NY Times wrote:Illinois Supreme Court Halts Printing of Chicago Mayoral Ballots Without Emanuel’s Name

Illinois - it's like Rhode Island, with more people

Sad stuff

For the second year in a row, the U.S. military has lost more troops to suicide than it has to combat in Iraq and Afghanistan.

http://www.congress.org/news/2011/01/24 ... to_suicide

Wizlah wrote:the lebanon

I always found it weird that Euros call it "The Lebanon" -- which I didn't know until The Human League released a song by that name. It sounds as odd as Californians using "the" in front of interstate numbers. ("The 5," "The 405," etc.)

pacino wrote:Did anyone happen to notice that Bachmann is giving a response to the SOTU address??? When Paul Ryan is already the official Republican responder?? WTF???

She's so running for president. IF she won the nomination, and not Mitch Daniels, would jerseyhoya and werthless go crazy?

I assume it'll be more of a Tea Party response than GOP. Perhaps the Tea Party is being ambitious, trying to position itself to run its own candidate for potus in 2012.


Edit: Yes, it is a Tea Party response

CNN has decided to air her speech.

Both parties are equally upset about that decision.

wouldnt a tea party presidential candidate create a schism with conservatives and essentially lose them the presidential race?

heck Id imagine it would be worse than Nader

kopphanatic wrote:CNN has decided to air her speech.

Both parties are equally upset about that decision.

That's what happens when there is a third party.

My history teacher was going on about Glenn Beck about how he is the real leader of the republican party, how George Soros is buying up all of our oil in the Gulf Coast, how Obama was taught by professors at Columbia that are specifically designing a plan to overthrow the capitalist system in America, and that the Russians have a machine capable of creating an Earthquake with the San Andreas fault.

I'm not kidding. Kill me.

Also wants to get rid of the Amtrack and the Postal Service. There's more, my brain just hasn't recovered from it's explosion yet.

The kind of statement that makes Nate Silver all the more worth listening to:

Most people — unfortunately for FiveThirtyEight’s traffic numbers — pay very little attention to politics between election campaigns.

The Nightman Cometh wrote:My history teacher was going on about Glenn Beck about how he is the real leader of the republican party, how George Soros is buying up all of our oil in the Gulf Coast, how Obama was taught by professors at Columbia that are specifically designing a plan to overthrow the capitalist system in America, and that the Russians have a machine capable of creating an Earthquake with the San Andreas fault.

I'm not kidding. Kill me.

You should've asked, "Is this going to be on the test?"

TenuredVulture wrote:

The Nightman Cometh wrote:My history teacher was going on about Glenn Beck about how he is the real leader of the republican party, how George Soros is buying up all of our oil in the Gulf Coast, how Obama was taught by professors at Columbia that are specifically designing a plan to overthrow the capitalist system in America, and that the Russians have a machine capable of creating an Earthquake with the San Andreas fault.

I'm not kidding. Kill me.

You should've asked, "Is this going to be on the test?"

That's an example of why our local college is less amenable to seniors auditing classes. With that kind of independence, the professor is likely to be asked whether he really feels it was a good idea to go off his meds.

The Crimson Cyclone wrote:wouldnt a tea party presidential candidate create a schism with conservatives and essentially lose them the presidential race?

a la Ross Perot

The Nightman Cometh wrote:My history teacher was going on about Glenn Beck about how he is the real leader of the republican party, how George Soros is buying up all of our oil in the Gulf Coast, how Obama was taught by professors at Columbia that are specifically designing a plan to overthrow the capitalist system in America, and that the Russians have a machine capable of creating an Earthquake with the San Andreas fault.

Actually, that last one is true...

kopphanatic wrote:CNN has decided to air her speech.

Both parties are equally upset about that decision.

This has the makings of a drinking game...

cshort wrote:

The Crimson Cyclone wrote:wouldnt a tea party presidential candidate create a schism with conservatives and essentially lose them the presidential race?

a la Ross Perot

I feel like I read that research debunked this one--take away Perot and Clinton still wins that election, with an outright majority no less.

Which makes sense if you think about it. With the arguable exception of 2004 (which I consider to be one of the great political accomplishments of all time, btw), a presidential election with an incumbent is usually a referendum on that incumbent. You probably decided not to vote for Bush41 before you chose between Clinton and Perot.

dajafi wrote:

cshort wrote:

The Crimson Cyclone wrote:wouldnt a tea party presidential candidate create a schism with conservatives and essentially lose them the presidential race?

a la Ross Perot

I feel like I read that research debunked this one--take away Perot and Clinton still wins that election, with an outright majority no less.

Which makes sense if you think about it. With the arguable exception of 2004 (which I consider to be one of the great political accomplishments of all time, btw), a presidential election with an incumbent is usually a referendum on that incumbent. You probably decided not to vote for Bush41 before you chose between Clinton and Perot.

You're right. I just did a quick google search and it's a popular misconception. Wiki mentions that he took the same amount of votes from Bush and Clinton.

Exit polls also showed that Ross Perot drew 38% of his vote from Bush, and 38% of his vote from Clinton, while the rest of his voters would have stayed home had he not been on the ballot.

I really don't feel like watching the SOTU address. But I feel I must on the off chance a student asks me a question about it tomorrow in class.

Just have the students hold an open forum debate about it and stand to the side nodding sagely.