3rd UK minister quits, calls for PM Brown to resign

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Thursday June 04, 2009 · 4:02 PM PDT

2009/06/04 · 16:02

The pressure on UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown to resign is mounting. After the resignations of Home Secretary Jacqui Smith because of her links to the parliamentary expenses scandal on Tuesday and Communities Secretary Hazel Blears on Wednesday, Works and Pensions Secretary James Purnell has now also announced his resignation.

Purnell doesn't hold back in his resignation letter:

I now believe your continued leadership makes a Conservative victory more, not less likely. That would be disastrous for our country. I am therefore calling on you to stand aside to give our party a fighting chance of winning. As such I am resigning from government.

Calouste

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Tuesday May 19, 2009 · 4:18 AM PDT

2009/05/19 · 04:18

MSNBC reports that RNC chairman Michael Steele is going to make a speech tomorrow to the state party chairmen, in which he will look forward to the future:

The era of apologizing for Republican mistakes of the past is now officially over. It is done,

So running the economy into the ground and being involved in two quagmire wars? Seems that's business as usual and we'll just have to suck that up.

We have turned the page, we have turned the corner. No more looking in the rearview mirror.

Will Steele say, as he will refer to Ronald Reagan just a few sentences later. Maybe they really do have plans to resurrect St. Ronnie.

Calouste

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Saturday May 16, 2009 · 12:05 AM PDT

2009/05/16 · 00:05

Tonight I read a post by DougJ at balloon-juice, who linked to a post by Matt Yglesias at Thinkprogress complaining about a post by Julie Gunlock on the National Review. (that's a lot of blogospheric navelgazing, but bear with me).

So what does Julie Gunlock, a former Republican congressional staffer who is now on the wingnut welfare circuit, complain about?

Let's just quote Matt:

Julie Gunlock complains at NRO that "food snobs" are ruining America by serving unduly fancy food at soup kitchens. It’s actually rare that conservatives get to combined their hatred of poor people with their hatred of "cultural elites" in a single argument, so Gunlock gets so busy dishing out the sarcasm that she can’t quite seem to deliver the "so what?" point where we see who is being harmed by this alleged trend.

Calouste

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Wednesday May 06, 2009 · 7:07 PM PDT

2009/05/06 · 19:07

Via thinkprogress

Graham said. "My hope is that our Democratic colleagues — if you start listening to the bloggers — if we’re going to let the bloggers run the country, then the country’s best days are behind us."

Yes, heaven forbid that bloggers, or the ~~serfs~~ people actually have some influence in America rather than the aristocracy in Washington. Senator Graham, aren't Senators elected to represent and serve their constituents? Or is this how we can expect the listening tour of the GOP to go? You tour, but you won't listen to people, because listening to people will put the best days of the country behind us.

On the other hand, Sarah Palin was originally pushed by a blogger, so maybe Sen. Graham has a point.

But seriously, in other countries I have lived politicians were actually concerned about getting voters more interested in politics, even though far higher percentages of elligible voters actually vote.

But as we all know, having more people involved in politics and voting is really bad for the Republican party and the upper class.

Peanut industry to lose $1B after salmonella recall: businesses should want more regulation

Calouste

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Thursday March 12, 2009 · 10:14 AM PDT

2009/03/12 · 10:14

Remember the peanut butter recall?

One small company, Peanut Corp of America, with 90 employees and a $25 million turnover decided to save some dollars by skipping on required maintenance and using contaminated peanuts that should have been thrown away. As a result, nine people died from salmonella poisoning and more than 600 got ill. That is where regulation would have been in the interest of consumers. And of course proper inspection and implementation of the regulations, and not deliberately trying to wreck the agencies by cutting their budgets and putting anti-regulation ideologues in important positions, like the Bush administration did.

Calouste

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Friday October 31, 2008 · 1:28 AM PDT

2008/10/31 · 01:28

The last in the PPP polls tonight and it is a big one. Obama is ahead 58-41 (note the low number of undecideds) in a state Bush won in 2004.

56% of the respondent have already voted and Obama is up 64-36. He also leads 66-28 among independents.

As all the PPP polls released tonight, the sample is fairly big, 1537 in this case.

A complete round up of tonights PPP polls is below the fold.

Calouste

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Thursday October 30, 2008 · 2:24 PM PDT

2008/10/30 · 14:24

There is a myth doing the rounds in liberal circles that the Republicans collude with oil companies to manipulate gas in the run up to the elections to favor the Republicans. This however is manifestly untrue.

See for example the gas prices for the two months before and after the 2004 elections:

Sep 06, 2004 181.5
Sep 13, 2004 181.3
Sep 20, 2004 183.9
Sep 27, 2004 189.5
Oct 04, 2004 190.2
Oct 11, 2004 194.9
Oct 18, 2004 198.4
Oct 25, 2004 198
Nov 01, 2004 198.6
Nov 08, 2004 195.1
Nov 15, 2004 191.8
Nov 22, 2004 190.1
Nov 29, 2004 190.3
Dec 06, 2004 186.8
Dec 13, 2004 179.9
Dec 20, 2004 177.7
Dec 27, 2004 175.4

(Weekly U.S. Regular Conventional Retail Gasoline Prices (Cents per Gallon))

Source: Department of Energy (numerous Excel sheets available. These number are from the "Regular" spreadsheet.

Calouste

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Wednesday October 22, 2008 · 1:58 AM PDT

2008/10/22 · 01:58

As the Politico reported yesterday, the RNC has spend around $150,000 on clothes and accessories for Sarah Palin and her family. Note that Sarah Palin didn't spend her own money on all these fancy clothes and jewellery, it was someone else's money. And who's money was it? YOUR money. If you have contributed to the McCain-Palin campaign, it was your money. But as the McCain-Palin campaign has accepted public financing, it wasn't only campaign donors' money. It was also taxpayers' money. YOUR money.

Calouste

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Friday October 17, 2008 · 6:05 PM PDT

2008/10/17 · 18:05

Via ABC

Well, another relatively sane conservative trying to escape from the vortex of bigotry, fascism and pure lunacy that McCain-Palin have created.

Embattled Republican Sen. Susan Collins is calling on Sen. John McCain to stop paying for automated phone calls which describe Sen. Barack Obama as having "worked closely" with "domestic terrorist Bill Ayers."

"These kind of tactics have no place in Maine politics," said Collins spokesman Kevin Kelley. "Sen. Collins urges the McCain campaign to stop these calls immediately."

Of course Collins is in a re-election battle and would like to limit the damage. How much success that will have, considering she is the co-chair of the McCain campaign in Maine, still has to be seen.

Calouste

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Tuesday October 14, 2008 · 12:59 AM PDT

2008/10/14 · 00:59

Just when people are getting frustrated with the limited traction that the troopergate report and Palin's 100% lying denial of it gets, out comes some news from Alaska via Anchorage Daily News

The state Personnel Board investigation of Gov. Sarah Palin's firing of Walt Monegan has broadened to include other ethics complaints against the governor and examination of actions by other state employees, according to the independent counsel handling the case.

Two other ethics complaints involving Palin are known. One, by activist Andree McLeod, alleges that state hiring practices were circumvented for a Palin supporter. The case is not related to Monegan's firing. The other, by the Public Safety Employees Association, alleges that trooper Mike Wooten's personnel file was illegally breached by state officials. John Cyr, the PSEA executive director, said Monday the union plans to amend its complaint to be sure the board investigates "harassment" of Wooten as well.

Calouste

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Saturday October 11, 2008 · 9:50 PM PDT

2008/10/11 · 21:50

7/11 allows customers to pick either a blue Obama or a red McCain cup (or a white uncommitted cup) when ordering coffee. They have done this in 2000 and 2004 as well and claim their results were within 1 percent for the national vote, and within a few percent in most states.

At the moment Obama is ahead 59-41, and the only states McCain is winning (although most of the South and the Plains don't have results yet) are New Hampshire and West Virginia. McCain is even behind in Texas, Utah, Kansas, Arizona and Idaho, in Texas even by a 20 point margin. In Indiana he is behind by 30 points. On the other hand, New York is 52-48 at the moment, so don't start betting using these numbers yet.

While of course not a scientific poll, 7-11 does sell 1 million cups a week, so their results will definitely indicate trendlines. Or maybe McCain supporters are just embarrassed to be seen with a red cup?

Results at www.7-election.com

Nice blue picture below the fold.

Poll

216 votes Show Results

What about your morning coffee?

216 votes Vote Now!

What about your morning coffee?

Brew it at home

113 votes

In the office

18 votes

7-11

14 votes

Starbucks

24 votes

Tea please

32 votes

Only with pie

15 votes

Huckabee: This bailout is insanity

Calouste

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Thursday September 25, 2008 · 8:41 PM PDT

2008/09/25 · 20:41

From The Moderate Voice

Mike Huckabee has sent out an email to his supporters with his opinions about the bailout, and it is very clear why he was never an option for the business wing of the Republican party: he lays into the Paulson bailout plan like a socialist

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3rd UK minister quits, calls for PM Brown to resign

More delusions and laughter from Michael Steele

Creative chef runs gourmet soup kitchen on $40/month; wingnut says it needs bailout [upd]

Lindsey Graham: Bloggers will ruin America

Peanut industry to lose $1B after salmonella recall: businesses should want more regulation

Thar she blows!: Obama +17 in New Mexico poll

The myth of buying the elections with cheap gas

Palin bought $150K of clothes with YOUR money

Susan Collins (R-ME) tells McCain to stop robo-calls

Breaking: "Troopergate probe casts wider net"

7-11 coffee cup poll: Obama up by 18%

Huckabee: This bailout is insanity