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The US update

Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Zogby's polling suggests that the best VP candidate for Obama is Colin Powell, with him delivering a net positive of 32% more likely to vote Dem, compared to a net 5% for Hillary Clinton. Bill Richardson is the only other to give a net boost, at 5%. Evan Bayh, Kathleen Sebelius and Tim Kaine (who?) are net negative of 4-6%. I suspect that the Powell effect is exagerrated due to a reluctance on the part of pollees to snub an all black ticket. Given that CP would not run for the Big One, I doubt he would want to be the younger man's spear carrier, as after all, 'The vice-presidency isn't worth a pitcher of warm [urine]' as John Nance Garner once put it.

Over at GOP HQ, McCain's best bets are Romney at +15% and Huckabee at +14%. Joe Lieberman does little at +3%. Others are net negative.

Given past presidential elections in my lifetime, I would not be surprised if the VP candidates come as surprises come convention time.

As to the electoral college, the very wonderful Electoral College site (it helped me win a few sucker bets on Bush last time) aggregates state polls and has OB at 207 strong to JM's 83 strong. Including weak and barely, it comes out at 292 OB, 219 JM, with 27 dead heats. 270 are needed for the brass ring. Geographically OB has the West Coast, NE, Great Lakes bar Ohio plus Hawaii, Montana, Colorado and New Mexico. McCain has the South and the Mid-West / Rockies bar MT, CO and NM. Indiana and Pennsylvania are worth 32 votes and are weak for OB, while Florida and North Carolina (42) are weak McCain.

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Oh (mountain) mama...

Friday, July 04, 2008
For your edification, I present a map of teeth preservation by US state:

And the most toothless state in the Union, by a country mile, is West Virginia - 42.8% of over 65s have had all their gnashers removed. The western side of the Appalachians would appear to be the place to be a dentist, as Kentucky and Tennessee are second and third. Alabama, Louisiana and Oklahoma round out the top six, all at 30%+. At the other end of the scale are Connecticut, Utah (remember The Osmonds?) and California.

West Virginians also ate all the moon pies, with 61.2% overweight / obese. Bottom is DC at 50.2%. Conversely, West Virginians must be too busy eating to drink, as they are last for heavy drinking. I would call them lightweights, but... Way out on the edges of Lake Michigan lurk the United Kingdom's drinking partners, with the Cheeseheads of Wisconsin leading for both heavy drinking and binge drinking.

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Research finding of the week

Tuesday, June 17, 2008
From the Chicago Tribune:

"Drivers of cars with bumper stickers, window decals, personalized license plates and other "territorial markers" not only get mad when someone cuts into their lane or is slow to respond to a traffic light, they also are far more likely than others to use their vehicles to express rage —by honking, tailgating and other aggressive behavior".

What's more, sticker content has no bearing on the level of aggression etc etc, so transferring the findings to these parts, one is as likely to get hooted at by Save the Whales / Baby on Board types as much as 'Don't follow me, follow Generic FC' sticker sporters.

I cannot think of any car sticker equivalent of those carried by American right wingers. Maybe we feel less of a need to display something we already know and nobody else cares about, or more likely there is the prospect of some freedom-loving Socialist key-ing the paint work.

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John McCain wins Amman South

Friday, June 13, 2008
As in Amman, the capital of Jordan. Pew Global has asked the world's citizenry which candidate it has the greater confidence in, and McCain wins in Jordan. Obama would win everywhere else, with France and Tanzania the most enthused by the Illinois senator. That Obama would not have un flocon's chance in Hell of winning any elected office in France seems to have passed France by, but never mind....

In other findings, the French and the Japanese are the most likely to think granting the Olympics to Beijing a bad thing (55%) . Rather disgustingly, we Britons think it a good thing, by 50% to 38%. The mouth-breathing 12% presumably did not know what the question meant.

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There goes the no claim bonus...

Wednesday, June 11, 2008
News from across the Atlantic of stationery cupboard pillaging and the like:

"Nearly one in five (19 percent) workers report they have taken office supplies for personal use in the past year...Of those who admit to having stolen office supplies, only 22 percent felt guilty or regretted the act, despite 74 percent of workers feeling it is wrong to do so". I would think that there can be precious few people in these parts who do not have the odd biro that they picked up at the ranch and 'forgot' to take back.

So far so fairly hum-drum , but here's the more arresting bit:

"eight percent of workers admit to having taken higher priced items such as laptops, PDAs or cell phones, an increase from three percent last year". If employers do not notice laptops walking out of the door, one might reckon that they almost deserve inflated insurance premiums.

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Figure of speech o' the week

Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Made by a Puerto Rican addressing the UN's Special Committee on Decolonisation:

"The Puerto Rican people could no longer tolerate that consideration of their self-determination be “parked in a corner of chimeras” by the General Assembly".

I was tempted to report on the debate, but if I say it was initiated by Cuba and Venezuela, readers will find joining the dots pretty straightforward.

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Obama was beaten to it by years

Wednesday, June 04, 2008
Not by Alan Keyes, nor yet Jesse Jackson. And it was a fair while back too - Louis Jordan had a tilt in 1952.

Regrettably, 'Jordan for President' is not on youtube, but I can offer up an audio extract of his campaign.

And, courtesy of Guido van Rijn's 'The Truman and Eisenhower Blues' (Contiunuum, 2004), the lyrics and a campaign photograph:

spoken: All right, folks of this strivin' community:
If I'm elected your President,
Every Sunday evening at two-thirty,
I'll entertain all your kiddies on the White House lawn.
spoken: All right, folks: if you send me to Washington as your leader,
I'll personally see to it that every living American gets his portion, (after I get mine.)
spoken: All right, folks: we all are worrying about the coming election,
But you know, folks, we gotta make the proper selection.
And I wanna get all you people straight about all the candidates:
Now, if you want a man with a good offer,
Then cast your ballot for Kefauver.
And you can rest and be assured,
You'll get no graft from Taft.
But if you want administration that will groove you,
That will move you, and keep you sent:
Vote for Jordan for President!
That's me, folks, on the swing ticket
Now, if you want to get the military bit straight,
We all know that MacArthur would be great
And if you want a hipster, that'll take no sassin', Then vote for Stassen.
But if you want to walk on the sunny side of the street,
With a candidate with a beat,
Vote for Jordan for President!
That's right folks!
You know, folks, I ain't runnin' no chicken in the pot campaign:
Everybody's gonna drink champagne!
And in every city I'm gonna install a rhythm committee.
(Pass out them cigars there, boy!)
And on my birthday everybody in the USA is gonna get new shoes,
We're goin' dancin', nobody will get the blues.
No longer will I be on a phonograph record:
I'm gonna be on Congressional Record!
If you want the man of the hour,
Then vote for Eisenhower.
And, ladies and gentlemen:
Don't sit there and sob,
'Cause Truman don't want the job.
But if you want a candidate that's real cool,
Don't vote for the elephant or the mule?
Vote for me! Vote for Jordan for President!
Folks, if you send me to the White House,
we all will serve - time!
Vote for Jordan for president!
I'll put everybody on Relief!
 Vote for Jordan for President!
If you wanna hustle with Russell, go ahead!
Vote for Jordan for President!
Folks, if you stick with me, I’ll put everybody in the race!
Vote for Jordan for President! Write in for me, folks!"



I've seen people get elected on worse platforms....


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Burning our money - US edition

Monday, June 02, 2008
From the Washington Post:

"A vast government effort to bring oysters back to the Chesapeake Bay has turned out so dismally that it has the ring of a math-class riddle. How do you spend $58 million to get more of something and wind up with less of it?... Instead, official estimates show there are fewer oysters in the bay and fewer oystermen trying to catch them".

And let's give a big hand for the most feeble attempt at weaseling seen so far this year:

"I wouldn't use the word 'failure.' We obviously have not achieved the restoration response that we had hoped for," said Thomas O'Connell, director of the Maryland state fisheries service".

And in response, Ronald the Great:


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Words fail me. Almost

Friday, May 30, 2008
Verity having pointed out the following "Hans Christian Andersen is the spitting image of a 19th Century British writer but I can't think who. Maybe George Elliott ... or one of the Brontes. Or someone else. But he is the spitting image of someone", I have been sniffing around the internet in search of the match. No luck so far, but look what I've found:


Why, yes - it is the Jane Austen action figure, as sold by the Library of Congress thusly:

"Jane Austen was one of the greatest English novelists in history. Despite a rather sheltered life, she was able to capture the subtleties of human interaction so perfectly that her novels continue to be immensely popular to this day. This 5-1/4" tall, hard vinyl action figure comes with a book (Pride & Prejudice) and a writing desk with removable quill pen!"

Yours for $8.50.

Other writers available are Poe - "with a hauntingly pale complexion and a removable plastic raven" and Shakespeare. Nominations for the accoutrements that would suit other writers, should they be immortalised in hard vinyl, are welcome - Solzhenitsyn's foot cloths maybe or De Quincey's laudanum bottle.

However, it would be selfish of me not to point out the star attraction:

"If you just can't get enough of the Dewey decimals or if you go bananas for books, chances are you have a Librarian Action Figure. Nancy Pearl's likeness made history as the best selling Librarian Action Figure of all time".


Looks like Nancy can move her arms but lower body movement would appear to be beyond her.

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Non-partisan fun for all the family

Saturday, May 24, 2008
The American Worst Political Advertising Awards:

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And if we had been asked about the theft of Northern Rock....

Wednesday, April 02, 2008
"The results of a Zogby Interactive poll...show 68% of those surveyed were opposed to federal bailouts for ailing Wall Street financial firms holding soured mortgage portfolios....A majority, 54%, said they also did not support government assistance for the tens of thousands of Americans who are facing foreclosure on their homes. A minority, 43%, of those polled said the government should help distressed homeowners who could lose their properties to foreclosure".

As to "the 25% of those canvassed believ[ing] that the government should help financial firms struggling to manage hefty losses", I am reminded of this classic from Catch 22:

"Major Major's father was a sober God-fearing man whose idea of a good joke was to lie about his age. He was a long-limbed farmer, a God-fearing, freedom-loving, law-abiding rugged individualist who held that federal aid to anyone but farmers was creeping socialism".

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Hillary in Sarajevo - new footage

Friday, March 28, 2008


All very impressive, but apparently she would be prepared to exit NAFTA if 'reforms' she seeks are not accepted.

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When politicians go bad

Thursday, March 27, 2008
Like this character in Nevada:




Think, maybe, she has her eye on prospective political advantage or, perchance, a lawsuit?

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Arnie sacks Clint

Wednesday, March 26, 2008
"The governor has said that he decided not to reappoint [Clint Eastwood], who [was] first named to the Park and Recreation Commission in 2001 by then-Gov. Gray Davis and reappointed by Schwarzenegger in 2004. He said [his] terms had expired and he wanted to give others a chance to serve". Source

Still, as the actor (not the former film star...) put it, "The parks is a voluntary job, and it's just a job you do, when they need you. It was fun. . . . They make changes, and that's their prerogative. It's not like I need a day job".

Rather unnervingly, Clint Eastwood will be 78 this year, and the Governator 61.

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Light relief

Thursday, March 20, 2008
The wit of Ronald the Great:



With thanks to Justin for IM-ing me the link.

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A germane comment from Ms Greer

Monday, March 10, 2008
"I can't see that Hillary would appeal to feminists because, why is she there? She is there because she is Bill's wife, and it's a bit useless to pretend, 'Oh, it's because of her wonderful job as a senator', and all that," she said. I just don't think it's true. When she had a big job in government, she blew it."

"I don't like Hillary because she's so bossy and cold and manipulative and stuff".

Amen sister. More here.

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The 'hotline' that is really a tepidline

Friday, February 29, 2008
The hotline between the White House and the Kremlin was a cartoon / popular fiction staple for decades, not that I suppose it has even been dusted in living memory, but the Chinese have decided that they want a link to Uncle Sam too.

Not grotesquely inappropriate, but note this sequence of events:

"The two sides reached consensus to set up the hotline during US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates' visit to China in November 2007"


....


And today: "China and the United States officially signed here on Friday an agreement on setting up a military hotline between the two defense departments".

There you have it - a need so pressing that it has taken two months to sign on the dotted line.

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I Can't Believe It's Not Macedonia!

Friday, February 15, 2008
Which is not much sillier than the US State Department's suggestion for a Skopje / Athens friendly name - New Republic of Macedonia. I am not making this up.

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A thousand years ago...

I headlined a comment on 'collaboration' between NASA and the British National Space Centre as 'The union of a dog with its fleas'. Yes, and here it is.

Anyway, the BNSC is still getting quite excited about hanging with the big boys, "This joint report between the UK and NASA, coupled with the UK's major role in ESA's Aurora programme of planetary exploration and our involvement in helping to shape a Global Exploration Strategy, means the UK is fully exploiting and strategically maximising its technological and scientific strengths in space exploration".

Doubtless. However, a measure of how important the BNSC is to NASA can be found here. Yup, it is a search of the NASA news site that throws up precisely no entries for BNSC. I tried searching the full name, both with Centre and, ugh, Center, and there are no entries for 2008.....

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Winning hearts and minds. Very slowly.

Tuesday, February 05, 2008
Harvard's Centre for European Studies invited Ségolène Royal to address an audience on the topic of 'Rebuilding the European left'. And.....

...the address was made to "about 50 students and some lecturers".

I realise they are a serious-minded bunch in Cambridge, MA, and so would not be impressed by Sego's star quality. Unless, unless - it was because she was speaking in French maybe?

The abstract suggests that all she had to say was a daisy chain of clichés, so not much was missed.


Sticking with matters Gallic, just to show that I do not only mock goings-on Outremanche, here are some headline findings from a survey that puts the British political class to shame:

"70% of French people have met their mayor, 12% just the once, and 58% several times".

Lest one thinks this is all down to folk living in small communes, note this: "92% of the French living in rural communes (2000 inhabitants or fewer) have met their mayor, compared to 58% in communes of 100,000 or more".


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