Among her other talents, Libby has just proven adept at scaring Hell out of the deer who chomp my little trees. That doe cleared a three-foot fence with at least three feet to spare, and I bet she's still running.
Fresh rawhide chewy for you, Little Miss.
Jun 26, 2011
Sunday Morning Observation
Eight business suits is too many. Finding long-forgotten funeral cards in two of them is depressing. So is the wedding program for people I didn't even like. Triage is underway.
Further, I'll probably never get around to glung the sole back on the two-tone Sperry Topsiders. Out.
The Pendleton shirt needs dry cleaning.
Essentially, all this constitutes a recommendation against tidying up closets unless you're already grumpy. Why waste a good mood?
Further, I'll probably never get around to glung the sole back on the two-tone Sperry Topsiders. Out.
The Pendleton shirt needs dry cleaning.
Essentially, all this constitutes a recommendation against tidying up closets unless you're already grumpy. Why waste a good mood?
Jun 24, 2011
Turkeys in the straw (also Ron Paul)
If you like politics or political theatre it's time now to refresh your memory by heading over to the Wiki entry on the Ames Straw Poll.
It's a fund raiser for the Iowa GOP, but for a a couple of days on either side of Aug. 13, the world's media will treat it like the Oracle of Delphi.
Some bulletins from the initial skirmishing:
Ron Paul shelled out $31,000 for the most expensive tent site outside Hilton Coliseum. It is the same ground Mitt Romney used to win the straw poll and then cleverly lose the caucus race four years ago.
A candidate who wanted to remain secret wadded all the stepins at the tent auction in state GOP headquarters. The other candidate representatives stalked out in protest, and Congressman Thaddeus McCotter of Michigan then agreed to lift his veil. (Editorial comment: I doubt keeping his candidacy secret will greatly challenge Mr. McCotter. Nevertheless, he is being added to your crucial TMR candidate list.)
---
It costs $30 to vote in the poll, plus money to get your people from Manly and Fertile* to Ames. The Paul campaign has offered fork over $20 of the poll tax and is running some buses from the outlying provinces to Ames. It's a big bet by Paul forces that he can show well enough that CNN quits calling him crazy.
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*Real places, and we like remembering the headline in a weekly which said "Manly Man Marries Fertile Woman."
It's a fund raiser for the Iowa GOP, but for a a couple of days on either side of Aug. 13, the world's media will treat it like the Oracle of Delphi.
Some bulletins from the initial skirmishing:
Ron Paul shelled out $31,000 for the most expensive tent site outside Hilton Coliseum. It is the same ground Mitt Romney used to win the straw poll and then cleverly lose the caucus race four years ago.
A candidate who wanted to remain secret wadded all the stepins at the tent auction in state GOP headquarters. The other candidate representatives stalked out in protest, and Congressman Thaddeus McCotter of Michigan then agreed to lift his veil. (Editorial comment: I doubt keeping his candidacy secret will greatly challenge Mr. McCotter. Nevertheless, he is being added to your crucial TMR candidate list.)
---
It costs $30 to vote in the poll, plus money to get your people from Manly and Fertile* to Ames. The Paul campaign has offered fork over $20 of the poll tax and is running some buses from the outlying provinces to Ames. It's a big bet by Paul forces that he can show well enough that CNN quits calling him crazy.
---
*Real places, and we like remembering the headline in a weekly which said "Manly Man Marries Fertile Woman."
No, it's probably not a conspiracy of silence
I think the AP report on its own hot poll just reflects a headline mindset that that only the most fashionable candidates rate a mention. In this case that excluded Ron Paul from newsthink.
A fresh AP/GfK poll attempted to measure the favorability/unfavorability ratings of the "top" ten GOP candidates, and Paul was included. The writer assigned to turn the poll into publishable words didn't think Paul's showing was newsworthy. The good doctor didn't rate even a nod.
The more detailed report -- unpublishable in general news files -- tells a different story. In total favorability ratings, Paul beats everyone in the field except Romney. He beats Bachmann, Palin, Gingrich and the rest of the headliners.
Not surprisingly, he fares more poorly in the unfavorable category -- beating "only" Gingrich, Palin, and, err, Romney. Twenty-one years of being snickered at folks who talk on the electric teevee channels will do that to a guy.
Caution: Polling geekery alert:
The news report in the first cite above uses numbers different from the raw poll results. The narrative story deals with favorability ratings among Republicans only, while the data in the second covers opinions of all people polled. The number-crunching methodology to get from one to the other isn't reported. There's nothing necessarily sinister in that, and it doesn't alter the point that the news story contains a large black hole.
A fresh AP/GfK poll attempted to measure the favorability/unfavorability ratings of the "top" ten GOP candidates, and Paul was included. The writer assigned to turn the poll into publishable words didn't think Paul's showing was newsworthy. The good doctor didn't rate even a nod.
The more detailed report -- unpublishable in general news files -- tells a different story. In total favorability ratings, Paul beats everyone in the field except Romney. He beats Bachmann, Palin, Gingrich and the rest of the headliners.
Not surprisingly, he fares more poorly in the unfavorable category -- beating "only" Gingrich, Palin, and, err, Romney. Twenty-one years of being snickered at folks who talk on the electric teevee channels will do that to a guy.
Caution: Polling geekery alert:
The news report in the first cite above uses numbers different from the raw poll results. The narrative story deals with favorability ratings among Republicans only, while the data in the second covers opinions of all people polled. The number-crunching methodology to get from one to the other isn't reported. There's nothing necessarily sinister in that, and it doesn't alter the point that the news story contains a large black hole.
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