February 14, 2013

Gotcher Zombies, Eh?

February 14, 2013June 23, 2015 Buck Banks

I fear for our neighbors to the north’s imminent collapse.
The result of drinking too many Labatts, perhaps?
It is with a sense of wonderment
That we note the Canadian Parliament
Actually debated preparations for a zombie apocalypse.

Reid Laments First-Ever Filibuster of Presidential Nomination

February 14, 2013 Buck Banks

This is the first time in the history that a presidential nominee for secretary of defense has been filibustered. What a shame.

— Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), facing stiff Republican opposition to moving quickly on Chuck Hagel’s nomination to be secretary of defense, filed a cloture motion this afternoon to cut off debate, Politico reports.

GOP Can’t Get Away with Blaming Sequester on Obama

February 14, 2013 Buck Banks

I think it’s a mistake on the part of Republicans to try to pin the sequester on Obama. It’s totally disingenuous.

— Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI), quoted by BuzzFeed, adding “you can’t vote for something and, with a straight face, go blame the other guy for its existence in law.”

Lawmakers Just Don’t Grok the Internet

February 14, 2013 Buck Banks

5 out of 535

Members of Congress — Rep. Jared Polis, Rep. Zoe Lofgren, Rep Bob Goodlatte, Rep. Jason Chaffetz, and Rep. Darrell Issa — are recognized as being fluent in the language of the Internet, according to Businessweek.

If Nate Silver Influences Elections, He’ll Stop

February 14, 2013February 15, 2013 Buck Banks

The polls can certainly affect elections at times. I hope people don’t take the forecasts too seriously. You’d rather have an experiment where you record it off from the actual voters, in a sense, but we’ll see. If it gets really weird in 2014, in 2016, then maybe I’ll stop doing it. I don’t want to influence the democratic process in a negative way.

— Pollster Nate Silver, saying that he might stop doing his election forecasts after the 2014 or 2016 elections should his projections actually influence the elections’ outcome, according to Student Life.

Day: February 14, 2013

Gotcher Zombies, Eh?

Reid Laments First-Ever Filibuster of Presidential Nomination

This is the first time in the history that a presidential nominee for secretary of defense has been filibustered. What a shame.

— Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), facing stiff Republican opposition to moving quickly on Chuck Hagel’s nomination to be secretary of defense, filed a cloture motion this afternoon to cut off debate, Politico reports.

GOP Can’t Get Away with Blaming Sequester on Obama

I think it’s a mistake on the part of Republicans to try to pin the sequester on Obama. It’s totally disingenuous.

— Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI), quoted by BuzzFeed, adding “you can’t vote for something and, with a straight face, go blame the other guy for its existence in law.”

Lawmakers Just Don’t Grok the Internet

5 out of 535

Members of Congress — Rep. Jared Polis, Rep. Zoe Lofgren, Rep Bob Goodlatte, Rep. Jason Chaffetz, and Rep. Darrell Issa — are recognized as being fluent in the language of the Internet, according to Businessweek.

If Nate Silver Influences Elections, He’ll Stop

— Pollster Nate Silver, saying that he might stop doing his election forecasts after the 2014 or 2016 elections should his projections actually influence the elections’ outcome, according to Student Life.

Poetic Justice

Verbatim

“One woman at a rally in New Jersey told me last week that she was ‘nauseously optimistic.’ That may capture a lot of people’s last-minute jitters.”

— Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), quoted by Axios, on what Democrats feel ahead of the midterm elections.

“I think Congress made a mistake not protesting turning the Rose Garden into what looks like the entrance to Liberace’s bathroom.”

— Former President Bill Clinton, quoted by The Wrap.

“Boy, they are scraping the bottom of the barrel. It feels like a real desperation play to me, because it has got zero basis in the law.”

— Republican election law expert Ben Ginsberg, quoted by Politico, on the Trump administration’s effort to invalidate Alaska’s election results.

Numerati

3,824

$1.4 billion

-35 points

31%

63% to 38%

KFF Poll: “With the 2026 midterm campaigns in full swing and early voting about to begin, there is a wide enthusiasm gap between partisan voters, with Democratic voters 25 percentage points more likely than Republican voters to say they are ‘more motivated’ than usual to vote (63% vs. 38%).”