I’m all raptured out. Maybe some movies tonight.
Preakness Open Thread
Have at it.
Open Thread
After last night’s rapture party, things have been a little sedate around Balloon Juice HQ:
I’m going to re-pot some geraniums and begonias, but that is about all that is going to happen today. Then- Preakness!
Hochul Takes the Lead in NY-26
In the three-way special election in NY-26, a new Siena poll was just released showing Democrat Kathy Hochul leading Jane Corwin, 48-32 42-38 (MOE 3.9%). Erstwhile teabagger Jack Davis is bringing up the rear with 12%. The Republican conventional wisdom on this race was that Republicans who were flirting with Davis would come home to Corwin, but it looks like the opposite is happening. Hochul has gained 11 points since the last Siena poll, and Corwin has gained 2.
Looking at the crosstabs [pdf], Corwin is down by a point in the most conservative, rural and oldest part of the district. That’s devastating for the Corwin campaign and for Republicans in 2012, because it shows that the Hochul strategy of telling the truth about Corwin’s support of the Ryan plan is taking a big bite. Hochul and her spokespeople have been visiting nursing homes in the district to press home the attack, and it’s clearly working.
The election is Tuesday, the momentum in this race is on Hochul’s side, and the Corwin campaign is a complete fail parade. Yesterday, a local newspaper excoriated Corwin for a misleading Chamber of Commerce ad that made it look like they had endorsed Corwin. And, to top that, Corwin, in league with House Republicans, was first to release the news that an amendment opposed by families of Flight 3407 had been pulled. I’ll let you follow that last link by Buffalopundit to get a full taste of how low Corwin will go, and how desperate her campaign has become.
We’ll survive this. Maybe.
When I was 19 or so, I worked for a time in a completely disreputable health food store located in a dying strip mall in what is now probably suburban Atlanta but was then a small town in Georgia that had aspirations of becoming a suburb of Atlanta.
I know there are reputable health food stores, but this wasn’t one of those. The (mostly absent) proprietor wasn’t making enough money in our core business, which was selling over-priced vitamins and crack-pot cancer cures, so he branched out into survivalist gear and supplies. The store was too small to actually stock survivalist gear and supplies, so we were a distributor. That means we had samples of dehydrated food and water purification kits and such to show customers, who would then order from catalogue, and we got a cut of that sale.
Based on this experience, if some Right wing fringe group takes power and we all have to choose, Rapturist or End Times Survivalist, I’m in the Rapturist camp. Rapturists don’t have to buy or do anything. End Time Survivalism is expensive and a lot of work.
If we don’t want to be either of those things, we’re all going to have to vote, because we’re not lunatics, and we shouldn’t be governed by lunatics. Lunatics like noted conservative historian and media favorite Newt Gingrich, who recently floated his new and innovative idea: imposing a poll test on the voters who don’t vote for conservatives.
Which leads me to the point of this post. I am getting emails from people who live in states where conservatives are frantically passing voter suppression laws. I sympathize, completely. I too believe voting is a right not a privilege, the the US Constitution agrees with me, and I like reader emails. But, I’ve done three of four statute-based posts on these laws, and they’re all about the same. Perhaps they’re all the same because they were all drafted by the same national conservative group?
Anyway, looking at these laws all over the country it seems they are targeting not just minority voters, but students, specifically. There’s a reason for that.
Obviously, Democrats, liberals and other voting enthusiasts are going to need some strategy to counter the disenfranchising effects of these laws.
Here’s an excellent site for stats on youth voting which might be a good place to start.
Estimated Crowd: 2000
This is South Carolina Governor NIkki Haley speaking at a Tea Party rally that was supposed to feature Donald Trump. Can we stop pretending this is a real political movement now?
Blood Drive
It’s blood donation time again for all of us who started giving after Gabby Gifford’s shooting. I’ll be giving this morning, and I hope some of you can find the time to do it.
Speaking of Gabby, she’s had a busy week. On Monday, she saw her husband pilot Endeavour into space. On Wednesday, she had her skull repaired with a ceramic plate and a shunt implanted. Surgery went well, and she’s making good progress in rehab:
Giffords is talking, can understand complicated concepts and is able to recognize subtleties in conversation, including sarcastic humor, Carusone said. She understands when people speak to her in Spanish, Carusone said. Giffords was bilingual before the shooting. Giffords’ voice is the same as it was before the shooting, her staff says.
“She understands, if not everything, close to everything,” Carusone said. “For people who know her, she’s a very determined person.”
She’s still having trouble speaking, and with strength her right side, but all in all, it’s a great recovery so far.