Great Scott!

The Democrats are reeling from the victory of Scott Brown (R) over heavily-favored Martha Coakley (D) in the special election in Massachusetts to fill Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat. Excuse me, I should have said “the people’s seat formerly filled by Ted Kennedy.”

The Democrats are grasping at straws to explain away this defeat. Unlike the GOP gubernatorial victories in Virginia and New Jersey that were dismissed as anomalies over local issues and poorly-run campaigns, the Democrats have some real spinning to do to explain how a relatively little-known Republican state senator can overcome a 30 point deficit in a month against the well-known Democratic Attorney General of the bluest of blue states.

I knew that internal polls must have shown Coakley losing when stories were posted Monday about the finger pointing that was already going on among Democrats over the Coakley campaign. Coakley WAS a poor campaigner. Her comment about how she, unlike Brown, was unwilling to greet voters outside Fenway Pary in the cold during the Bruins’ New Year’s Day hockey game reeked of arrogance. Her dismissal of former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling as just another Yankee fan showed her disconnection from her constituents. Less than two weeks before the election, she took time off from campaigning to hold a fund-raiser among lobbyists in Washington. Brown, by contrast, ran a smart, consistent, near-perfect campaign. That said, in normal circumstances, even with such contrasting campaign styles, there is no way that Brown could have defeated Coakley in Massachusetts. There had to be an underlying anger among voters over what’s going on in Washington.

Some Democratic pundits are spinning Brown’s victory not as the people’s dislike of Obamacare, but as the people’s dislike of the distraction that Obamacare has become at the expense of addressing the issues of the economy and jobs. Let them spin. The fact is Brown explicitly campaigned on the idea that he would be the 41st vote against Obamacare.

It’s too soon to assess how the Democrats will respond. Some are urging full speed ahead on Obamacare. knowing that this may be their only chance to get this monstrosity of a bill passed. But that would be asking dozens of Democrats in Congress to sacrifice their own political careers for Obama. And that violates the first principle of politicians: self-preservation.

While the Massachusetts election results bode well for Republicans, we can’t be too smug just yet. The mid-term elections are over nine months away, and that’s practically a lifetime in politics. Until the last week before the election, the Democrats were caught napping in Massachusetts. I doubt that they will be so complacent in November.

Once in a blue moon…

Tonight, for the first time since 1990 and not again until 2028 will there be a “blue moon.”  That is, there will be a full moon for the second time in a calendar month.

Unfortunately, the weather does not seem like it is going to cooperate.  Instead, it appears that we are just going to keep adding to the 55.40 inches of precipitation recorded at BWI since 1/1/09.

Happy New Years Eve.

What he said – Merry Christmas.

From Tigerhawk.

Where are the snowplows in Howard County.

If you are sitting at your kitchen window and wondering if you are ever going to get out, you can track the progress of the snowplows in Howard County using the Snowplow Tracker.

You can also access speed sensor and traffic cameras for major roads like I95 from the Maryland Department of Transportation site, Chart on the web.

It does not look like we are going anywhere soon.

However, some don’t seem to mind.

Unintended Irony in the Baltimore Sun

Fresh off the heels of the tragedy at Fort Hood, the page 1 story of the Baltimore Sun on Monday, 12/7/09 is headlined “Fear of native terror on rise; Homegrown extremists alarm White House”. The article described the growing problem of homegrown Islamic terrorists, acknowledging growing radicalization among U.S. Muslims. The commentary page (13) on the same date calls for “End racial profiling now.” I have my doubts as to whether the editors of the Sun appreciate the irony.

The Sun’s lead article doesn’t mention that the U.S. Army failed to intervene earlier in the case of accused Fort Hood shooter Maj. Nidal Malik Hassan, in large part because acquaintances who were alarmed by his increasing radicalization were discouraged, in the name of diversity, from singling out a Muslim soldier for scrutiny. Even our military now genuflects at the altar of political correctness. But let’s face it, all 19 of the 9/11 hijackers were Middle Eastern Muslim men, yet our security system is supposed to pretend that a representative sample of geriatric Icelandic tourists poses the same threat to our security as a planeload of 20-something Muslim males returning to their local mosque after an extended visit to a remote backwoods training camp.

And on Pearl Harbor Day, no less, we are expected to forget the consequences of the failure of vigilance.

If we live forever, what does that do to Social Security spending?

Skeptical is not a strong enough word for my feelings towards the promises made by the proponents of health care reform, but Saturday, Senator Harry Reid said:

Today we vote whether to even discuss one of the greatest issues of our generation – indeed, one of the greatest issues this body has ever face: whether this nation will finally guarantee its people the right to live free from the fear of illness and death, which can be prevented by decent heath care for all.

Pretty sure we are all going to die someday regardless if this bill passes or not.  Otherwise congress better start raising the retirement age and reducing benefits real soon.

Of course, I could be misreading Sen. Reid here, maybe he means that instead of fearing illness and death, with a government run heath care system we should just be resigned to it.

(h/t Kathryn Jean Lopez @ NRO Corner)

After Thanksgiving sales start Monday – 4 days early?

The Christmas decorations seem to come out earlier each year.   What use to be an after Thanksgiving tradition is now barely safe for Halloween.   Now, the after Thanksgiving sales start before Thanksgiving.

The Walmart ad for “black Friday” was leaked leaked last week and is available here.   For those of us that do not treat shopping, checkout lines, fighting for a good parking space or the crowds  as part of a competitive sport or anything close to enjoyable, let alone at 5:00 AM and would rather just sleep off the turkey, Amazon has a special web page that starts today.

(and who knew that there was a web site devoted just to black Friday ads.)

(h/t Megan McArdle)

Rainfall through 11/13/2009 at BWI – 44.63 inches.

Back in May, we were just catching up to normal with 8.42 inches of rain for the month.  That was the second wettest May, going back to 1871.

With 46 days still to go, we have already received 44.63 inches, 7.86 inches more than normal to this date.  For an entire year, the average rainfall at BWI is 41.94 inches so we will certainly finish the year wetter than average.

In 2003, we finished the year with over 62 inches, so that record is probably safe.

By the way, so far this year  Seattle WA has received 27.92 inches.

What Google knows about you

If you have a gmail account, Google has released a dashboard that shows the information that google has associated with that account.

Details provided in this post, or can be accessed directly here.

(h/t computerworld)

 

The road to hell…

A sign from the 9/12 protest “The road to hell is a shovel ready project” (from Jordan Gehrke, via the corner)

And from Mollie Hemingway, National Care is like a hospital gown… You think your covered but you’re not. (picture here)