“There’s still good in the world...”

Posted by: Old Grouch in Linkage at 21:09:24 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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Roberta X covers the Rahm Emanuel appointment

LTFO. They're loadin' the loose cannons aboard first.

...and in the comments:  Recalling the Clinton administration’s appointees.

Posted by: Old Grouch in Linkage at 18:13:24 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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Attention Indy bloggers: AOSHQ Indy Moron Meetup

4th UPDATE 081110 19:29: Date, time, and location are now set.

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Maybe some of the gunnies might want to join the morons for some conservative/Republican networking?

From the thread belonging to this post:

24
Indianapolis/Central Indiana: elarnela-@-gmail.-com

Posted by: Joanna at November 06, 2008 03:25 PM (Db2kZ)

56
Indianapolis moron:
abnjm at yahoo dot com

Posted by: abnjm at November 06, 2008 04:15 PM (YESwf)

Other midwest locations in the works: Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Dayton/Cincinnati, Lansing, Lexington, St.Louis. (UPDATE 081107 16:20: Consolidated (complete) list.)

3^rd UPDATE 081107 21:44:  Seems to be coalescing toward the weekend of the 22^nd-23^rd (15^th-16^th has conflicts for several, including me), location Finn McCool’s in Fishers.  Hey Roberta, Sunday 23^rd P.M. w/Indy bloggers?

2^nd UPDATE 081107 17:43:  Joanna (1^st comment above) is doing the organizing.  No date as yet; she has set up a Google group to sort things out. (E-mail her for an invite.)  Will mirror any decision here.

UPDATE 081106 23:20:  Fired off an e-mail to both of these folks, will post developments here.

Earlier Ace thread.

Posted by: Old Grouch in Meta at 22:59:40 GMT | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Good news for history geeks

Britain's code-cracking and computing heritage has won a lifeline in the form of a donation from English Heritage.

The grant of £330,000 will be used to undertake urgent roof works at Bletchley Park - where Allied codebreakers worked in World War II.

Discussions are also in progress on a further three-year, £600,000 funding programme for the historic site.
...
The rooms of the Grade II-listed mansion, replete with painted ceilings, timber panelling, and ornate plasterwork, are at risk because the roof has been patched rather than renovated so many times during the 130 years of the mansion’s history. - The BBC

Via:  The Register, who have a nice picture of a 3-rotor Enigma machine.

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 18:11:51 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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Speaking of cats, an update

Just checked back at Squeaky’s:

Dammit’s okay. I’m going to have him tested to see what it is, exactly, that is wrong. It’s definitely not cancer. They think it’s kitty IBS. They just have to be sure. Hopefully it’s not a food allergy.

Previously.

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 17:24:36 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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Trust Laurence to help restore perspective

Posted by: Old Grouch in Linkage at 16:59:14 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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“I can’t help but think that Republicans have dodged a huge bullet with the McCain loss...”

...says “Steve G,” as it becomes evident that McCain’s graciousness doesn’t go so far as to tell his campaign staff that trashing his running mate is out of bounds.

More:  Ace wants names.  So does RedState.

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 16:08:47 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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Shot across the bow

And just in case the new President is entertaining any thoughts of straying off the leftie reservation, Ralph Nader has a warning for him.

Posted by: Old Grouch in Linkage at 20:57:28 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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And I have to say...

One thing I find curiously liberating is that at least I won’t have to spend the next four years worrying over how to keep a nominally-Republican McCain administration on the straight-and-narrow.

McCain is wrong or luke-warm on so many things:  Immigration, global warming, energy development, the financial meltdown (no Congressional responsibility, eh Senator?).  He’s a typical Senator who can call the scoundrel across the aisle “my esteemed colleague,” and then give up on party principles, saying “it’s the best he could do.”

And he exhibits the curious naivete shared by many beltway Republicans:  That the media is his friend (and that receiving media adulation means you’re doing the right thing). That the Democrats don’t play for keeps.

I had been working on some notes for a Cassandra-style post warning of the coming battles. After eight years of Republican floundering in Washington, I have to say it felt good trashcanning them.

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 20:14:26 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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First thoughts...

Ed Morrissey:

In 2004, Bush beat John Kerry by winning 62.04 million votes. In 2008, Obama won 62.443 million, a gain of only 400,000. In 2004, Kerry garnered 59.028 million votes; John McCain only got 55.386 million. That means this election saw 3.24 million fewer votes than four years ago. Far from being more energized, the nation appeared to be more apathetic.
...
John McCain and the GOP... lost almost seven million voters from 2004, a rather stunning number. ...That’s more than 10% of the Bush vote that got lost in this election. Did they stay home, or did significant numbers of them defect to Obama? I’m guessing the former. The GOP demoralized their base by acting like Democrats for too many years, and the winds of “change” proved too dispiriting this time around.
...
If the GOP wants to win 60 million votes in future national elections, it has to stand for something other than being Democrat Lite. The Republican Party needs clarity, purpose, and most importantly, an end to the hypocrisy of talking smaller government while porking up their districts. When given only a choice between real Democrats and fake Democrats, Americans will choose the former, which we found out in 2006.

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