Turnout was expected to be about 50,000, so the actual vote was more than twice the prediction.
Another interesting factoid: in 2004, the Republican candidate for this seat (Ron Portman) took it 72 percent to 28 percent.
Since this was a special election, Schmidt – who is truly one of the worst candidates ever to come down the pike – is up again in 14 months.
Against the advice of his legal team, Robert Novak wrote a column yesterday in the Chicago Sun-Times that kind of defends his role in the outing of Valerie Plame (Novak published her name first), but really seems to be splitting hairs in his own defense while flinging mean-spirited barbs at Joseph Wilson, Plame’s husband.
Novak appears to be playing the role of the abused hound who, finally free of his fetters, can defend his besmirched good name:
Though frustrated, I have followed the advice of my attorneys and written almost nothing about the CIA leak over two years because of a criminal investigation by a federal special prosecutor. The lawyers also urged me not to write this.
In response, Nick Madigan wrote today in the Baltimore Sun a column that tries to ascertain what Novak is trying to say with his half-explanations and Wilson smears.
Novak’s decision to address only partially the issue of his involvement, after many months of unanswered questions about it, did not sit well with some fellow journalists.
“It’s sort of frustrating,” said Michael Hoyt, executive editor of Columbia Journalism Review. “It’s like the prairie dog who sticks his head up and goes back down again into the dark, where you can’t ask him any more questions.”
In Novak’s column yesterday, Hoyt said, “he defends himself, but whether he’s defending himself by splitting hairs is another question.”
Gary Hill, chairman of the ethics committee of the Society of Professional Journalists, said:
“But what about Novak? What has he done and how has he escaped the pressure? … Is he not talking or is he just talking at the moment? He appears to be having it both ways. He’s defending himself in this particular instance while at the same time not telling us everything he knows.”
Bob — you shoulda listened to your lawyers ….
In his never-ending pandering to Christian conservative groups, George Bush today told a group of Texas journalists that intelligent design should be taught alongside evolution in schools. Bush, who is a living argument that not all humans have reached the same plateau of evolution, said in an Associated Press wire story:
“I think that part of education is to expose people to different schools of thought,” Bush said. “You’re asking me whether or not people ought to be exposed to different ideas, the answer is yes.”
Let’s take that assertion to its logical conclusion. Then should Marx’s “Manifesto” and Mao’s “Little Red Book” and Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” be taught alongside the Constitution and Bill of Rights? Astrology alongside astronomy and physics? Alchemy alongside chemistry?
It seems that for every logical good idea (evolution), there’s its counterpart — an illogical bad idea (intelligent design). Christian conservatives say that the universe is too complex to be explained by evolution and could only be the product of the mind of an infinite God. To me, those two alternatives are not incompatible, while the notion that the world and all that’s in it was made in six days 6,000 years ago is just silly.
I give you an example that for me can support either argument — the plaster bag worm. We get these in my house. They are about a quarter-inch long and look like a little bag of plaster, except when the skinny red thing snakes out of one end of the bag. They eat one thing — spider webs.
Now whether (a) over millions of years of evolution, this critter was naturally selected to eat spider webs because there are spider webs everywhere, or (b) God makes the spider, then says, “Holy shit, We need something to eat the universe’s spider webs or We’ll be overrun by gossamer threads,” doesn’t matter because the plaster bag worm simply exists, and that’s enough for me.
A billboard company is refusing to run ads they claim do not meet “community standards” in 38 Georgia counties because of their wording. What are these obscene and objectionable words?
They announce that gay people exist.
James Locke, general manager for Lamar Outdoor Advertising’s operations in South Georgia, said he declined to sell ad space to the Atlanta-based Georgia Equality because of the wording on the signs.
“We just didn’t feel the copy was right for those markets,” Locke told Morris News Service in a telephone interview.
The billboards proposed by Georgia Equality feature images of professionals, such as a male firefighter and a female doctor, and include tag lines that read, “I protect you. And … I am gay. We Are Your Neighbors.”
Another company overlooked the obscenity contained in the ads, and is running the billboards in eight counties comprising metro Atlanta. No reports of offended community members have yet surfaced.
The company’s web site claims it has special expertise at reading area markets. It also says it provides all the choices an advertiser needs.
As long as it isn’t ill-mannered enough to be out of the closet?
Lamar’s business strategy is to be the premier provider of outdoor advertising in each of the markets it serves…We can also help with…software that allows us to analyze the target audience and its demographics…Lamar delivers both the choices and the support that allow advertisers to deliver their messages with maximum impact.
After first claiming the boards were sold, or unavailable, the Lamar guy finally admitted he just isn’t comfortable with the ads.
Locke, the Lamar manager, said he would be open to selling ads to Georgia Equality as long as the wording of the ads was altered.
When asked twice to point out which words in the Georgia Equality billboard were objectionable, Locke would not identify any specific words.
“We’re not turning down business from Georgia Equality, we’re just turning down these actual ads,” he said.
Lamar is a publicly-traded company and sells boards in 40 states and Canada. PR readers know what to do. If you’re in a position to determine your company’s billboard placement, don’t buy from Lamar. Even if you aren’t, email the company’s headquarters with your opinion at tdoran@lamarhq.com.
Robert Parry in Consortium News:
Right-wing columnist Robert Novak’s new attack on former Ambassador Joseph Wilson – that he was “discarded a year ago by the Kerry presidential campaign” – recycled a disputed report from Talon News correspondent Jeff Gannon, who was unmasked earlier this year as a pro-Republican operative working under an assumed name.
In an Aug. 1 column, Novak cited the Kerry campaign’s supposed rejection of Wilson to further denigrate the former ambassador, who has become a bete noire to Republicans since he charged in an opinion article on July 6, 2003, that the Bush administration “twisted” intelligence on Iraq’s nuclear weapons program…
Novak’s column also resumed the Right’s long-running assault on Wilson’s credibility. Near the end of the column, Novak wrote that “Joseph Wilson was discarded a year ago by the Kerry presidential campaign after the Senate [intelligence] committee reported that much of what he [Wilson] said ‘had no basis in fact.’”
However, Novak’s sentence appears to be wrong on both its points. The Senate Intelligence Committee did not conclude that Wilson’s statements about the Iraqi intelligence “had no basis in fact.” That was a phrase that Novak culled from “additional views” of three Republican senators.
Take that, country club Republicans! The California Supreme Court ruled 6-0 on Monday that country clubs – and all businesses – that offer discounts to opposite sex spouses must do the same for same sex partners.
The ruling will affect a broad range of businesses, including banks and mortgage lenders, auto insurers and health clubs. Lenders will have to consider domestic partners’ joint income in making loans, and insurers will have to offer the same multiple-driver discounts they give married couples.
The ruling stated, “A business that extends benefits to spouses it denies to registered domestic partners engages in impermissible marital status discrimination.”
Trump’s cheated multiple times on multiple wives, it’s true.
He’s cheated the Tax Man out of millions, not just a few.
But just when you thought
There was something that couldn’t be bought,
Turns out he cheats at golf (only at his own courses), too.
