Last Call

Team Romney lost for two big reasons.  One, they bought into the bubble.

Romney and his campaign had gone into the evening confident they had a good path to victory, for emotional and intellectual reasons. The huge and enthusiastic crowds in swing state after swing state in recent weeks - not only for Romney but also for Paul Ryan - bolstered what they believed intellectually: that Obama would not get the kind of turnout he had in 2008.

They thought intensity and enthusiasm were on their side this time - poll after poll showed Republicans were more motivated to vote than Democrats - and that would translate into votes for Romney.

As a result, they believed the public/media polls were skewed - they thought those polls oversampled Democrats and didn't reflect Republican enthusiasm. They based their own internal polls on turnout levels more favorable to Romney. That was a grave miscalculation, as they would see on election night.

Those assumptions drove their campaign strategy: their internal polling showed them leading in key states, so they decided to make a play for a broad victory: go to places like Pennsylvania while also playing it safe in the last two weeks. 

They actually thought they were going to win Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Iowa, maybe even Michigan.  They thought Florida, Colorado and Ohio were in the bag as a result.  They bought into the bubble and it cost them everything.

Secondly, their ground game was horrible, as BooMan points out.

After reading a variety of articles with sources from inside the Romney campaign team, I am considering revising my whole way of looking at this election. I knew, because I witnessed it first hand, that Romney had a terrible ground game that basically threw money at problems rather than organizing in any rational way. But I still can't believe that they just wasted 30,000 volunteers on election day by asking them to sit inside precincts and strike voters off the list as they voted using a web application that didn't work. Failure on that level is reminiscent of the post-invasion plan for Iraq. It's not a matter of the Obama campaign staff being better. The Romney campaign sabotaged their most passionate warriors and rendered them useless. 

If there's one word that sums up the Romney disaster, it is "entitled".  They thought they were entitled to win, they were entitled to the Presidency, they were entitled to the vote, they were entitled to fawning media coverage, they were entitled to coattails that would make then GOP heroes, entitled to victory, because they were who they thought they were.

Mitt Romney never had to work for anything in his life.  It was given to him.  That sense of entitlement sabotaged his campaign from the very beginning.  The notion that anyone would every question his victory simply never occurred to the man, because he was never questioned before.  He just came out on top because that's the way the world worked for people like Mitt Romney.  They won because they were the winners.  Only losers ever considered losing, and those rules of gravity just didn't apply to Mitt.  He was the destined one. Dubya, for all his faults, at least had been tempered by his humility and his battle with alcoholism.  Not Mitt.

And that attitude swept down the campaign.  Only losers prepare to lose.  Only losers make "corrections" and "adjustments".  Mitt had already won the election, it was all just a giant set of bureaucratic trivialities that had to be weathered before the White House was theirs.  This was Mitt's test.  Ann Romney, especially, displayed this attitude of "why don't you people treat him as the President he is?"  They had been running victory laps since May.  The first debate convinced them they had won completely and utterly.  You could see it.  They had "visualized victory."

Only, something funny happened on the way to the Oval Office.  Reality stepped in and slapped the bejeezus out of these entitled pricks as the country revolted against these assholes.  Barely.  But it happened.

And it's a damn good thing.  Could you imagine these clueless, entitled bastards running the country?  They would have made Dubya look like a Boy Scout.

That's terrifying.

We Interrupt Your Chris Christie Lovefest...

...for the fact that just a week before Hurricane Sandy completely slagged his state and he came crawling on his hands and knees to praise the man, this is what Chris Christie thought of the President.



Just some perspective on what the "bipartisan" Christie really thinks.  The guy went down to Virginia to stump for Romney and called the President "useless" and "arrogant".

But he sure came hat in hand when New Jersey needs millions, maybe billions in federal government dollars to clean up from this mess.  You sure need the federal government now, don't you, Chris?

Trust me.  People will remember.

Jackasses Abound

A family in Woodstock, Georgia, learned a difficult lesson about the dangers of posting an online advertisement. The Vercher family, who recently lost their home of 20 years to foreclosure, posted an ad on Craigslist on Tuesday night, informing people that a yard-sale-style giveaway would take place at their home the following day.

Well, on Wednesday morning, people turned out in droves. However, instead of just taking the free furniture that the family had placed outside, crowds ransacked the house, taking nearly everything inside. The Verchers tried to stop people from walking off with their belongings, but their pleas were ignored.

Everything is gone, including items of sentimental value.  I'm not sure how someone could claim a misunderstanding, I would think pleading for them to stop would be a red flag.  What kind of jackass could take from a family that had lost almost everything?  Apparently, an entire crowd of them exist.

Racing Around The Country

The outstanding Goldie Taylor brings it on race and this election.

“We are not as divided as our politics suggests,” Obama told us. Whites and blacks alike hitched their wagons to the hope of a new day.

An Associated Press poll released Oct. 27, tells a much different story. Rather than quell, our racial tensions have flared. According to the study, “The number of Americans with anti-black sentiments jumped to 56 percent, up from 49 percent during the last presidential election.”

Jon Krosnick, a Stanford University professor who co-developed the survey said, “As much as we’d hope the impact of race would decline over time…it appears the impact of anti-black sentiment on voting is about the same as it was four years ago.”

Regrettably, white poll respondents attributed stereotypical terms like ”violent” and “lazy” to blacks and Hispanics.

“When we’ve seen [racial] progress, we’ve also seen backlash,” said Jelani Cobb, professor of history and director of the Institute for African-American Studies at the University of Connecticut.

Some believe that backlash could cost Obama the election. In fact, if John Sununu and Donald Trump are any gauges, Republicans are still banking on “white fear”— the same fear that drove Reagan democrats to the polls in 1980. The late North Carolina Senator Jesse Helms used the infamous “Hands” ad during his 1990 campaign, to stoke white fears of losing employment opportunities to blacks because of affirmative action.

Unfortunately, history tells us that those campaign tactics can be successful — especially in an economic downturn when everyone is scrapping for a job.

If you want to know why this race is close, it's because race is always close.

Great Scott, It's Your Kids, Marty!

As Scott Lemieux points out, this is the Mitt Romney who was Governor of Massachusetts:

Romney hadn’t even previously fathomed that gay people had children. Boston Spirit magazine reported last month that when gay activists met with him in his office in 2004, as Romney was backing a failed constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage in the state, Romney remarked, “I didn’t know you had families.” Julie Goodridge, lead plaintiff in the landmark case that won marriage rights for gays and lesbians before the Supreme Judicial Court, asked what she should tell her 8-year-old daughter about why the governor would block the marriage of her parents. According to Goodridge, Romney responded,”I don’t really care what you tell your adopted daughter. Why don’t you just tell her the same thing you’ve been telling her the last eight years.”

Severely conservative.  

But there's nothing Mitt can do or say for the 27% who will always vote GOP, and the 20%+ who will vote against Obama for whatever reason, enough to make him competitive (and depending on red state turnout, more than competitive in the national vote totals.)

Great guy, huh?

Last Call

As many people suspected, Tagg Romney's comments to the President after Monday's debate (you know, where his dad got his ass handed to him) were in fact an apology for last week's little petulant joke about taking a swing at POTUS.

Tagg Romney, Mitt Romney's oldest son, apologized to President Barack Obama Monday for saying he wanted to "take a swing" at him during contentious presidential debates.

Obama and Tagg Romney were seen speaking on the stage after Monday's final presidential debate, held at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Florida. Two Obama aides said the conversation included an apology for the remark, made last week during a radio interview.

How magnanimous of him.

Asked about the original comments on Thursday, Romney campaign spokeswoman Amanda Henneberg said Tagg Romney was "joking about how frustrating this process can be for family."

It's hard being the Romneys, you know.  Ridiculously rich and entitled to the point of nobility. So difficult to control their barely veiled contempt at the man currently in the office their father is clearly entitled to by dint of being Mitt Romney.

So very difficult indeed.

Feature, Not A Bug

Good news ladies, yet another Republican senate candidate here in the Midwest wants you to know that should you get raped and conceive your rapist's baby, God meant for that to happen.

The latest entrant into the Republican rape insensitivity bake-off is Indiana Senate candidate Richard Mourdock, who said tonight that “even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to happen.” He, of course, joins fellow Senate candidate Todd Akin, with his now-canonical “legitimate rape” comment, and Rep. Joe Walsh, running for election in Illinois, who claimed there was no reason a woman would ever need an abortion to save her life or preserve her health. The trailblazer was Tea Party candidate Sharron Angle, who failed to unseat Harry Reid in Nevada two years ago, and famously said that if a hypothetical teenager was raped and impregnated by her father, it was an opportunity to turn “a lemon situation into lemonade.”

Of course now Mourdock is trying to weasel out of it, just like Todd Akin.

“I spoke from my heart. For speaking from my heart, for speaking from the deepest level of my faith, I cannot apologize,” he said. “I would be less than faithful to my faith if I said anything other than life is precious, I believe it is a gift from God. I believe that God would never want anyone harmed, sexually abused, raped. I believe it’s wrong when people want to take what I said and twist it. And if in any way people came away with the wrong meaning, then for that I do apologize.”

One reporter asked Mourdock to clarify that he wasn’t apologizing for the remarks themselves but instead expressing regret for how they were heard.

“That’s correct,” Mourdock said.

I apologize you stupid libtards misheard me. It's a gift from God, because shut up and stop having sex, you filthy libtard hussy.

By the way, Mitt Romney refuses to withdraw his endorsement of this assclown.  That should tell you everything you need to know about Romney as President, right?

Anyone Suprised By This?

BooMan reminds us it's silly season, and silly season is getting awfully dangerous.

Well at least it wasn't bullets this time, not that I would find a great deal of comfort in that if I worked or volunteered at the Conifer, Colorado Obama office.

Vandals struck an Obama campaign office in Conifer overnight, spray-painting swastikas onto the side of the building. [...] 

A photo on 9News's website, which first reported the vandalism, shows at least one window with swastikas painted on it. [...]

This is the second high-profile incident at an Obama campaign office in a week. Last Friday, police believe somebody fired a shot at an Obama campaign field office in Denver. Denver police spokesman John White said officers recovered a bullet from inside the campaign office, but he said he did not have any update on the investigation.

Yeah, at least nobody got hurt or killed when this Obama campaign office was vandalized.  That's a relief, right?  It seems a bunch of people have a real problem with our black President.  Wonder why.

Also, if this had been a Romney office, this of course would be the latest in "the coming race war" and "intimidation" by Obama's "army of thungs".  After all, we black folk started it being all black when the slave ships showed up in Africa, right?

Religious Speed Racer

Some folks will go to great lengths to contest a speeding ticket, but this is the first time we've heard someone claim a speeding ticket was a violation of religious freedom.

Yet that's exactly what Jeffrey L. Manke of Oshkosh, Wisc, did. Manke was was ticketed for driving 71 mph in a 55 mph zone in October 2011. He argued that Wisconsin's speeding statutes were unconstitutional as they violated his religious freedom because they prohibit a person from speeding. Manke claimed in court that his understanding of the Bible indicates he's a man, not a person.

The state court of appeals didn't buy his argument and cut through Manke's semantics.

"Manke does not explain how or why being a 'person' for purposes of the speeding statute is a burden upon his religious beliefs," the court wrote.

"We accept Manke’s argument that he is a man. We also accept that, as a man, he is a 'person' under WIS. STAT. § 346.57(4)(h)."

Manke is this week's honorary jackass.  I'm glad to see his bitch slap back to reality delivered with humor and a firm denial.

Walla Walla Bing Bang

Well, if Mark Sanford's "throwing spears" comment wasn't bad enough, now we have this story out of New Jersey about a businessmen who has put up a rather offensive display portraying the President as a "witch doctor".

A New Jersey business owner and self-described “political independent” has drawn criticism after setting up a display that includes a picture depicting President Barack Obama as a “witch doctor.”

“Call it what you want, I’m not taking it down,” Bill Skuby told WABC-TV regarding the display, which also has Obama’s picture on a tombstone above the words, “I told you I was sick,” an apparent reference to the Affordable Care Act.

Nice. Oh, this guy is a champ, by the way.

“A lot of people feel the way I feel, but are just afraid to say it,” he told the newspaper. “It always comes down to the race card.”

Skuby also told the newspaper he doesn’t believe he is a racist, on account of his son marrying a woman with a biracial child and raising it as part of their family.

I can't be a racist, because being white, I say I'm not racist.  So we've got this prick being a racist and then assuming white privilege to deny his racism.  He's the victim here, you see.  All of you are so mean and he of course is sorry all of you people are so sensitive.  Geez.  It's just a Halloween display.

I've got a display I'd like to put up on November 7th in response.  Just sayin'.

Lancing The Boil

The case that Lance Armstrong's entire cycling career was nothing but doping fueled cheating was laid out this week in a new report by the US Anti-Doping Agency, and it's pretty brutal across the board.

Armstrong used the banned drugs erythropoietin, or EPO, and testosterone, provided EPO to teammates and administered testosterone on at least one occasion, according to USADA. His teammate George Hincapie said Armstrong tranfused blood in every Tour de France from 2001 through 2005. He won all those races. Signs also point to Armstrong still blood-doping in 2009 and 2010, according to Christopher Gore, head of physiology at the Australian Institute of Sport.

“USADA found proof beyond a reasonable doubt that Lance Armstrong engaged in serial cheating through the use, administration and trafficking of performance-enhancing drugs and methods and that Armstrong participated in running the U.S. Postal Team as a doping conspiracy,” USADA concluded. “So ends one of the most sordid chapters in sports history.”

Armstrong has repeatedly denied doping, saying he has never failed a drug test, and today his lawyer Timothy Herman called the USADA case “a government-funded witch hunt.”

Armstrong, 41, was banned for life from competitive cycling and all other Olympic-related sports and stripped of his Tour de France titles on Aug. 23 after opting not to fight USADA’s allegations. 

I have no sympathy for the guy.  Cancer or not, this guy's as crooked as they come.  He ran his entire team as a doping conspiracy to win at all costs, and in the end he finally got caught.  The fact that Armstrong refuses to contest the Tour de France wins pretty much seals it.

It's a sad story, but it's a 200-page report.  It doesn't look like they USADA was just idling messing around, either.

Chalk up another sports hero that was too good to be true...or honest, for that matter.

Chair, Noose, And Two Smoking Watermelons

The ni-CLANG! moment edges closer, even in California.

Some residents are calling a symbolic political display erected by a Morgan Hill homeowner that features two watermelons and a noose racist and even vaguely threatening towards President Obama.

Many people driving along Foothill Avenue in Morgan Hill gawked at the display on a fence post in front of a home.

Just feet from a "Mitt Romney for President"  sign sat a chair, empty except for two watermelons.

Draped along the side of the chair was a rope tied into a noose with a sign set up to look like a teleprompter that read "Go back to Kenya."

The apparent reference to President Obama made some people passing by, including Republicans, uneasy.

"We shouldn't be threatening with a noose and a watermelon," said San Martin resident Ben Gomez. "I believe that's a little over the top. I like the chair and the teleprompter. I mean, they're just copying Clint Eastwood, so I can't blame them on that one. But the noose goes a little over the edge."

You think?  But it's okay, somebody called Bush bad names once, so all this is justified and FIRST AMENDMENT and DON'T TREAD ON ME.  Awesome.

I'd say I'm getting sick of this, but it's turning into a daily occurrence at this point, just like it did in 2008.  We're just not seeing all of the incidents publicly, I assure you.  The ones that are public like this piece of work here, well, the message is rather clear, isn't it?

You think the GOP is going to lift a finger to discourage this?  If so, I've got some beachfront property in Montana to sell you.

Last Call

So, when billionaire CEOs threaten to fire their employees if President Obama gets elected, do we finally get to call it class warfare?

David Siegel is the founder and CEO of Westgate Resorts, a huge national timeshare company and one of the largest resort developers in the world. In 2007 he was a billionaire, although he may be only a hundred-millionaire now. He and his wife Jackie were the subjects of the recent documentary "The Queen of Versailles," about their ongoing quest to build the largest house in America, a 90,000 square foot monument to excess. And yesterday, David Siegel sent an email to all of his thousands of employees, in which he—in a veiled way—insinuated that they would be fired of Barack Obama is reelected.

Here's the letter in part:

So where am I going with all this? It's quite simple. If any new taxes are levied on me, or my company, as our current President plans, I will have no choice but to reduce the size of this company. Rather than grow this company I will be forced to cut back. This means fewer jobs, less benefits and certainly less opportunity for everyone.

So, when you make your decision to vote, ask yourself, which candidate understands the economics of business ownership and who doesn't? Whose policies will endanger your job? Answer those questions and you should know who might be the one capable of protecting and saving your job. While the media wants to tell you to believe the "1 percenters" are bad, I'm telling you they are not. They create most of the jobs. If you lose your job, it won't be at the hands of the "1%"; it will be at the hands of a political hurricane that swept through this country.

You see, I can no longer support a system that penalizes the productive and gives to the unproductive. My motivation to work and to provide jobs will be destroyed, and with it, so will your opportunities. If that happens, you can find me in the Caribbean sitting on the beach, under a palm tree, retired, and with no employees to worry about.

And yes, Siegel has confirmed the e-mail.

Shortly after we posted this letter, we found out, thanks to multiple readers, that it bore suspicious resemblances to a popular chain letter that was circulated just before the 2008 elections. Well, we just got off the phone with David Siegel, who told us the letter below is real, and that it was sent out to all of his employees yesterday. "I did use the letter that had circulated before as a guideline, but I changed it [to fit my circumstances]," he told us. "It speaks the truth and it gives [employees] something to think about when they go to the polls." He also said that its threats of possible layoffs are real, based on his assessment of the political and economic climate. He added that he "hasn't had any negative feedback" on the letter.

So once again, Siegel is proud to say that he freely admits threatening his employees' jobs if President Obama is re-elected, and the Democrats go through with their promise to raise taxes on the ultra-wealthy.

Boy, this guy's a real patriot, isn't he.  "Give me my tax cut, or I help destroy the economy". 

What are you going to do about it, America?

Pot, Meet Kettle

Mitt Romney's son Josh has a few words for the President, and none of them are kind.

Josh Romney, one of Mitt Romney's sons, told a pointed joke Tuesday about President Obama's debate performance, while warming up the crowd for his father at a campaign rally in Van Meter, Iowa.

"I don't know if you guys saw the debate last week," Josh Romney said, as the crowd cheered and applauded. "I take a lot of pride in that, because — I don't know if you noticed, but I was — me and my brothers were responsible for my dad doing so well. We were the ones, as kids, that kept saying the same thing over and over. And we'd say the same lie over and over. And my dad learned then, not to believe it. While we didn't go to any of the formal debate preparation, we did the real hard stuff.

"So as a father, he learned how to debate an obstinate child. We had a lot of fun, we had a lot of fun watching the debate."

That's some funny stuff.  Team Romney certainly is feeling their oats this week.   Perhaps one should best avoid referring to the President as a child, just a parenting tip there.  Imani over at ABLC has some words for Josh, too.

None of them are kind, either.

Hey Josh — Your dear pappy’s own party knows that he’s lying and flip flopping all over the place like a fish out of water, so you might want to stop cracking stupid ass jokes and tell your dad to find a position and stick with it.

Like I said, the sense of entitlement coming off the entire Romney clan, the feeling of "Why haven't you yokels awarded us the White House already?" is pretty nauseating.  And yet, this is what Mitt the father has taught Josh the son.

Mitt will make a heck of a President, right?

Lyin Ryan, Cryin' Foul

Can you imagine the crapstorm President Obama would get if he walked out of an interview like Paul Ryan did on Monday?

Ryan spokesman Brendan Buck tells BuzzFeed: “The reporter knew he was already well over the allotted time for the interview when he decided to ask a weird question relating gun violence to tax cuts. Ryan responded as anyone would in such a strange situation. When you do nearly 200 interviews in a couple months, eventually you’re going to see a local reporter embarrass himself.” 

Sure.  And if Paul Ryan can't handle a local reporter, how can he handle Joe Biden on Thursday, or the job of Vice-President?

Once again, if President Obama had done this, it would be over for the Obama campaign.  "Thin-skinned.  Arrogant.  Uppity.  Ni-CLANG."

But it's perfectly okay for Paul Ryan to do it.

Cop Punches Woman - Not A Repeat. Sigh.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Police have launched an internal investigation after a video was posted online that shows an officer striking a woman twice in the face at a neighborhood party associated with Philadelphia's annual Puerto Rican Day parade. The 36-second video uploaded to YouTube and titled "Philadelphia Police Brutality" shows the woman crumpling to the ground after being struck Sunday in north Philadelphia. The woman appears to be bleeding from the mouth as she is led away in handcuffs.

Moments before the woman was hit, the video shows someone else throwing a liquid toward the officers. The woman was also seen spraying something from a can.

The woman, whose name was not released, was cited for disorderly conduct, said Officer Tanya Little, a police spokeswoman.

The officer in the video, identified as highway patrol supervisor Lt. Jonathan Josey, is eager to tell his side of the story to internal investigators because there is more to what happened than the video shows, said John McNesby, president of the Fraternal Order of Police.

"We're hoping that it's neither a whitewash nor a witch hunt," McNesby said at a news conference Monday. "At the end of the day, his actions will be questioned, but I believe they can be defended."

While I understand there may be things not captured on the video, and that perhaps the woman was guilty of some level of disorderly conduct, in what way is that grounds for punching a woman in the face?  Watch the video.  At the 40 second mark you can see him focus on her, step up behind her and swing around to hit her in the face while she walks away, watching him over her shoulder.

He wasn't defending himself.  From what I see, he engaged her.  She came in from an angle, he says something and she veers away, and he steps into her space and hits her.  I watched it over and over, noting my original response and what I saw as I studied what happened.  I am curious if our readers see it differently.

As people become more frustrated with government and conditions, there will be more marching and protesting than ever.  The Occupy movement will be one of many that will encourage people to speak out.  This must be tolerated, and police must learn how to manage crowds and do so within the boundaries of the law.  If she was guilty of a misdemeanor, it still doesn't give this cop the right to punch her while she is walking away from him.

This jackass had a choice.  He could have taken her arm, or even done a police tackle if one had been required.  Instead he hits her in the face in a sucker punch with way more force than necessary, and in a speech pretending to be neutral, we're told this sucker punch can be defended if we only knew the facts.  The facts I can watch with my own eyes says this is an act of avoidable aggression by a bully with power.

Coulter (Zeit)Geist, Part 3

Ann Coulter continues her book tour with her latest awful screed Mugged (I believe the subtitle is "Watch Me Concern Troll Democrats By Revealing How White Liberals Are The Most Racist People On Earth Because Black People Are Too Stupid To Listen To Me") and went on The View on Thursday.



She immediately got her ass handed to her by Whoopi Goldberg.

No stranger to controversial comments, Republican pundit told the show’s co-hosts that liberals use race-mongering “to promote causes that have nothing to do with facts and, in fact, harm blacks” and that white people’s response to the O.J. Simpson trial verdict was “the best thing that ever happened to black Americans.”

Not long into the interview, Goldberg exploded with frustration.

“Hold up, Ms. Coulter. Please stop,” she interrupted. “If you’re going to talk about race, at least know what you’re talking about.”

“What don’t I know?” Coulter asked.

“Tell me how much you know about being black,” Goldberg responded. “You just made all these statements about how black people feel. Tell me how you know.”

Coulter answered that Mugged “is not a book about black people,” but instead “about white liberals.”

A few minutes later Sherri Shepherd asked Coulter, “So you’re saying that liberals don’t care about black people. Then are you saying Republicans embrace us in a warm, fuzzy blanket?”

“I do,” Coulter laughed. “We’re not embraced back. But yeah, we try to.”

Sure you do.  You care enough to disenfranchise us, take away health care coverage, wreck our schools, consider us entitled victims, and treat us as thugs and criminals.  You care so much that you come on national television after assuming the privilege of writing a book about the entire black experience in America and tell us you did it for our own good, to protect us from those awful, mean old liberals, while you make a fortune doing it.

I have a few words for you madam.

I honestly have to say that you're in dire need of education and perhaps a soul transplant.

I'm being nice to the point of not punching my wall.

Poller Opposites

Republicans are now fully invested in the notion that the polls showing Obama is ahead are all wrong to the point of near-criminal negligence and conspiracy.

With six weeks until Election Day, new polling from Quinnipiac, the New York Times and CBS News shows President Obama leading in crucial swing states including Ohio, Florida and Iowa. As Obama’s lead grows, so does the number of conservatives who claim polls in general are biased and cannot be trusted. Similar to their dismissal of fact-checkers who flagged lies in Romney’s ads and Paul Ryan’s convention speech, conservatives are now claiming the media outlets that conduct the polls are attempting to discourage Republicans from voting by falsely tipping the polls toward Democrats.

Helping this narrative along is a new website, Unskewed Polls, which claims, after liberal media bias is removed, Romney is in fact beating Obama by a wide margin in every poll. Business Insider unpacked how the website is manipulating data to come up with a Romney victory.

Nicknamed “poll sample truthers” by Dave Weigel, the skeptics are falling over each other to explain how the numbers are lying.

Over at the Juice, the boss notes that there's a method to this madness:

So, I have three theories why they have decided to avoid polling data:

Theory #1- Victimhood is so much easier and far more soothing than objective reality. They can scream about how every polling outlet is against them and affirm the “left wing bias” of the media. Ed Henry and Chris Wallace are giggling right now.

Theory #2- They know they are going to lose, so they are just poisoning the well, trying to nullify the impact of an Obama victory. For Republicans, this is a viable strategy. For Democrats. this seems kind of silly, since anyone with a pulse knows that Jim Demint and the teahadists are going to spend the next four years sabotaging Obama regardless, much like they have for the past four years.

Finally, there is option #3- the point of claiming the polls are wrong is to provide cover for Republican governors to throw the election.

I'm going to go even more long ball on this and put forth a bigger game on Theory 4, (expanding on Cole's Theory 2 only on steroids):  Polls were wrong, Obama is the one who stole the election, he should probably be impeached, and replaced with someone who will sign an extremely strict national voter disenfranchisement ID law, or if he survives the impeachment, he should be made to sign such a law ahead of 2016 under heavy pressure.

#1 makes the most sense, but it's too small.  #2 makes nearly as much sense, but again, it's thinking too small.  #3 has the most short term reward, but given many conservatives hate Romney, I'm not thinking they want to risk such an obvious plot (unless it's to make the race close enough for in one or two states to require multiple recounts in order to continue to pound at the "voter fraud" issue, see my above theory.)  Then again, there's SCOTUS to consider.

Anyway, regardless of who wins in November, I fully expect Republicans to institute nationalized voter suppression laws.  Count on it.  The long term viability of the GOP depends on restricting the vote as much as possible to wealthier, older, white voters and both sides know it.

Trouble Right Here In River City

Turns out that roadblock kerfuffle in Erlanger near the NKY airport during the President's motorcade last week here in Cincinnati was a lot more serious than the local cops let on.

A federal criminal complaint unsealed in Covington on Wednesday says Kerry T. Prater of West Liberty had three weapons and at least 500 rounds of ammunition when he ran through an Erlanger police roadblock on Sept. 17. Obama's motorcade passed through northern Kentucky that day on the way to Cincinnati.

The complaint, written by Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms Agent Ronald Young, says Prater has a lengthy criminal history and had been previously declared mentally ill.

Awesome.  And this jackass came all the way down from West Liberty, 2 hours away.

Young wrote that police erected the roadblock that afternoon. Air Force One landed at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Airport in Hebron, Ky., about 16 miles south of Cincinnati.

The suspect ran through the roadblock and was forced off the road by an Erlanger police officer, Young wrote.

"Prater refused to exit the vehicle and (the officer) removed him from the vehicle," Young wrote.

After Prater was out of the car, the police officer saw a partially concealed .38 caliber revolver on the front passenger floorboard, Young wrote. The officer then found a .223 caliber rifle hidden under a towel on the rear floorboard with four loaded magazines and 500 additional rounds of ammunition, Young wrote.

A search of Prater's car turned up a third revolver as well, Young wrote.

Remind me to buy that Erlanger cop who ran this clown off the road a cold one.  Here's a guy who has a history of harassment and mental illness, and was told by a judge that he couldn't carry firearms because of his previous troubles with the law.  So how'd he get 3 firearms and 500 rounds of ammo?

C'mon people, I live here.  It's gorram Kentucky.

Jackassenegger

Arnold Schwarzenegger says his estranged wife Maria Shriver confronted him about his secret love child during a couple's therapy session and that she'd suspected for years ... according to his new book ... but the good news -- Arnold assured Maria he was still "turned on" by her.

In the book, obtained by the New York Daily News, Arnold says Maria took him to couple's therapy in 2011 -- the day after her left the California governorship.   He believed he was there for routine marriage counseling -- instead, Maria asked him point blank if he slept with the maid and spawned a love child years before. 

What a jerk.  What an absolute rotten, clueless son of a bitch.

"So yeah, you caught me, I'm sorry I devastated you and broke your heart, and embarrassed you again in front of the entire nation.  But hey, I still think you're hot so that makes us cool, right?"