?

It was by engaging in "partisan gerrymandering" that the Republican Party was able to turn a Republican defeat in terms of the national popular vote for members of the House into a significant Republican "victory" in terms of the number of Republicans elected. In Pennsylvania, for example, although citizens cast almost 100,000 more votes for Democratic than Republican candidates for the House, partisan gerrymandering enabled Republicans to 12 of the 18 seats in the House of Representatives.

for pennies on the dollar and forgiving it.

I hate these smelly a$$holes.

They gots awesome stuff there.

Mike Trout and Bryce Harper win the AL & NL Rookie of the Year awards, respectively.

Actually, Gil McDougald--most famous for hitting the line drive that derailed Herb Score's career--won the 1951 AL Rookie of the Year Award, not Mickey Mantle. Mickey didn't OPS over 1.000 in the last month of the season to lead his team to the pennant. Harper--to the extent possible under 2012 rules--did. Still, this could be the start of a two decade rivalry that reminds the old timers of Willie and Mickey.

We're back.

I'm over it at this point.  I want to make this a reality.  Have a plebiscite and anyone who wants to leave the US may do so.  Any US citizens who wish to move back to the US may do so at any time.  They've got to pay us the going rate for any federal lands that might be within the state.  As soon as the check clears, we're out of their lives forever. 

I could only imagine how much richer we'd be as a country without having to send money to the old confederacy.  Of course, they'll come crawling back in a generation or two.  I'd be surprised if they still have running water and electricity by 2050.  When the operations manual for the nuclear reactors is the King James Bible, I think there will be a problem.

Just a few choice quotes from the decision (emphasis mine):

At oral argument, the Secretary could point to no statute or other authority which relieved, or purported to relieve, poll workers of their duty to record the type of identification presented by a provisional voter.

 

First, having created the equal protection issue by issuing a directive that violates both state law and a voluntarily entered Consent Decree, the Secretary cannot benefit from his illegal act by using it to escape his obligations under the Consent Decree.

 

Counsel for the Secretary unambiguously assured this Court that the Secretary understood the recording of “identifying information” to be a duty “imposed upon the poll worker” and that the failure to do so would not “invalidate ballots.” The Court relied on this statement to the Plaintiffs’ detriment. Nine days after making that representation to the Court,the Secretary ordered that no provisional ballots be counted if the identification information was improperly recorded

 

The Court also notes, with grave misgivings, that the Secretary changed an election rule on a Friday evening for an election scheduled for the following Tuesday, after repeatedly asserting, to both this Court and the Sixth Circuit, that he could not comply with injunctive relief ordered by this Court because he lacked sufficient time prior to the election. The surreptitious manner in which the Secretary went about implementing this last minute change to the election rules casts serious doubt on his protestations of good faith.

Of course, the judge was Clinton-appointed, so clearly this is outrageous judicial activism. 

Guy's American Kitchen & Bar in Times Square. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/14/dining/reviews/restaurant-review-guys-...

"And when we hear the words Donkey Sauce, which part of the donkey are we supposed to think about?"

6 months into his presidency, Hollande's approval ratings are starting to dip below 40%.

He's pursued a deficit reduction instead of pro-growth strategy, and though he's asked the wealthy to pay down the lion's share of the deficit, he's now pushing for significant spending cuts as well.

France's economy has ground to a near halt and no one knows how low Hollande's #s will sink.

Will Obama look like Hollande in 6 months time?

After more than 10 yrs. of no communication:

A crash victim thought to have been in a vegetative state for more than a decade has used the power of thought to tell scientists he is not in pain...

Prof Owen's team uses functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) brain scans to detect hidden awareness in patients and open up channels of communication. The scans produce images of "active" regions of the brain by tracking the flow of oxygen-rich blood. Patients are asked to imagine playing tennis or walking around their home – two thought processes that produce distinct patterns of activity in different parts of the brain.

By monitoring the activity on an fMRI scanner, the researchers can ask yes or no questions. One type of brain activity is taken as a "yes" and the other as a "no".

...Prof Owen has previously shown that nearly one in five vegetative patients may in fact be conscious.

to hold a sign: 

A piece on the bankruptcy of San Bernadino is mostly just anti-union propaganda

footgolf!

Noted Obama donor and professional scumbag Bill Maher thinks that Chris Christie is his kind of Republican. Short of being french-kissed by Barney Frank on live TV, I can't think of much more that could go south for him as a possible Republican nominee in 2016.

In a conference call with some highly disappointed billionaires, Romney explained his loss to Obama thusly.

Obama, Romney argued, had been “very generous” to blacks, Hispanics and young voters. He cited as motivating factors to young voters the administration’s plan for partial forgiveness of college loan interest and the extension of health coverage for students on their parents’ insurance plans well into their 20s. Free contraception coverage under Obama’s healthcare plan, he added, gave an extra incentive to college-age women to back the president.

 

Romney argued that Obama’s healthcare plan’s promise of coverage “in perpetuity” was “highly motivational” to those voters making $25,000 to $35,000 who might not have been covered, as well as to African American and Hispanic voters. Pivoting to immigration, Romney said the Obama campaign’s efforts to paint him as “anti-immigrant” had been effective and that the administration’s promise to offer what he called “amnesty” to the children of illegal immigrants had helped turn out Hispanic voters in record numbers.

 

“The president’s campaign,” he said, “focused on giving targeted groups a big gift — so he made a big effort on small things. Those small things, by the way, add up to trillions of dollars.”

Basically, Obama voters are greedy urban minorities and college sluts. That's classic Romney. Remember how Romney repudiated his own remarks in the infamous 47% video, saying "that's just wrong"? Well apparently the etch has a brand new sketch, because Obama managed to increase that 47% to 51%!

Meanwhile this experienced and highly successful businessman apparently doesn't understand that when your competitor offers a superior product, more people are going to buy it. 

Seriously, his picture, home and whatnot at the full BBC Story...ex-rebel, shot 6 times and 14 years in jail, now the President of Uruguay...but asking the question, How should we live?

Text below, BBC here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20243493

By Vladimir Hernandez BBC Mundo, Montevideo

It's a common grumble that politicians' lifestyles are far removed from those of their electorate. Not so in Uruguay. Meet the president - who lives on a ramshackle farm and gives away most of his pay.

Laundry is strung outside the house. The water comes from a well in a yard, overgrown with weeds. Only two police officers and Manuela, a three-legged dog, keep watch outside.

This is the residence of the president of Uruguay, Jose Mujica, whose lifestyle clearly differs sharply from that of most other world leaders.

President Mujica has shunned the luxurious house that the Uruguayan state provides for its leaders and opted to stay at his wife's farmhouse, off a dirt road outside the capital, Montevideo.

The president and his wife work the land themselves, growing flowers.

This austere lifestyle - and the fact that Mujica donates about 90% of his monthly salary, equivalent to $12,000 (£7,500), to charity - has led him to be labelled the poorest president in the world.

"I've lived like this most of my life," he says, sitting on an old chair in his garden, using a cushion favoured by Manuela the dog.

"I can live well with what I have."

His charitable donations - which benefit poor people and small entrepreneurs - mean his salary is roughly in line with the average Uruguayan income of $775 (£485) a month.

In 2010, his annual personal wealth declaration - mandatory for officials in Uruguay - was $1,800 (£1,100), the value of his 1987 Volkswagen Beetle.

This year, he added half of his wife's assets - land, tractors and a house - reaching $215,000 (£135,000).

That's still only about two-thirds of Vice-President Danilo Astori's declared wealth, and a third of the figure declared by Mujica's predecessor as president, Tabare Vasquez.

Elected in 2009, Mujica spent the 1960s and 1970s as part of the Uruguayan guerrilla Tupamaros, a leftist armed group inspired by the Cuban revolution.

He was shot six times and spent 14 years in jail. Most of his detention was spent in harsh conditions and isolation, until he was freed in 1985 when Uruguay returned to democracy.

Those years in jail, Mujica says, helped shape his outlook on life.

"I'm called 'the poorest president', but I don't feel poor. Poor people are those who only work to try to keep an expensive lifestyle, and always want more and more," he says.

"This is a matter of freedom. If you don't have many possessions then you don't need to work all your life like a slave to sustain them, and therefore you have more time for yourself," he says.

"I may seem a mad and eccentric old man. But this is a free choice."

The Uruguayan leader made a similar point when he addressed the Rio+20 summit in June this year: "We've been talking all afternoon about sustainable development. To get the masses out of poverty.

"But what are we thinking? Do we want the model of development and consumption of the rich countries? I ask you now: what would happen to this planet if Indians would have the same proportion of cars per household than Germans? How much oxygen would we have left?

"Does this planet have enough resources so seven or eight billion can have the same level of consumption and waste that today is seen in rich societies? It is this level of hyper-consumption that is harming our planet."

Mujica accuses most world leaders of having a "blind obsession to achieve growth with consumption, as if the contrary would mean the end of the world".

But however large the gulf between the vegetarian Mujica and these other leaders, he is no more immune than they are to the ups and downs of political life.

"Many sympathise with President Mujica because of how he lives. But this does not stop him for being criticised for how the government is doing," says Ignacio Zuasnabar, a Uruguayan pollster.

The Uruguayan opposition says the country's recent economic prosperity has not resulted in better public services in health and education, and for the first time since Mujica's election in 2009 his popularity has fallen below 50%.

This year he has also been under fire because of two controversial moves. Uruguay's Congress recently passed a bill which legalised abortions for pregnancies up to 12 weeks. Unlike his predecessor, Mujica did not veto it.

He is also supporting a debate on the legalisation of the consumption of cannabis, in a bill that would also give the state the monopoly over its trade.

"Consumption of cannabis is not the most worrying thing, drug-dealing is the real problem," he says.

However, he doesn't have to worry too much about his popularity rating - Uruguayan law means he is not allowed to seek re-election in 2014. Also, at 77, he is likely to retire from politics altogether before long.

When he does, he will be eligible for a state pension - and unlike some other former presidents, he may not find the drop in income too hard to get used to.

Kibitan (as he is known) is warning children not to play near: drains, gutters, puddles, trees, or grass, because of the naughty radiation that will poison you if you get too much of it in your body. So that leaves....um...well, not very much of Fukushima for all the little children to play in. Not that there is any need to evacuate, or anything like that. Just don't touch the trees, grass, puddles, gutters, or drains, and don't forget to wash and gargle every time you come in from outdoors, and you'll be just fine. Probably. Now isn't that reassuring?

Via James Annan

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-20354669

Le Blog de Jean-Paul Sartre.

This thing on?

The latest Gaza assault does not make sense.

since Kansas State and Oregon just lost, it looks like the new #1 will be ... Notre Dame.