E-day.

Election Day. Considering how I spent Election Day eve — covering a three-and-a-half-hour school board meeting, because with 20 students in my public-affairs journalism class, of course every single one wasn’t available last night — I don’t have much for you folks to chew on. But may I make an off-site suggestion?

Stop by the Michigan Truth Squad site, and savor what we’ve been dealing with here for the last month. And we didn’t even get to all of them. But there’s Debbie Spend-it-now (video now scrubbed from the internet) and Lookalike Mitt and Rhetorical Question-fest.

Me, I’m off to the polls. But you have a fresh thread to pile up in.

Posted at 9:09 am in Current events |
 

49 responses to “E-day.”

  1. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on February 28, 2012 at 9:19 am

    Kid Rock. Mitt Romney. Okay, then.

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  2. brian stouder said on February 28, 2012 at 9:31 am

    So last night, as Pam and Shelby and I watched The Voice*, Grant (the 16 year old) came down the hall and said “Dad, you gotta see this”.

    He was watching the delayed Daytona 500, and he says this with some regularity, especially when a race is on (or if he’s watching “Inside the Music” on MTV, or if Larry the Cable Guy is on, etc etc) and I was just beginning to wonder whether I should get up, when he said that Juan Montoya had smashed into a jet dryer on the race track. Huh? Wha?

    The track was under a yellow flag for “debris”, and the blower truck was at the top edge of the track, cleaning the track. Juan Montoya, in a snazzy Target-sponsored red car with the white bullseye on the engine hood, had emerged from the pits (where they worked on some problem in the car’s wheels) and was speeding around the track to catch up with the rest of the cars, which were packed behind the pace car.

    And then – whatever they were working on in the pits apparently broke, and Montoya’s beautiful red Target car with the white bullseye on the hood suddenly spun out of control and smashed directly into the jet dryer truck, causing an immediate explosion and fireball, followed by a blazing inferno – in which no one was hurt!

    So then, I went down the hall and told Pam and Shelby “You’ve GOT to see this!”**

    * that show has pulled us in! Hard to say exactly why, but the weekly spectacle of Christina’s breasts, yearning to bust free – may be part of it (for me, anyway)

    **somehow, I think this serves as a metaphor for Michigan’s consequential primary

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  3. JWfromNJ said on February 28, 2012 at 9:34 am

    Smart kids. School board meetings are the worst part of a beat and always seem to be comprised of people who can prattle on for hours without managing to say anything.

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  4. Joe Kobiela said on February 28, 2012 at 9:53 am

    How many NASCAR drivers does it take to blow up a jet dryer?
    Just Juan
    Thank you, don’t forget to tip your waitress
    pilot Joe

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  5. nancy said on February 28, 2012 at 9:54 am

    Funny you should say that, JW. At one point I amused myself by trying to diagram, in my head, the sentences of some of the speakers. I’ve never seen so many prepositional phrases piled on to a simple subject-predicate-object formation. Probably the Politburo or the Cuban national assembly can do better, but not much.

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  6. JWfromNJ said on February 28, 2012 at 10:08 am

    The JW rule (which I have shared with a handful of well meaning but long winded folks over the years) is, “If I am not writing anything you are not saying anything.”
    In one case it worked miracles – this admin would glance at my pad and fade to silence.

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  7. brian stouder said on February 28, 2012 at 10:09 am

    Well let me just say, the Fort Wayne school board meeting I attended last night was quite good, including a powerpoint presentation, a fair amount of lingo, and lots of board questions and informed administrative answers in plain language. (THIS is what hooks me into going each month, I think)

    The subject was Indiana’s waiver from the Federal Department of Education, and the consequent wholesale changes that the Indiana (et al) now has coming down the pipe

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  8. Malvolio said on February 28, 2012 at 10:20 am

    Romney and Santorum, churlish and dyspeptic as they wanna be. This Frothy robocall is hilarious, and Willard’s response is about as funny as his raised dander when he insists he’s been quoted out of context, after running an anti-Obama ad that was a masterpiece of the genre. This is getting awesome, with what seems like authentic white hot enmity between these two guys.

    On Goon: How could somebody be so clueless as to make this movie without signing up the Hans0ns for at least a cameo with a roll of aluminum foil? Might have headed off unfortunate comparisons to the Great American Hockey Movie. I kinda thought The Artist was a one-trick pony affair, and dogs that are close to rat size don’t really engage my interest. The point of reference for Meryl Streep’s dress was the way cool outfit Glenn Close wore. Meryl looked like she was wearing something to commemorate of Nora Desmond. Ms. Close looked like Patty Hewes in killer mode, in either Sherwood Forest or English Racing Car green. I thought Natalie Portman looked spectacular.

    And those armed, manly men that would have prevented the VaTech and Columbine shootings. Sure thing. Right after they castrated themselves by Glock.

    And Jeff, re Santorum and karma. I’d say, as a Catholic, I’d like him to take his Karmic Komeuppance as what he claims to be now. What an embarrassment.

    In retrospect, I believe Hugo was Best Picture, if only for being the first really good 3D ever. And it had Ray Winstone, Ben Kingsley, and the incomparable Christopher Lee. Something about The Artist was so cutesy it made me gag a little, like episodes of Lucy where she so does something so exquisitely embarrassing I have to divert my eyes and change the channel. For a B&W blast from the past movie, it’s not in the same room with Paper Moon, for instance.

    And that MoonMayor Gingrich thing at Alex’s link @58 (last thread), I’m getting Newt speaking in Peter Griffin’s voice. And that is pretty much the best use to which Venn diagrams have been put, in my experience. Funny.

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  9. Deborah said on February 28, 2012 at 10:20 am

    What’s a jet dryer?

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  10. Bitter Scribe said on February 28, 2012 at 10:20 am

    The worst, most blatant cherry-picking of an endorsement came with a community newspaper I worked for. The opponent of the person we endorsed put out a flyer with a few words from the editorial in her favor. Goddamn, it made me mad. (Thankfully, she still lost.)

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  11. Bob (not Greene) said on February 28, 2012 at 10:26 am

    Oh God, school board meetings. Hate. Hate. Hate. I try to assign them to someone else whenever I can. I think I’d rather be set on fire.

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  12. MichaelG said on February 28, 2012 at 10:28 am

    It’s like a hair dryer, Deborah. There’s a small gas turbine engine mounted on the back of a truck that drives a couple of fans and blows a lot of hot air to dry a wet race track, also to blow garbage off the track.

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  13. Joe Kobiela said on February 28, 2012 at 10:46 am

    Its not really small its a turbine engine off a helicopter. That’s a good description thou.
    pilot Joe

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  14. MarkH said on February 28, 2012 at 10:49 am

    At one time I covered two school boards in Fairfield County, OH. Yes, excruciating. One board was actually a little entertaining. It had a man who looked remarkably like Stan Laurel, acted like him, too. One night the superintendent was fed up trying to reason with this buffoon, threw his papers and books against the wall and stormed out. That meeting went on and I had a decent story, for once.

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  15. Bob (not Greene) said on February 28, 2012 at 11:01 am

    MarkH, Now that’s a school board meeting I can get behind!

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  16. Deborah said on February 28, 2012 at 11:06 am

    I’ve never been to a school board meeting but have been in various chambers where those kinds of meetings happen. They are usually vile places, bad lighting, stuffy, uncomfortable chairs etc. I find being in those places depressing just from the surroundings, can’t imagine what it’s like to also have to put up with boring proceedings.

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  17. Bob (not Greene) said on February 28, 2012 at 11:13 am

    Deb, I’ve found THE most depressing place on earth is the Maybrook courthouse in Maywood. But going there is still better than going to a school board meeting.

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  18. basset said on February 28, 2012 at 11:34 am

    That fire may end up doing more than the Allison/Yarborough wreck and fight to bring new eyeballs to NASCAR. Which it needs, attendance has been declining the past few years.

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  19. Malvolio said on February 28, 2012 at 11:39 am

    The Happy Warrior. You know, I hear something like this message most Sundays, in Church. Seems as if it’s pretty close to the Jesus Party Line.

    Sentencing of Charlie White’s egregious vote fraud , as Indiana’s Sec. of State, ex officio head of the state’s voter fraud police. And what happened to a black lady and a Pakistani immigrant that registered by mistake. White should at least be deported to a foreign country, like Tejas or Arizona.

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  20. Scout said on February 28, 2012 at 11:51 am

    Sorry Malvolio, we are chock full o’ nuts here in AZ, don’t need any more, thanks anyway!

    It’s primary day here too. I just asked my Republican office mate (who was wearing an I Voted sticker) if he cast his ballot for Santorum, heh heh, and got a really dirty look for my effort at humor. The R’s are really touchy lately.

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  21. Jeff Borden said on February 28, 2012 at 12:10 pm

    I liked NASCAR when I was a kid. The race cars pretty much looked like normal Fords, Chevys, Plymouths, Pontiacs, Dodges and there were strict rules about how much and where sponsorship logos and decals were allowed. The blue `67 Plymouth Belvidere driven by Richard Petty was just like the car one of our neighbors owned. Today, all the racers look alike and the colors and logos are so garish it’s like watching M&M’s on wheels.

    NASCAR was the “great white hope” sport a few years ago. (Remember how it was said W. really has “NASCAR fan” appeal, a moniker that replaced “soccer moms?”) NASCAR was an entirely white male dominated sport. The decline in attendance and viewership is actually leading the franchise to look at new ways of attracting Hispanic fans, so maybe that is progress, as is the arrival of Danica Patrick.

    I’m hoping Sanitorium wins Michigan today, just to keep this catfight in the GOP going. The more we learn about these men, the less we like them and their policies and, hopefully, the weaker they will emerge to challenge Obama.

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  22. Malvolio said on February 28, 2012 at 12:17 pm

    That NASCAR fire was spectacular. Hope it doesn’t cost my friends that are team owners too much. The first lap crash was pretty amazing too.

    Scout, They are that. Touchy and tetchy. I was going to say I wouldn’t be surprised to see Willard and Frothy come to blows, when it dawned on me, that would be surprising. Now a catfight, Alexis-and-Krystle-style, scratching, hair-pulling that I could see:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxZV8HZElKo&feature=related

    Both guys have really got that Nixonian prissy factor going bigtime.

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  23. Suzanne said on February 28, 2012 at 12:35 pm

    The best part of the flaming NASCAR track (hubby–“you gotta see this!”) was the announcer wondering out loud if maybe they couldn’t get somebody to drive that dryer truck off the track so it would be easier to put out and limit the damage to the track. Right. Like anyone, even a NASCAR fan on his fifth or sixth beer, would be fool enough to hop in a flaming truck and try to drive it away. Hilarious!

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  24. Deborah said on February 28, 2012 at 12:53 pm

    Malvolio that voter fraud link is making smoke come out of my ears.

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  25. Malvolio said on February 28, 2012 at 1:15 pm

    Deborah: Well, just think of how the guy that got shipped back to Pakistan feels. That sort of story always makes me wish I had given in and gone to law school. I’d say the term “rank injustice” pretty well covers all three cases.

    Streep’s Oscar dress and Gustav Klimt.

    When I win the lottery, I’m going to Rio, for carnaval. Cool video, with interesting music I can’t identify.

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  26. Hattie said on February 28, 2012 at 1:38 pm

    Fingers crossed.

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  27. Julie Robinson said on February 28, 2012 at 1:53 pm

    I sat through seven years of school board meetings when I served on the board for our little church school. And while I knew it was important, it pretty much burned me out for meetings. There are still a few I can’t avoid in different volunteer capacities, but these days I would much rather be hands-on doing something than talk, talk, talking.

    Frontline tonight is about the Japanese nuclear plants after the tsunami a year ago and I’ve just been listening to a bit of an interview on Fresh Air. It sounds chilling, and should be a must-see for anyone who wants to trot out nuclear as a solution to the energy problem.

    Our very own Moe is having a procedure today and I’m sure she would appreciate all our good thoughts/prayers.

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  28. LAMary said on February 28, 2012 at 2:10 pm

    Definitely sending all the best vibes I can to Moe. I will also sic the Irish nuns here at the hospital on her. Sister Sheila is very powerful.

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  29. MarkH said on February 28, 2012 at 2:16 pm

    Hey, moe, go kick some ASS today! All the best to you.

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  30. Bitter Scribe said on February 28, 2012 at 2:41 pm

    School board meetings are definitely boring, except when they aren’t.

    Once, long ago, I covered this board where a slate swept into office out of sheer hatred for the superintendent. He had closed a high school in an affluent area and merged it with one that had—gasp—black and Hispanic kids!

    They couldn’t reverse the merger, but they could make his life miserable, which they proceeded to do. Fun to watch, in a sick way.

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  31. Scout said on February 28, 2012 at 2:53 pm

    Best to you, moe, I’ve put your name on my worldwide prayer circle list. I chuckled when I thought of the group getting to your name and sending healing vibrations to “moe99”!

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  32. Dorothy said on February 28, 2012 at 3:03 pm

    Moe is on my mind most days but now I will think extra-strong happy thoughts for her well being. We love you moe!

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  33. Jolene said on February 28, 2012 at 3:27 pm

    There’s a brief video explaining gamma knife radiation, the procedure moe is having today, on her blog.

    http://moesmisadventures.blogspot.com/

    Very interesting and impressive. I’m in awe of the people who create devices of this type.

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  34. MichaelG said on February 28, 2012 at 3:31 pm

    Fingers crossed, Mow. I hopw everything comes out OK.

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  35. Judybusy said on February 28, 2012 at 3:49 pm

    Sending you strength and healing today, Moe!

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  36. Deborah said on February 28, 2012 at 3:57 pm

    That’s a very informative video about Gamma Knife Radiation. Looks fairly painless except for that darn frame. Moe, thinking of you hope it’s all over by now, and you’re resting comfortably.

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  37. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on February 28, 2012 at 4:04 pm

    Grace and peace to you, Moe.

    If you’re watching CNN, you’re seeing how mind-numbing even a horrific story can become once it’s processed through the juvenile justice system. We’ve reviewed Rule #7, and are now up to Rule #13, but backing up to Rule #12. Wisely, no counsel on either side is objecting to anything His Honor is asking.

    Ohio juvenile code gives stunning latitude to judges. Lots of what people think are “the law” like not naming juveniles are just how particular judges or they in general like to roll. He could, pending the next election of course, choose to have the young man marched up and down in the parking lot of the courthouse with a sign around his neck saying “Me Bad” and there’s nothing barring it — other than a desire to get re-elected every six years, of course. This judge is choosing to ask all parties to not allow photography that includes the juvenile or his grandparents/aunts/uncles in the shot, and placing a bar on media from doing so at risk of contempt . . . but that’s a judge’s ruling, not the law.

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  38. beb said on February 28, 2012 at 4:46 pm

    moe, best wishes from Detroit.

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  39. Kaye said on February 28, 2012 at 5:04 pm

    Thanks for commenting on the Chardon situation Jeff. Yesterday I was astounded at CNN naming a juvenile, now I know it isn’t illegal. I rarely appreciate John Boehner but I do agree with his comment: “Violence like this should not be tolerated in our society,” said House Speaker John Boehner. “But let’s be honest — there are about 250 million guns in America. They are out there but people should use them responsibly.”

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  40. Malvolio said on February 28, 2012 at 5:13 pm

    How is electing judges not dumber than grunt. People are incapable of informed decisions about elective offices that require nothing more than reliable common sense and a bare modicum of intelligence, leading inevitably to morons in office, and somebody believes they’ll be able to identify effective legal technicians to judicial positions? Lunatics, meet Bedlam.

    Remember when Shrub molested Angela Merkel at a G-8 Summit a few years ago? Well, she’s been assaulted again.

    Is Wayne LaPierre going to give Boehner shit about that comment? If President Obama said the exact words, NRA Bigfoot would go off half-cocked and they’d take the gun nuts for a $few million by tomorrow night.

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  41. Bitter Scribe said on February 28, 2012 at 5:51 pm

    “But let’s be honest — there are about 250 million guns in America. They are out there but people should use them responsibly.”

    Gosh, John, if anything will stop the massacres, it’s brilliant insights like that one.

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  42. alex said on February 28, 2012 at 6:06 pm

    My best to you, moe.

    Here’s a day brightener. Olympia Snowe is retiring, putting her once-safe seat in play and exhorting her fellow Republicans to come to their senses.

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  43. Malvolio said on February 28, 2012 at 9:24 pm

    Yep. All of those homisuicidal teenagers can be expected to use their guns responsibly, right Rep. Oompa Loompa?

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  44. Malvolio said on February 28, 2012 at 11:28 pm

    All over TV tonight there are Santorum weenies talking about backing a candidate with a “positive message”. Seriously? Dog in the Manger Santorum? This is one of those deep pockets challenges. $10grand for proof the public scold has ever said anything positive. The guy that looks like there’s a three-day old bag of turds under his nose, all the fracking time?

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  45. Dexter said on February 29, 2012 at 12:01 am

    Fuck. Romney peacocking around after Michigan win. Why so profane? I remember the idiocy proclaimed in the Reagan years, I remember Richard Nixon and all his garbage, I remember the angst the nation’s good people suffered through when the CIA’s Bush41 was elected, and I remember W43, worst of them all.

    The thought of Romney totally emptying the US Treasury into a war with Iran is just not comforting. Another repugg in the White House is a sickening proposition.
    I had a prof at IU tell us that Nelson Rockefeller, a presidential hopeful at the time, had never even touched money in his life. Everything had always been taken care of for him. Professor Threlkeld also said Rocky could not possibly even understand the concept of a paycheck. Sound familiar, Romney fans?
    And good old Obama, getting it right addressing the UAW. Good stuff.

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  46. mark said on February 29, 2012 at 12:19 am

    I hope all went well, moe. Best thoughts and wishes.

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  47. Malvolio said on February 29, 2012 at 1:35 am

    Willard Windvane needs to call Perry and ask him how to treat hoof and mouth after expressing his arrogant disinterest in the welfare of poor people. That’s the kind of “gaffe” most accurately defined as a lying sack of shit saying what he really means by accident, and not realizing it until both feet are all the way in his born on third..

    Frothy believes that God told him how to insist that heathens behave If that isn’t loony enough? Are we kidding?.

    Which of those assholes is a real American going to vote for?

    None of this is right, by any stretch. Some people are born eith benefits. Some people are smarter, if you’re one of those people don’t you immediadetly that’s unfair when deciding on everybody’s quality of life. How is that difficult to undersyand? Social Justice is Christianity, and a damn good idea, no matter what theat sniffy ahole Santorum says.

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  48. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on February 29, 2012 at 6:47 am

    Malvolio, some are born with benefits, some achieve benefits, and some have benefits thrust upon them.

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  49. coozledad said on February 29, 2012 at 6:49 am

    (AP) Santorum treated for minor scalp burns, released.

    (East Lansing) Dale Richelieu, spokesman for the Santorum campaign, has confirmed that the Presidential candidate has been treated for hair injuries after a Secret Service detail wrestled him to the ground and disarmed the candidate of a can of Aqua-net and a pack of kitchen matches.
    The spokesman also said Santorum was resting comfortably after being released from Ignatius Loyola Barber College.
    “He’s taken a little too much off the sides, but the back still looks OK. We evened up the sideburns and gave him a little splash of Clubman. He should be able to leave the house in a couple of days.” Said Chief Tonsure Specialist and Bloodletter Ed Latta.
    Richelieu added “We’re not through yet. We’ll do anything to get this base fired up. If Romney wants to be two-faced, we’ll have three faces. If he wants to piss on the base, well, we’re going to hit every assisted living center in Georgia with sacks of chocolate covered peanuts. Fuck ‘em.”

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