22 Saturday Nov 2008
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We’ve covered this republican phenomenon before:
A 4 x 6 sign along Missouri Highway 7 in Cass County on November 22, 2008.
We were on our way to Harrisonville, Missouri to attend the 31st District Democratic Committee meeting and elect two members to the Missouri State Democratic Committee from the district. Upon seeing the sign one of our number remarked, “It’s not like they forgot it’s there. They have to see it every time they drive through their gate…”
It’s in their nature.
22 Saturday Nov 2008
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22 Saturday Nov 2008
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On the current economic mess:
The president-elect understands the power of the bully pulpit. And the empowerment of public access to information.
22 Saturday Nov 2008
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The fictional orginal:
The greatest republican event advance since Bob Dole spilled through the fake handrail in 1996.
Oh, the humanity.
21 Friday Nov 2008
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Looking at Lafayette County’s election results is a little more interesting than you’d expect for a county that went 57/42 McCain. For those of you who don’t know, Lafayette County is the county to the direct east of Jackson County, and the home of Congressman Ike Skelton.
For one thing, Obama won Lexington (1130-1043), came within 6% of winning Higginsville (1299-1154 for McCain), and came within 5% of taking absentees (929-839). But where did it all go wrong?
Well, for one thing… McCain topped 60% in quite a few places. Such as Napoleon (64%-35%, 194-106), Corder (62%-38%, 179-110), Concordia (73%-26%, 1129-399), Alma (83%-17%, 436-89), and Waverly (69%-29%, 311-131). McCain also won by 10% in Odessa (1192-976 in South and 994-817 in North), and by 20% in Bates City (1020-679).
As for other candidates. Jay Nixon won Lafayette County and won every precinct except Napoleon, Concordia, and Alma. Sam Page won South Odessa and ran ahead of Obama in Lexington. Mitch Hubbard defeated Robin in Alma and Concordia. Also, Beth Grubb won South Odessa by 101, lost North Odessa by 4, and lost Higginsville by 311 (yes, running behind the Obama total in Higginsville)
How about another west-central Missouri county? Bates County. The closest to a positive for Obama was losing by 12 votes in Butler’s 2nd precinct. Obama also lost absentees by 5%. His worst town with over 500 votes was Adrian (losing 1158-700). Through the quirks of vote-splitting, Bates only went to Kinder by 345 votes. Page won North Adrian and lost the town 917-872. Mitch Hubbard also won Rockville (58-47).
Vernon County has precinct results up too.
Anybody else know of counties with precinct result info up on the web? or will someone have to quietly get all the precinct results from this entire state since the Blue Book no longer publishes that info for the Presidential/Gubernatorial races?
21 Friday Nov 2008
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At least that’s the word when it comes to Senator McCaskill and the President-elect.
She was at Michelle Obama’s side at the second presidential debate. Behind the scenes, she conferred from time to time with the campaign brain trust, offered advice when asked and swapped occasional e-mails with Obama about how things were going.
She downplayed any special inner-circle status – “These guys didn’t need my advice.”
But any list of Obama insiders said to have the ear of the president-elect has to include the freshman Democratic senator from Missouri.
“She was probably the most reliable surrogate, even in contentious settings like going on Fox News, even in times when the narrative wasn’t even great, like the Rev. (Jeremiah) Wright turmoil,” said Josh Earnest, an Obama campaign spokesman.
The overall influence and stature is probably helpful for the state in the overall scheme of things (last time we had a Democratic President and one Missouri Democratic Senator was 1977-1981). She has her influence, and I hope she uses it in the right way.
21 Friday Nov 2008
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Heh.
O’Reilly’s War On Christmas Goes Retail
…It basically works like this. We live in a capitalist society, and consumer spending tends to increase during the Christmas season. To avoid alienating any customers during that peak period, many retailers have their cashiers say “Happy Holidays,” because why not be nice? For centuries and centuries, this was totally fine with everybody because it made a lick of good sense. Then, one year, a bunch of feckless dimwits came to an extraordinary conclusion – saying “Happy Holidays” was “politically correct,” and everyone who practices Christianity had the right to expect a complete stranger to recognize them as a Christmas practitioner by sight and specifically wish them “Merry Christmas,” or else IT WAS WAR. Obviously, this latter position is the one you want to build an entire society around…
Of all the stoopidity (via dday at Digby):
…And so it will come to pass once again that many people will spend four weeks biting on tongues lest they say “Merry Christmas” and perchance, give offense. Christmas, the holiday that dare not speak its name…
…A nation whose people can’t say “Merry Christmas” is a nation capable of ruining its own economy…
I don’t know about you, but that would make sense to me. If I lived in a country without a freakin’ Constitution:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press…
…but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.
See, the “state” doesn’t and isn’t supposed to care if your retail sales person greets you with a “Merry Christmas”, a “Happy Holidays”, or a “Merry Chrismahanaqwanzakah”. It’s their choice. And conversely, you don’t get to demand that everyone else somehow magically divine your preferred greeting and bestow it upon you. That’s how America is supposed to work. Unless you’re a self-centered putz.
And the gems from Daniel Henninger continue:
…It has been my view that the steady secularizing and insistent effort at dereligioning America has been dangerous…
…The point for a healthy society of commerce and politics is not that religion saves, but that it keeps most of the players inside the chalk lines. We are erasing the chalk lines.
Feel free: Banish Merry Christmas. Get ready for Mad Max.
Uh, rough translation: People who don’t say “Merry Christmas” are promoting a culture of lawlessness. The Constitution says otherwise. Putz.
I wonder if he gets the irony in Mad Max. Nah.
21 Friday Nov 2008
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Want more examples of how corrupt the past eight years have been? The Hill reports that Trevor Blackmann, former aide to Kit Bond and Roy Blunt, has pled guilty to accepting $$$ from Jack Abramoff in return for using his influence with his employers. What specifically did Abramoff get in return? Results, at least in regard to Senator Bond:
In return, Blackann obtained a letter of support from Bond for someone seeking a political appointment to the Bureau of Indian Affairs, court documents allege.
Additionally, according to the AP:
Blackann said he pushed … officials actions that would be beneficial to Equipment Rental Co., a construction rental company. Blackann worked for Blunt, R-Mo., from 1998-2001 and Bond, R-Mo., from 2001-2005.
Even more interesting:
He also said that the things he is pleading to “does not include all of the facts known to me concerning criminal activity in which I and/or others engaged.”
What could that possibly mean?
20 Thursday Nov 2008
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Township results are here. For the moment, you need to add a space for a few township URLs. But hopefully that is fixed soon.
And Mitch Hubbard won Chesterfield Township. Thanks for asking.
A question for our STL members: any surprises on this map?
And a bonus map too
20 Thursday Nov 2008
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Jason Rosenbaum is leaving his gig as the in-house blogger for the Columbia Tribune. I don’t link to him much, but he was definitely a daily read and will be missed.
Strangely, his departure announcement clears up a misconception I had on Twitter, where I thought I was following a different Jason Rosenbaum altogether. I didn’t find out my mistake until today, a couple of months of Twitter updates later. Weird.