Sources tell @FoxBusiness that @MittRomney is keeping the door open for possible 2016 run more @MelissaAFrancis now
— Charles Gasparino (@CGasparino) February 6, 2015
Yooge RT @CPACnews: The CPAC Team is excited to announce that @realDonaldTrump will speak at CPAC 2015! #CPAC2015 pic.twitter.com/CXmFAQRqSq
— Josh Barro (@jbarro) February 6, 2015
And from the Des Moines Registrar, desperate to gin up local content:
Joe Biden, the vice president and an underdog for the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, is scheduled to be back in Iowa next week.
Biden will speak in Des Moines on Thursday, sources familiar with preparations for his trip told The Des Moines Register. His office later confirmed that he will deliver remarks at Drake University and do a roundtable at Des Moines Area Community College on college affordability…
Biden’s timing suggests he wants to keep his name in circulation as presidential material – any time top-shelf politicians make a trip here it reinforces the notion that they harbor aspirations for the top job…
Inevitable solution:
Health Experts Recommend Standing Up At Desk, Leaving Office, Never Coming Back http://t.co/7szPt1fE2N pic.twitter.com/ACiX8vdHPn
— The Onion (@TheOnion) February 6, 2015
***********
Apart from being extremely tired of all this February, what’s on the agenda as we start the weekend?
EriktheRed
“…extremely tired of all this February”??
Damn, woman, it just got here!
MomSense
We are buried in snow! Work has been crazy and my house looks like an 11 week puppy destroyed it–which she did!
Apparently the phone book (do people still use these things?) was delivered today and one of the kids put it on the coffee table. I came home to a soggy, shredded mess of paper everywhere.
Tonight I’m going to have a glass or two of red wine and relax.
Violet
It’s going to be gorgeous where I am this weekend. Plan to spend time outside if this sore throat doesn’t turn into a cold and I don’t end up on the sofa instead. I’m taking Vitamin C every hour or so.
As for the fabulous weekend weather, all you currently snowbound folks can gloat this summer when my weather is 99 degrees with steam bath levels of humidity. All outdoor activities are super fun then because you’re sweating through your clothes before you take two steps out the door and if the heat and humidity don’t get you the mosquitoes will. Good times.
So I’ll enjoy this weekend and look back fondly come July.
Hildebrand
Our house is on the market. Anyone interested in a great house in Deep South Texas, let me know.
MomSense
@Hildebrand:
Can you guarantee it will never snow there?
Baud
The future is now
Pogonip
@MomSense: I love phone books! The Yellow Pages is much quicker than fiddling round on the Internet. I have a treasured 6-year-old Yellow Pages. I’m hoping that by the time it is old enough to drive, the Yellow Pages will be back in vogue again and I can get a new one. Rumor is you can get one by calling AT & T, but after wandering through Option No Man’s land for half an hour I gave up.
Pogonip
Anne, to answer your question, it’s getting up near 50 this weekend. I plan to enjoy it.
Baud
@efgoldman: If you had a chip, you wouldn’t need a link.
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-31042477
Hildebrand
@MomSense: Damn close. We had a dusting of snow on Christmas Day ten years ago, which was the first snow in just about 100 years. It is chilly today, only in the mid-60s – should rebound next week and settle into the 70s and 80s.
shelley
“@realDonaldTrump”? Is that as opposed to the ‘@bogusDonaldTrump’? Oh, wait, there one and the same.
srv
Bobby J speaks truth to power:
Perhaps you can all surrender to the Spanish Inquisition.
Violet
@Baud:
The Today Show did a piece on it this week. Their reporter got the chip in his hand and they had a live segment where he was going to use it to open the door. And it didn’t work! He kept trying and trying and it didn’t work. Hysterical.
Here’s the Today Show page on it. Don’t know if they’ll have that part in their video.
NY Daily News has some screenshots of the fail.
MomSense
@Pogonip:
So does my pup!
My mom loves her phone book, too. I never use it but mostly because my world is so routine that I am rarely looking up new numbers. I didn’t even request it so I have no idea which company even provided it and the cover as well as most of the contents are in pieces.
I don’t know if anyone has posted this Krugman article yet but it’s about the “game of chicken” being played between Greece and the European Central Bank AKA Germany.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/06/opinion/a-game-of-chicken.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=c-column-top-span-region®ion=c-column-top-span-region&WT.nav=c-column-top-span-region&_r=0
shelley
@efgoldman: when I first saw ‘implanted chip,’ my first thought was ‘Romney! We knew it all along!’
MomSense
@Hildebrand:
Sounds heavenly. I’ve actually been thinking of moving south but for me south is more like Massachusetts.
ThresherK
@Baud: Beats my current method of carrying around the CEO’s retinas in my jacket pocket.
For the price of two used coils and four (new) spark plugs (and my labor), the car has passed the re-registration test. The most fun was the “pedal dance”, a series of steps that makes the Check Engine light flash the OBD code in the comfort of my own garage (53F), rather than outside at the auto parts store or after waiting at my mechanic’s.
Feeling exceptionally handy and learned. The only problem is now that I know so much about fixing this rig it makes me want to keep it longer than thru this summer.
TaMara (BHF)
@efgoldman: One morning I was in the shower and heard what sounded like a bomb went off. Then….water reduces to a trickle. Me with shampoo in my hair, wrapped a towel around and went to see WTF. The water main had broken just three houses down, geyser into the air, street flooded.
We were without water for about 24 hours. That’s when I started keeping at least a 5 gallons of bottled water stashed in the pantry.
Hope yours is quicker and easier.
Baud
@srv:
Conservatives are so cute when they think they can talk down to the President.
dmsilev
@srv:
True enough, though the medievalist Christian threat is still alive and well. As evidenced by vast swaths of the Republican Party.
Pogonip
@MomSense: Well, your dog has good taste, if not the best method of expressing it.
All this talk of dogs makes me want one. Unfortunately we rent and dog shelters usually don’t want that. I understand their reasoning: if the property is sold and the new landlord says no pets, you’ll have to return the dog and then they have to find it a home again. So I guess we’ll stick with cats (ain’t no way I’d buy a house in the U.S.).
Baud
@Violet:
I can’t believe technology was glitchy.
Pogonip
@TaMara (BHF): As infrastructure continues to decay, I imagine keeping emergency water will become routine.
kindness
Going to see Jupiter Ascending tomorrow at one of the fancy got everything theaters tomorrow.
I do enjoy SciFi & the Wakowski’s stuff. We’ll see.
Raining out here now thank God. No rain at all in January. This 4 month span is when we get our water. We need more.
Josie
@MomSense: It sounds heavenly until you learn of the summers with temperature highs over 100 degrees for weeks at a time and night temps that don’t drop below 80 degrees. There is a price to be paid for those mild winters.
Violet
@efgoldman: Only if you’ll kindly perform the same anatomically impossible act upon yourself during the summer.
Pogonip
@efgoldman: Don’t you just hate southern and southwestern weather gloaters? I say that in July we pay them back with interest. “Ha ha, WE can walk 500 feet without dripping sweat!”
Violet
TPM headline:
MomSense
@Josie:
I love hot weather, though! My stepsister lived in Houston for a few years and I visited in the summer–with ridiculous humidity and enjoyed it. Actually there was one afternoon right before a thunderstorm when the humidity was so oppressive I did find it overwhelming.
satby
@Pogonip: I keep a couple of gallons, because with a well, the pump won’t work without electricity. Which can fail often out here in the rural hellscape that is Michigassippi.
Violet
@Baud: They also showed the reporter’s hand with the chip in it. I don’t know how long prior he’d had it implanted but the chip area looked swollen and inflamed and painful. It didn’t look like nothing to me.
catclub
@Pogonip:
How about sending them a letter. The surprise factor alone might work.
gogol's wife
@efgoldman:
Right. I can’t even drive now, because I can’t see over the snowdrifts. I am sick of it! More coming Monday! ARRGGGHHHH
Howard Beale IV
@Baud:
uhhhh-don’t think so. Unless they’re two-way handshaking and an EMV-like security protocol that prevents side-channel/MITM attacks, forget about it.
Calouste
@Violet: Going to be great fun when, as usual, different standards develop and you need different implants for your work, the gym, your house, the kids’ school….
And why implant it when you could wear it as a ring or a bracelet or clipped onto your watch or you phone or whatever?
MomSense
@efgoldman:
I actually put air conditioners in the windows starting the summer before last. I had never needed AC before that summer but the summer of 2013 really was brutal. Last summer was lovely except for the day I moved my mom into assisted living. It was 103 that day.
@gogol’s wife:
I don’t know where we will put the snow! The snowbank in front of the house by the driveway is about 8 feet high. I look out any window on the first floor and just see snowbanks. Also had to rake the roof which was no fun at all.
Hildebrand
@Josie: Bingo. I was more than happy to teach the Study Abroad classes during the Summer term – summer in Florence or Salamanca is much better than the Valley.
Pogonip
@catclub: I wonder where I could get an address? They’re not in the Yellow Pages.
Violet
@Calouste: Not to mention that some people are going to have skin or other physical reactions to the metal or plastic or whatever they’re using in the implanted device and those people won’t be able to use it. Would that mean they couldn’t have a job? Not to mention infection risk and associated issues if you change employers and have to have the first one removed and another one implanted.
What if your employer requires you to have the implanted device? That seems really creepy. Having to carry around a card or badge is annoying enough but having to physically alter your body in order to get into a building for work seems really wrong.
Cacti
I recently moved from the Phoenix area to the Seattle area, and it appears not a moment too soon.
In my forwarded mail, I just got a jury summons from Tempe Municipal Court.
AZ sure loved to summon me for jury duty. That would have been my 3rd one in 8-years. Wish my number came up that often on the good kind of lottery.
Baud
@Howard Beale IV:
My thoughts exactly.
Josie
@Hildebrand: I taught at a bird sanctuary and taught outdoor camps for elementary children during three summers. After the last one, I told my supervisors that I had no more summers left in me. At 70 years of age, it was just more than I could handle. We would finish the morning sopping wet on every inch of our bodies. The kids were ok with it, the adults not so much.
@MomSense: Wow. If you liked Houston in the summer, you truly were a glutton for punishment.
MomSense
@Hildebrand:
Florence (they call it il forno) is pretty hot in the summer.
Howard Beale IV
@MomSense: At least in this blog post Krugman didn’t sound like the suck-up he normally does. , although he does lay the Golden Dawn shibboleth rather thick. The problem here is that there is no stopping the trucks, and the Euro will take it in the shorts (literally and figuratively). The Euro was always a monetary union, but was never a political/fiscal union-it was their attempt to try to usurp US dollar hegemony in the world economy-and when the Great “Recession” hit, it showed all of its flaws in short order.
burnspbesq
Sports overload tomorrow, starting with the North London derby at 4:45 a.m. Pacific time.
WereBear
@Baud: I predicted this years ago. And, obviously, so did people in a position to do something about it :)
Violet
@Cacti:
I had two in about five months last year.
burnspbesq
@Howard Beale IV:
You and I must reside in different, parallel universes, because the person you describe doesn’t exist in mine.
BillinGlendaleCA
@efgoldman: Mid 70’s here LALAland, though it may rain a bit tomorrow.
the Conster
@efgoldman:
We got married in July 1977 in Sudbury (got you beat!!), and it was perfect weather. August in New England is almost always teh suxx0r for humidity.
burnspbesq
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Hope not. I have to drive up there tomorrow for an event at USC.
Howard Beale IV
@Baud: There was also the apocryphal stories of high-end Mercedes-Benz cars in Asia that used finger-print readers to start their cars-and the thieves who lopped the owner’s fingers off to boost them.
Anything using RFID can be easily intercepted over a good distance, hence the requirement of a encrypted tunnel to do key exchanges, validation and the transaction proper-anything less than that is a recipe for disaster.
Peale
OK. I guess maybe they thought it was where two door cars lay their eggs.
Roger Moore
@Calouste:
You’re much more likely to lose your ring/bracelet/watch/whatever than your hand.
Tree With Water
“Rodriguez, who will turn 40 in July, is owed $61 million over the next three seasons. If he hits six more home runs, he will tie Willie Mays for fourth on the all-time list, which would make him eligible for a $6 million bonus”.
The Yankees cut that deal AFTER Rodriguez had already copped to PED use earlier in his career.
Howard Beale IV
@burnspbesq:
That depends on who’s ox Krugman decides to gore, and in which domain. Care to cite an example?
SiubhanDuinne
@srv:
The sarcastic tone does not become him.
VincentN
@Violet: There’s also the Demolition Man problem where thieves will try to steal your hand rather than your security badge.
catclub
@Pogonip: Usually it is on the bill.
Gravenstone
So I just found out that my stepfather (a few states removed) spent the better part of this week in the hospital. Apparently they removed a tumor near his genitals that may or may not have been responsible for the blood he’d been passing. This less than a month after just finishing a course of radiotherapy for prostate cancer, which we thought may have been the source of the bleeding. I am not remotely happy that 1) not one of his local friends thought to contact me and 2) how the fuck did his docs miss this second tumor?
Violet
@VincentN: Yeah, for most of us that wouldn’t be a problem but for those with more access it would be a risk.
Violet
@Gravenstone: Wow. Glad they found it but yeah, I’d be ticked off too. At lest you know now and can go forward from here. Hopefully he’ll begin to improve after this.
Pogonip
@catclub: We don’t have AT & T, we have Verizon.
Pogonip
@efgoldman: Wow. That’s tropical!
Jeffro
I cannot believe I’m going to be out of town (DC) during CPAC…I really wanted to attend with my right-wing younger brother in tow and see who has more fun. Me, of course. I guess there’s always 2016…
Hildebrand
@MomSense: Indeed, but at least the nights cooled off significantly. Of course, dealing with a bit of heat whilst in Florence is a great deal different than Deep South Texas – gelato and wine go rather a long way to making things quite livable.
seaboogie
We have 100% humidity in NorCal – as in RAIN! Steady soaking rain for four days predicted – YAY!
Tree With Water
@Gravenstone: My father’s doctor extended his regrets to our family in light of the undiagnosed brain tumor that took him. Regret less because it wasn’t spotted, I think, than because my dad underwent an additional surgery which the tumor had rendered superfluous. It was a very decent thing for him to have said, an admission many others would have probably thought twice about before offering up. I appreciated it, anyway, and thought it reflected well on his profession- which, after all, is a brutally difficult profession in which to toil. Humanity is indebted to those for whom it is a calling (god bless nurses).
Tommy
I am seeing Sports Illustrated is going to have a “full size” women. I might be a little of a dick about the size of women I will date. Will admit that. But have we gotten to the fact that the “model” is the women I’d like to date. I’ve never wanted to date a women that doesn’t have a pound or two on her. I don’t want to lay my head on your lap and feel your pelvis bone pierce my ear.
trollhattan
@Tommy:
And here I thought they had that handled with Kate Upton. She has many plusses.
jl
@srv:
” We will be happy to keep an eye out for runaway Christians, ”
I made a comment that if Jindal said that sarcstically, it is a sure sign some Christian extremists will be up to evil deeds soon. But FYWP ate the comment. Now I am really worried.
After Jindal made fun of volcano research, a big volcano blew up and disrupted the economy of Europe. After Jindal predicted Louisiana economy would take off and budge woes gone, the place went broke.
As I said in eated comment, if Jindal makes fun of earthquake research, I am running to my care and driving east out of SF Bay Area immediately. I won’t wait around to see what happens. Only hope for us on west coast is that such a Jindal comment will trigger something in the New Madrid area.
trollhattan
@jl:
Just your luck–Hayward Fault breaks loose then five hours later Mt. Lassen erupts.
Damn you, Jindal!!!
jl
And, how is Trump going to CPAC even news to dump? That is a standard grifter networking business opportunity, nothing to do with running for president, necessarily.
I do hope Biden does run in Democratic primary. He won’t be able to stay in it very long, especially if some others challenge HRC, but I think he will make a valuable contribution to the debate.
At least would be a nice contrast to to see a real informed and civilized debate between the Democratic candidates, as a nice compare and contrast to the GOP crazy show, and especially the GOP supposed centrists impeaching themselves.
I remember how the vicious campaign between Obama and HRC doomed the Democrats and threw them into disarray (or even deeper disarray, since they are reported to always be in disarray). Another Democratic primary with some of that flavor would be good.
Iowa Old Lady
@efgoldman: Good excuse to go to a hotel.
Tommy
@efgoldman: Mom and dad in 1966.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/webranding/7263409426/
Mom and dad ……
BillinGlendaleCA
@Pogonip: It’s a dry heat here, ha!
danielx
@jl:
Since I’m in the midwest, I hope you don’t take it amiss if I don’t share your hope – I prefer the Ohio River flowing in the direction it does now, thankyewverymuch.
Now on that CPAC poster, one look was plenty. I’ve had already had enough experiences with looking a horse’s ass in the face. Reports from CPAC should be just oodles of fun, though, since it’s generally used by young con attendees of any and all sexual persuasions to get their ya-yas out. They reckon they’re already in Sodom on the Potomac, so they might as well indulge in all those things that might be frowned upon in Cedar Rapids or Greenville or Lubbock or wherever. (Pro tip, young cons, make a field trip to Georgetown. They have one of “those” stores that has shit you won’t believe, and you can get scared by a real live dominatrix. You know you want to, because you’ve been a bad, bad boy, and besides, nobody in Rapid City will ever see those strap marks on your ass.)
I’d love to see on-site reporting from the Rude Pundit or TBogg, although you’d have to have a cast iron stomach and will of the same to attend if you weren’t a True Believer.
Also too, it was six degrees above this morning and is supposed to be in the fifties this weekend. Is this a great place to live or what?
BillinGlendaleCA
@burnspbesq:
My condolences.
the Conster
@efgoldman:
The Martha Mary Chapel, but not at the Wayside Inn, which has been the site of almost every other family celebration since – anniversaries, Christmas dinners, milestone birthdays and post funeral gatherings. It’s a special place to me. The Martha Mary Chapel is in the movie The Ghost of Girlfriends Past with Jennifer Garner as the bride, and also with Ricky Gervais in the Invention of Lying. Standing right where he was. It’s freaky to see it in the movies, but it’s that cute.
Alice
@Hildebrand: My house is in the process of going on the market too – not in deep south Texas, but a Houston suburb. Isn’t packing fun?
Somebody else mentioned jury duty, and crazy as it sounds, being called for jury duty in downtown Houston would be in my top 10 reasons for moving the hell out of here. I’m happy to report for jury duty in my local districts all day long, but I’d almost rather slash my wrists than have to go to downtown Houston for any reason whatsoever. Guess I ain’t much of a city girl.
Woodrowfan
come live in the DC area. We can get all four seasons in one week!
dmhlt
Kill the FUCKING Auto-Play on the Brian Williams post!
What a Cluster-Fuck!
Corner Stone
@Tommy:
I somehow feel like I would be stunned at the views you have regarding dating acceptable women.
Morzer
@efgoldman:
I am sorry the food keeps coming back up. Hopefully no serious harm was done to your long-term health.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
I missed the 50 Shades discussion earlier, but thought I’d toss this in as a footnote to it.
Talking Sense About ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’, or, Fanfiction, Feminism, and BDSM
Morzer
@efgoldman:
From both ends? Alas and alack! If only Obamacare hadn’t resulted in your being unable to secure medical assistance in the Socialist hellhole of Massachusetts!
Morzer
@efgoldman:
Better than New Hampshire, at any rate.
Wag
Were up in the Colorado mountains for the weekend and are going to the Alpine Skiing World Championships at Beaver Creek. Tomorrow is the men’s downhill and the first day of the women’s combined. The winner of the combined is the best all round skier, because the winner has the best time an a run on the downhill course followed by two runs on a slalom course. The winner of the combined needs both speed and finesse Going to be an exciting time!
daveX99
haha. that picture of trump is the win.
the personification of petulance.
chopper
@srv:
I didn’t know that Jim Crow happened during the Middle Ages.
The more you know.