Dyre PortentsDyre PortentsThe Political Rantings and Raving of a Radical Moderate. Speaking truthiness to power since February. Articles
Sweetie-gate?
2008-05-16 08:15:00 Oh please. The fuss over Barack Obama calling a female reporter "sweetie" and his subsequent apology is non-issue. In fact I wouldn't bother mentioning it save that I think that in some regards it points to differences between rural/urban America as well as cultural the cultural divide that exists between the north/south . Having lived in the South my entire life I can honestly say that I've been called sweetie, hon, or sugar at least once a week for as long as I can remember normally by women I barely knew. Now I'm fairly certain that their intent wasn't to demean me. In fact I gave this matter a little thought a few years ago and came to the conclusion that those who use such terms lightly are generally speaking favorably inclined towards you and either don't know or have forgotten your name.Maybe its a sign of the times that people would would rather look for offense rather than give someone the benefit of the doubt.
Pinups for Vets
2008-05-15 07:55:00 Aspiring actress and model Gina Elise has been making period pinup photos of herself and donating the proceeds of her calender sales to California VA Hospitals. From Pin Ups for Vets: I came up with the idea to recreate a nostalgic pin-up calendar that would serve three purposes: 1. The calendars would be sold to raise funds for our hospitalized Veterans. 2. The calendars would be delivered as gifts to our ill and injured Veterans with messages of appreciation from the donors. 3. The calendars would be sent to our deployed troops to help boost morale and to let them know that Americans back home are thinking of them. Long term readers of this blog might wonder why I occasionally blog about pin up calenders and the answer is simple. I'm a subscriber to the theory that less is more in this instance meaning that a photo of a naked female has no mystery. Additionally those that modeled for period pin up p...
Edwards Endorses Obama
2008-05-15 06:22:00 Talk about a day late and a dollar short...From The Political Radar: Former Sen. John Edwards is endorsing Sen. Barack Obama 's presidential candidacy Wednesday evening, in a dramatic attempt by the Obama campaign to answer concerns regarding Obama's appeal to working-class voters, several senior Democratic sources tell ABC News. The Obama campaign confirms Edwards will endorse Obama at a campaign rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan Wednesday. The event was originally scheduled to start at 7pmET, but was moved up to 6:20pmET, presumably to have the announcement make the evening news. Edwards, who ran for president on a platform of eradicating poverty, plans to appear alongside Obama for the announcement. The event comes one day after Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton defeated Obama by 41 points in the West Virginia primary, and Edwards' endorsement will give Obama a key establishment stamp of approval as he attempts to close out the nominating process.While I'm sure that Obama appreciat...
Clinton Wins West Virginia
2008-05-15 03:18:00 Not that anyone expected anything different given the demographics...From the AP:As expected, roughly 95 percent of West Virginia Democratic primary voters were white. Half of voters were from rural areas.It was one of the oldest electorates among 31 Democratic primaries with exit polls to date, with four in 10 over age 60. The only other states with somewhat similar numbers were Arkansas, Arizona, New Mexico and Oklahoma ? and Hillary Clinton won all four states.It also was the electorate with the highest proportion ? just about seven in 10 ? of people who lack a college degree thus far this primary season. The same held true for whites without a college degree ? again, historically a strong Clinton group. According to CNN Clinton picked up nine pledged delegates. Which still leaves Obama with a triple digit lead. Whats more telling is that Obama now has a nine superdelegate lead over Clinton which means all totalled he has a 168 delegate lead over Clinton and if you've been readi...
Clinton Campaign Deep in Debt
2008-05-13 06:51:00 to the tune of twenty million dollars.From the WaPo:Clinton Team Acknowledges $20 Million Debt CLARKSBURG, W.Va., May 11 -- With her campaign falling ever deeper into debt, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton spent a rainy Mother's Day seeking votes ahead of Tuesday's primary here, turning a deaf ear to calls for her to leave a Democratic presidential contest she has little hope of winning.Clinton aides continued to insist that she will remain in the race even while confirming that she is $20 million in debt. "The voters are going to decide this," senior adviser Howard Wolfson said on "Fox News Sunday," acknowledging the $20 million figure. "There is no reason for her not to continue this process." Wolfson said he has seen "no evidence of her interest" in pursuing the second-place spot on the Democratic ticket, contrary to rumors that she is staying in the race to leverage a bid for the vice presidential nomination.In part this shows exactly how badly she wants the nomination. But in my mi... More About: Campaign , Deep
Another Sign of The Apocalypse
2008-05-13 06:25:00 Nancy Pelosi and New Gingrich publicly agreeing on something...Of course the final sign of the Apocalypse is Tom Delay and Jane Fonda publicly agreeing on anything or (Jeb Bush becoming president which is slightly more likely).
Blogger Food Drive Week 1 Update
2008-05-13 06:25:00 Week one got off to a slow start. Not that I expected a landslide of support mind you. After all my target is only a dollar from every feed subscriber and reader of this blog rounded up to an even number. And now its time to thank everyone that contributed this week..Thanks to One Fly from Outta the Corn Field for being our first donor.A special thanks goes out to Doug Woodall for being the first double digit donor. Doug runs the site Spyware Biz which both rates and sells spyware protection. Additionally he blogs at The Spyware Biz blog where he covers computer and internet security related issues and news.Also thanks to Short Woman for promoting the blogger food drive on her blog. More About: Food , Blogger , Drive , Update , Week
Just a Reminder
2008-05-10 16:00:00 Today is the National Association of Letter Carriers' annual food drive. That means you can donate to your local food bank just by sticking a few edible odds and ends into a bag and putting them out by your mailbox. Its a great way to get rid of that commercially packaged fruitcake and that dusty old can of beets. Just make sure you beat the mailman to the mailbox.And now a related message from The Harlem Globetrotters More About: Reminder
Clinton Clinches Indiana But Obama Gains Ground
2008-05-07 07:39:00 As expected Clinton won Indiana and Obama pulled in a double digit win in North Carolina. However the Indiana primary proved to much closer than anticipated with Clinton winning by only two percentage points. The net result according to CNN is that Obama widened his lead by eleven pledged delegates this week (twelve if you include Guam). Pretty impressive if you consider that Obama managed that with the Rev. Wright albatross around his neck.But here is the cold hard truth for Clinton:Even if she managed to get Florida and Michigan's delegates seated Obama would still have a triple digit lead over her. After all 40% of Michigan's Dems opted to vote for "Undecided". More About: Barack Obama , Ground
More Than Just Pretty Words?
2008-05-07 06:43:00 It looks like Obama's supporters are doing more than buying into his "Change begins with you." meme. It would appear that they are implementing it. Over at Donors Choose, a site that lets teachers post their projects and donors choose which ones they want to fund, Obama supporters have donated more funds than anyone else and funded five times more projects than Clinton's supporters. Challenge Donated Donors StudentsReached Give in honor of Barack Obama $159,347 2327 34446 Give in honor of Hillary Clinton $29,220 327 10097 How much have John McCain's supporters donated? Less than ten bucks. I'm curious as to what the total charitable contributions of Obama's supporters are. Unfortunately there know way of calculating that. More About: Words , Pretty
In Defense of the Elite
2008-05-06 08:48:00 I've been seeing a lot of criticism of "elites" lately. And it seems to me like there is some sort of concerted effort to redefine the word. Its current definition is this...1.(often used with a plural verb) the choice or best of anything considered collectively, as of a group or class of persons. 2.(used with a plural verb) persons of the highest class: Only the elite were there. 3.a group of persons exercising the major share of authority or influence within a larger group: the power elite of a major political party. 4.a type, approximately 10-point in printing-type size, widely used in typewriters and having 12 characters to the inch. Compare pica1. ?adjective 5.representing the most choice or select; best: an elite group of authors.So by definition Green Berets, Navy Seals, Pulitzer prize winners, and Nobel Prize winners are all elite in that they are the best in their field. By definition two the Rockerfellers, the Kennedys, and the Vanderbilts are elite due to thei... More About: Defense , Elite
Clinton a Little Confused?
2008-05-06 06:21:00 Because when one week Hillary Clinton is talking about a gas tax holiday and the next week she's talking about suing OPEC at the WTO for being a monopoly..."We?re going to go right at OPEC," she said. "They can no longer be a cartel, a monopoly that get together once every couple of months in some conference room in some plush place in the world, they decide how much oil they?re going to produce and what price they?re going to put it at," she told a crowd at a firehouse in Merrillville, IN. "That?s not a market. That?s a monopoly," she said, saying she'd use anti-trust law and the World Trade Organization to take on OPEC.She's either confused, misinformed, or pandering. After all Russia has the second largest oil reserves of any nation in the world, Venezuela's oil reserves aren't anything to sneeze at, and America produces a considerable amount of oil in its own right. Given those facts how can OPEC have a monopoly? I'm willing to bet that if she pursued such a course of acti...
Portents and Omens
2008-05-04 18:52:00 Earlier this week:Speaking at her Louisville, KY campaign headquarters, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., told a crowd of supporters Thursday that she is pulling for the filly, Eight Bells, for the upcoming Kentucky Derby. In selecting Eight Bells, Clinton picked the only girl horse in the race. Perhaps the most fitting move for the woman vying to bethe nation's first woman elected president.Eight Bells finished the race second and had to be put down. Hopefully Hillary Clinton can escape the latter fate should the former occur.H/T to OTB More About: Omens
TGIF
2008-05-02 15:49:00 And now a man that has turned his questionable tastes into a career:Richard Cheese
Pimp Out Your Blog Here
2008-05-02 15:18:00 and help fight hunger.The rising cost of gas has become a real burden on the working poor causing many to turn to food banks to make up the difference. The increased demand is causing food banks to go bankrupt. My local foodbank here in San Antonio has asked my workplace to do a beans only food drive in order to be able to provide as much healthy food as possible.So it occurred to me that since dried beans are cheap, I have a blog, and bloggers love to see their Technorati ranking go up that I might be able to help out a few more families by trying to harness the power of blogtopia.So for the month of May I am hosting a blogger food drive.Here is the deal:1: You hit the paypal donation widget and contribute 1$2: I take that money and buy beans and then donate them.3: I link back to your blog or website in a weekly update post. (leave your site's name and address in the paypal comments field or email me the details at dyre42atgmail.com)4: I create a blogroll consiting of all donors... More About: Pimp , Blog
When Marriage Mirrors Politics
2008-05-01 08:01:00 My tiny wife and I finally sat down to discuss the brass tacks of merging our finances tonight. She had a simple plan in which my money was deposited into a joint account and she took what was needed from the household and moved it to her account to pay all of our bills with. Now I trust her implicitly. But I couldn't help raise the point that there was no fairness or accountability in her system. Under her system she could be skimming money to buy designer platform shoes that she only wore at work and I'd be none the wiser. (If find that using amusing hypotheticals in really serious discussions helps to keep the tension levels lower.)So we hammered out a system that promoted both fairness and accountability. My pay gets deposited into the joint account, she takes out a fixed amount to pay our bills with, I have a set amount of spending money per week, and everything left over gets deposited to a joint savings account. Additionally any extra expenses accrued by me that exceed my w... More About: Politics , Marriage , Mirrors
Of Note
2008-04-30 16:59:00 I've been listed on The Best of the Web's blog directory for free under the category "Moderate"! It may not be an award but its the next best thing and it puts me in good company. More About: Note
Fighting Back (Gas Prices Edition)
2008-04-30 07:32:00 Well we did it. We went out and bought a brand new car. After hours of research half a dozen test drives and two weekends spent shopping for cars we finally bought a 2008 Nissan Versa hatchback for me to drive.We weren't planning on buying a new car quite this soon but my 1998 Ford Taurus' transmission started slipping (only if you gunned it) and rather than spend 700 to 1000$ repairing it when it finally crapped out we opted to trade it in for 700$ (fair market value IMO). We got a good rate of 4.9% due to my wife's superior credit score and monthly payment of 305$ for a 17,000$ car (including extended warranty).We picked it primarily because it was the most fuel efficient vehicle in its class getting 33 MPG on average (38 MPG possible driving 65, on a flat interstate, with one passenger of average weight, with cruise control on, and the car being well maintained.) was highly recommended by Consumer Reports, and had the most bells and whistles of any car in its class including ... More About: Gas Prices , Fighting , Back , Edition , Prices
Blame It On The Grain
2008-04-25 08:17:00 If you're currently blaming biofuels for the rise in food prices there's good news and bad news. First the good news. You're right. The bad news is you're mostly wrong. Over at the NY Times Roger Cohen points to the major culprits involved in higher food prices... Hundreds of millions of people have moved from poverty into the global economy over the past decade in Asia. They?re eating twice a day, instead of once, and propelling rapid urbanization. Their demand for food staples and once unthinkable luxuries like meat is pushing up prices. At the same time, the rising price of commodities over the past year has largely tracked the declining parity of the beleaguered dollar. Rice prices have shot up in dollar terms, far less against the euro. Countries like China are offloading depreciating dollar reserves to hoard stores of value like commodities. Food price increases are also tied to oil being nearly $120 a barrel. Fossil fuels are an important input in everything from fertiliz... More About: Grain , Blame
Introducing TGIF
2008-04-25 08:05:00 I don't post often on Fridays. Largely because I want to spend as much time as possible with mt family. I used to do a quick post about Darfur on Fridays but after a while it became apparent that our policy on Darfur wouldn't change until someone else was in office. I feel kind of bad for not posting at least five days a week and so I'm introducing TGIF. Essentially I'll be posting a song or video on Fridays until we get a new administration. After that I'll probably be posting Darfur updates and TGIF. After all reports on Darfur can be pretty grim and you may need something to lift your spirits afterwards.So with no further aplomb I present the first installment of TGIF:An anthem for the little guy..Yes, that is Steve Burns from Blue's Clues with his band aka The Flaming Lips. He's due to have a second album coming out soon.
Having a Bad Day?
2008-04-24 05:36:00 It could be worse. At least you weren't saved from a lynching by being arrested for being part of a penis stealing ring.Apparently truth is still stranger than fiction.
Fighting Higher Gas Prices
2008-04-24 05:25:00 With some people paying 100$ to fill up their tanks it time to repost my list of gas saving tips...gasbuddy.com tracks prices all over America on a station by station basis. They have websites for most major cities (insert city name)gasprices.com so for me its sanantoniogasprices.comAlso make sure your tires are properly inflated normally thats 35 on the little meter thingy for most cars and light trucks. Under inflated tires can cost ya 2 mpg.Remove any dead bodies from your trunk, move that dashboard altar inside, and limit yourself to 1 gun and 2 magazines per car. 100 additional pounds = 1 mpgTime for that tune up and/or oil change that you've been putting off = up to 5 mpg (if you're bad about maintenance, request platinum plugs, they last for 3 years)Other maintenance Air Filter (you CAN do this yourself in 5 minutes), PCV valve (costs 5$ and is as easy to change as an air filter), Fuel filter (these suckers vary wildly in price and ease of installation ask your mechanic abo... More About: Gas Prices , Fighting , Higher , Prices
We Interrupt This Primary...
2008-04-23 08:48:00 To kvetch about gas prices...Its official. The weekly cost of gasoline for my family exceeded 100$ this week. That makes it the highest weekly expense right behind food. If current trends continue it'll become the absolute highest weekly expense in about three months. In order to combat this ever growing expense I'm going to see if I can't get my schedule changed so that I go to work two hours earlier so my tiny wife and I can carpool. Additionally she is interviewing to teach at a school closer to home and either I'll be interviewing with and ISP nearby or we'll be buying a car that gets 30 MPG to help offset the cost of me commuting (additionally both of our vehicles are 10+ years old so having a new car has additional benefits.) Of course it occurs to me now that this would be the prefect time to make an argument for getting a motorcycle. After all they do get better gas mileage than most cars and as long as you aren't insisting on a Harley since they cost less than a car.... More About: Primary , Interrupt
Clinton Clinches Pennsylvania Primary
2008-04-23 06:11:00 By an impressive 10% margin. The problem is that she only picked up roughly a dozen pledged delegates. As the number crunchers point out she'd have to win by 80% in the remaining races to catch up to Obama. With Obama predicted to win Oregon and North Carolina thats not going to happen. That brings us to the real question:So super delegates, who is it going to be? More About: Pennsylvania , Clinton , Primary
McCain Won't Back The New GI Bill
2008-04-22 06:13:00 But he is crafting a similar version of his own...From The Daily Press:Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, has suggested he would oppose a bipartisan measure by Virginia Sen. Jim Webb to expand college tuition benefits for military veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan.McCain told reporters Monday he was working on alternative legislation aimed at ensuring that troops do not leave the military earlier than planned to go to college."We are working on proposals of our own," McCain said on his campaign plane, according to ABC News. "I'm a consistent supporter of educational benefits for the men and women of the military. I want to make sure that we have incentives for people to remain in the military, as well as for people to join the military."McCain's new move comes as a blow to Webb, a freshman Democrat and former Navy secretary who had been quietly building bipartisan support for months.Webb's GI Bill , a centerpiece of his 2006 campaign, would pay the c... More About: Back
Clinton Still Leading In Pennsylvania Polls?
2008-04-22 04:55:00 Depending on who you listen to she got a six to seven point advantage over Obama ...or notZogby:UTICA, New York?The final weekend before tomorrow's important primary election in Pennsylvania was good for New York's Hillary Clinton , as she made a definitive move toward victory over rival Illinois' Barack Obama, a fresh Newsmax/Zogby daily telephone tracking poll shows. She gained two points over the past 24 hours as Obama lost one point, and she now leads 48% to 42%, the latest polling shows. Meanwhile, the undecideds dropped by two points. Her edge was three points yesterday but had wobbled within a tight margin. Clinton's advantage is still within the margin of error, but she is close to getting beyond it as Election Day looms.Gallup:PRINCETON, NJ -- The peeling away of national Democratic support for Barack Obama seen this past week may have run its course. After trailing Hillary Clinton by one percentage point in Saturday's Gallup Poll Daily tracking report, Obama now lea... More About: Polls , Leading
Things I Have Learned
2008-04-19 08:34:00 You can have your cake and eat it too. However, its really gross. More About: Things , Learned
The New Shadow War
2008-04-19 07:23:00 Against Scientology...Fifteen protests across the globe and counting. More here.Hat tip to The Poligazette More About: Religion , Shadow
Clinton Pulls No Punches in Pennsylvania
More articles from this author:2008-04-17 06:51:00 It seems that the general consensus is that Clinton won tonights debate. It seems that the moderators put Obama on the hot seat when he was having an off night (again) and this time he didn't have Edwards there to pick up his slack. Marc Ambinder theorizes that the roughing that Obama took might actually come back to bite Clinton in the butt.But Hillary Clinton has a Reverse-Teflon problem: her negatives are up, and when she's perceived as the attacker, the attacks never seem to settle on Obama and always seem to boomerang back on her. So it would be unwise to declare that Hillary "won" the debate in the dynamic sense just yet. (How much money will Obama raise off this debate? $3m million? $4 million?)If thats true how much will the fact that Clinton's campaign is currently running 100% negative ads in most PA markets hurt her?Here's a glimpse into Hillary's ad strategy in the final stretch of the Pennsylvania primary: In most of Pennsylvania's markets, the only TV ad Hillary... More About: Punches 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 |
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