The Occasional Observer

Couldn't be happier with the Mets new front office. Sandy Alderson is a pro, and by all accounts a grown up who doesn't even carry a switchblade. Terry Collins shows lots of fire and heart, and obviously expects his ballplayers to perform.

What will all this mean next season? I doubt it will mean too much to W-L bottom line. But it will mean I'm happy to buy tickets and go to games again, and can end my self-imposed ban on (in some small way) funding the franchise.

I'm glad I paid them not to include the footage of me in this video:

From Upstate Political Report:

Looks like Rent is Too Damn High mogul Jimmy McMillan is fixing to sue the Board of Elections for omitting the "Damn" from Rent is too Damn High" during two previous elections. The board claims that the name was too [Damn] long to fit on the ballots.

Jimmy spells out how he feels here:

"I would love to put on my website that the Board of Elections can suck my dick, I would love to do that, but I got little children going to my website, I can't do it, the motherfuckers. I would love to, before every one of them go to bed at night, suckin' my damn dick. That's what I'd love to put on my website. Every fuckin' one of them, you know."

Sometimes a picture stands on its own. This is one of those times. Thanks to Drudge.

From Yahoo!:

Last night in front of an audience of hundreds at a presentation at the University of Southern California, TV personality Bill Nye — popularly known as the "Science Guy" — collapsed midsentence as he walked toward a podium. Early indications are that Nye is OK, but what's odd about the incident isn't so much Nye's slight health setback as the crowd's reaction. Or, more precisely, its nonreaction, according to several accounts.

It appears that the students in attendance, rather than getting up from their seats to rush to Nye's aid, instead pulled out their mobile devices to post information about Nye's loss of consciousness...

Indeed, a cursory search on Twitter revealed a virtual play-by-play account of the incident. One student wrote, "Bill Nye tripped on his computer cord while speaking at USC, was out for abt 5 secs, got back up, spoke w/ slurred speech and fainted."

(Or at least California.)

CA state Supreme Court ruled that illegal immigrants are entitled to the same tuition breaks as other in-state students.

I am so beside myself that you could even figure out how to twist logic to arrive at this unanimous decision that I have no comments to post.

It's hard to overstate just how egocentric this guy is. According to this insightful article that just came out on the Daily Beast, Keith is a man on an island at NBC. Everyone in management, and in the news department, can't stand him. Rachel Maddow is, not surprisingly, the exception here.

It's interesting how some pompous liberals insist on playing right into stereotypes. Just in case you think he's playing a role on TV, that his "I'm-smarter-than-you" shtick is put on and not genuine, well, not so much:

"Even those who admired Olbermann’s broadcasting skills felt that his behavior, such as making his staff leave notes outside his door rather than speaking to him, had gone too far....

Willingness to throw colleagues under the bus, with disinformation, to save his own hide:

"The sniping grew worse. Olbermann’s side asked why he was being penalized when Joe Scarborough, the former Republican congressman who hosted Morning Joe, had given $5,000 to a state candidate in Alabama the previous spring. Griffin checked and Scarborough provided the bank record showing that his wife had made the donation to a friend..."

Even among his liberal colleagues he's a bridge too far:

"Network staffers use phrases like “scorched-earth policy” and “totally narcissistic response” to describe how Olbermann has dealt with criticism of his political donations...The word hypocrisy has frequently been aimed at Olbermann."

Repeat offender:

"Olbermann quit MSNBC once before, in 1998, after openly criticizing his bosses. He is, today, a far bigger star. Management doesn’t want to turn him into a martyr, but no one will be shocked if he winds up leaving again."

He similarly burned bridges at ESPN. From his wiki:

... he referred to Bristol, Connecticut (ESPN's headquarters), as a "'Godforsaken place." Olbermann abruptly left ESPN under a cloud of controversy, apparently burning his bridges with the network's management; this began a long and drawn-out feud between Olbermann and ESPN...

...in an appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman, he said: "If you burn a bridge, you can possibly build a new bridge, but if there's no river any more, that's a lot of trouble." During the same interview, Olbermann stated that he had recently learned that as a result of ESPN's agreeing to let him return to the airwaves, he was banned from ESPN's main (Bristol, Connecticut) campus.

From a piece in Salon:

Amid chatter that Olbermann might seek a return to the network in 2001, ESPN P.R. officer Mike Soltys famously said: "He didn't burn bridges here, he napalmed them."

Later in the same article:

In 1999, after leaving MSNBC, Olbermann joined the Rupert Murdoch-owned Fox Sports Net, where he anchored "The Keith Olbermann Evening News," which was in direct competition with "SportsCenter." The new program proved unable to beat its ESPN rival's ratings, and his contract with Fox was terminated early, in the spring of 2001. Murdoch later said he "fired" Olbermann because "he was crazy," to which Olbermann replied: "As to the 'crazy' part, he had to pay me $800,000 for the rest of 2001, and lord knows how many tens of millions I’ve helped MSNBC take out of his pocket ever since -- so: who’s crazy?" Murdoch and his empire became one of Olbermann's favorite punching bags as he developed "Countdown" at MSNBC.

Um, really? You're taking money away from the most dominant name in cable news?

It's amazing that he's not just a know-it-all on TV. The man is just a bad human being, someone whose professional douchebaggery flows naturally from his spiteful and self-obsessed personality.

Dems infighting: Larry Summers is the whipping boy for O's problems.

GOP infighting: Mitch McConnell seems bent on preserving the use of earmarks. Exactly the wrong approach after the tea party-infused success of the last election. Quin Hillyer with a good write up here.

When you get shot, there's no sense going to the hospital on an empty stomach.

That's the only way I can interpret this article, which is a fairly lengthy indictment of the way Holder has been operating as a mini-tyrant and the President's axe man.

I'm sure this is out in the conservative journo-sphere on purpose. A trial balloon or announcement of what's coming.

I know they've made this Twitter feed into a CBS sitcom, but damn if it isn't pretty funny.

Warning: NSFW

We're not invading in your country.

We're just moving our soldiers inside territory that you thought belonged to you. But Google Maps says all your lands are belongs to us.

It is Google, after all.

FoxNews highlighting 12 possible GOP presidential candidates, each weeknight at 6 PM for the next couple of weeks. T-Paw tonight.

http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/05/olbermann-suspended-from-msnbc-for-campaign-donations/?src=me

That is all.

you've got to put this on the table.

Mitch Daniels gets big points for being the first GOP Presidential hopeful to do so.

You can't even make it up.

20,000 votes get "found" for the Democrat in the most urban districts two days after the election.

Hartford papers referring to their state as having a "Florida-like" election.

SarahPAC has a self-congratulatory ad out less than 36 hours after the polls closed. Sure looks like a campaign ad. Maybe Sarah's thinking of running for Sen-AK or something.

A law in Iowa defining marraige as being between one man and one woman was ruled to violate the state's constituion by three activist judges. They were not retained. WIN!

Right to Hunt ballot measures were passed in Arkansas, South Carolina and Tennessee. WIN!

Right to hunt did not pass in Arizona. FAIL!

Kansas added the right to bear arms to their state consistitution. WIN!

Anti-Obamacare measures passed in Arizona and Colorado. WIN!

Secret Ballots in Union elections were affirmed in Arizona, South Carolina, South Dakota nad Utah. WIN!

GOP will take over house committee leadership. WIN!

California did not legalize smoking the pot. WIN!

Why is it, the day after elections, it's always in the Dem heavy district that the "counting" (ballot stuffing?) is ongoing. Look at CO-Sen for example. Every county in the state is showing 100% of precincts reporting, except for Boulder County, the Democratic and heavily populated stronghold. Only 85% of Boulder precincts in, progress at a snail's pace, etc.

Same story in CA-Sen. As Boxer is giving her victory speech, she says, we're ahead by thousands of votes, yada, yada, yada, and "Los Angeles is still out." Of course it is. The Inland Empire? You can guess the red districts counted their votes and dutifully reported them within 90 minutes of the polls closing. 5 hours later, Dem precincts are still "counting."

CT-4: The old Chris Shays Congressional District. Debicella (R) has a lead all night, but with only 10% of the vote outstanding, you know all the Dem precincts are yet to report, b/c AP already called it for the incumbent. Are Bridgeport polling staff simply incapable of doing their jobs? Are they dumb or crooked? I'd love to know. [Edit: Here's more shadiness w/r/t this seat. CT SOS has announced unofficially that the Dem has won without releasing the full count and without counting absentees, seems to imply they won't count the absentees and that Debicellas has no recourse]

WA-Senate: "No one knows how many votes" are outstanding. Gotta love mail-in voting.

Especially since we've seen this story over, and over again. WA-Gov in '04, with fine folks of Kings County comes to mind. And who can forget the Broward County/Palm Beach fiasco?

In the Senate races, I find it interesting that newcomers were able to win on the GOP side regardless of ideology, whether moderate (Ayotte, Kirk), libertarian (Paul), or stridently conservative (Toomey and Rubio). So long as they were well-spoken, on message, and avoided making costly gaffes.

Meanwhile, no matter how favorable the prevailing winds may have been politically, the low quality, gaffe-prone, un-vetted crazies couldn't carry conservative states in a very favorable environment (Angle, Buck, Miller).

Quality matters, folks.

Please go away. You may start your inevitable career as a conservative "pundit" (read: punching bag/confirmation of low conservative intelligence) on MSNBC now. Just forget about elected office.

Yours truly,
Coalition Republicans Against Zany Youngsters

GOP managed to eek out victories in some very important races, particularly in the Rust Belt. Governorships in MI, OH, and PA will be huge, particularly as we approach redistricting and the 2012 election.

Senate wins in IL, OH, PA, and WI are also big.

Reid winning in NV is certainly a disappointment, as were the flameouts in CA, WV, and CT. WA looks likely to go Dem as well. CO is still too close to call, and looks likely to be headed to a recount.

The Palin-endorsed candidates got shellacked: Miller looks to be losing to Murkowski, Buck may well lose, Angle lost, O'Donnell lost, and Fiorina lost. This despite the fact that the GOP seemed to be winning across the country in the House.

I can't help but wonder what would have happened with Lowden in NV, Castle in DE, and Norton in CO. GOP gain would have been +9 instead of +6/7.

At this point, Blumenthal, Manchin and Coons have all enjoyed relatively quick victories. Color me concerned about Toomey, Kasich, and Kirk.

We still have an outside shot at the Senate if we sweep out West (NV, WA and CA), but based on the way numbers are coming in back East, I have little reason to believe Fiorina will be able to overcome the polls.

Boom goes the dynamite:

RUBIO WINS!!!!! If nothing else happened this year, this is HUUUUUUGGGGEEEE!!!!!

Blumenthal wins in CT. Booooooooooooo........

Coons wins in DE. Boooooooooo.........

Ayotte in NH. No suprise there.

Blunt in MO. No surprise.

This means WV is now a near necessity if the GOP is to win the Senate. With CNN reporting Raese trailing in the exit polls by 7%,not looking good for the GOP to take the Senate. We'd need a sweep out west, in IL, NV, WA and CA.

They post raw exit poll data on SEN WV, b/c it favors their candidate. They admit they've never done it for any other race.

Dying to get some OH results. Also looking forward to seeing what happens in NC 11.

Coats wins. Lower margins than I thought thus far.

Indiana CDs 2, 8 & 9, seem to be going GOP. Big if we take all three.

In KY, Paul wins by what CNN is calling a "landslide". Surprising and a good sign, if true.

However, KY 6, thought to be in play, seems to be Dem +10 with 20% of the vote in. In KY 3, the Dem is also ahead early.

I'll be settling into the war room in a few hours to live blog. Feel free to join in if anyone else is home and following the events of the eve.