Friday, November 6

Note: Next week is Friday the 13th. Oh, goody.

From the inestimable James Lileks Bleat this morning:

Until I return, a question for the comments: you are given a check for a million dollars, tax free. You have to spend it. You cannot use it on bills, or invest it, or just give it away. What would you do with it?

That’s actually a tough one for me. Most of the time, when I think about getting a million dollars, I think about giving something to my Mom, my brothers and sisters, that sort of thing. Of course I also think about the kids at the orphanages in Manila. But I have to spend this money. So here goes:
1. A house. Nothing too advanced, just a decent house in a decent neighborhood. For now, it’d be in Alexandria, since this is such a pretty town and there are nice houses. Let’s say I get it for $500,000. That leaves another half million to spend.
2. Indoor pool. I figure one would run about $100,000 or so. That leaves $400,000.
3. To get around the “can’t give it away” clause, I’d call the great sisters at the Missionaries of Charity orphanage in Tondo (Manila), and find out what additions to the house they need. I’m going to be generous and guess they would need $50,000 worth of stuff. That leaves $350,000.
4. New truck: $35,000. That leaves $315,000.
5. Pay for all of my junk to be moved here from Chicago. Let’s say that run $5,000. So $310,000 left over.
6. Buy $310,000 worth of house upgrades: security system, enlarge the garage, maybe put in a deck.
I know, pretty simple stuff. But I have no interest in buying speedboats, jets, helicopters, or any of that jazz. Homebody Paulie.

One reason to watch the (remade) series “V”

Actually, the ONLY reason to watch "V"

Thursday

Well, another fine day on vacation. My sister-in-law is joking that she won’t let me leave for the job because I still have chores to do. I remember when I was on leave in the Coast Guard (I rarely took leave in the Marines), I’d do a lot of cleaning in the house, mostly the stove in mom’s kitchen. It’s partly that mania for cleanliness the service fosters; but it’s also just the desire to do something. I’m not much of a party-guy–that’s just not how I’m wired. So leave for me now is usually just work on something (like Dreamweaver or Flash), watch DVDs and relax. The schedule out there is 12/7, so it’s not exactly restful. Of course, I’ll miss Virginia for the first time in my life—I’ve never really liked it, but right now it looks pretty darned good. My brother and his family, of course, have been fantastic, and it’s hard not to miss them. Their pets are hilarious, and that’ll be another good memory of this past month or so.

Election aftermath and narcissism

Nancy Pelosi is insisting that the election debacle for the Dems yesterday was a triumph for health care. Wow. I would love to know the color of the sky of the planet she lives on–it must be very pretty, seeing as it’s so far from planet Earth.

David Axelrod, one of Obama’s “senior advisors”, insists that the historic wins by Republicans in Virginia (the first time in decades, apparently, that one party swept all three positions of Governor, Lt. Governor, and Attorney General) and New Jersey were not nearly as important as the one-year position won by Bill Owens (D-NY) in the now-famous 23rd Congressional District. So he’s saying that this far corner of New York, where Hillary Clinton was no doubt born, is suddenly the most important district of the year? David. Please.

To add insult to injury, the President was supposedly watching TV last night instead of concentrating on the Most Important Race of the Year (and the piddly gubernatorial races). It seems, according to Rush Limbaugh, the President was watching an HBO special. On himself. Which he’d already seen.

Nope, no narcissism there.

With the off-year elections done, and with Abdullah Abdullah dropping out of the presidential race in Afghanistan, now Mr. Obama has no excuse not to concentrate on the little things in life.

Like Afghanistan.

A day late and a dollar short, but…

THIS was too good to pass up. I found this on National Review Online (via Ace of Spades HQ). No one said anything about the elections being a referendum on Obama’s leadership, nope. Nothing to see here… Remember: this is supposed to be a Creigh Deeds poster.

 

 

 

The day after the election

OK, so I don’t have a future as a political prediction guy. I was wrong about New Jersey and New York. But, that having been said, I am tickled pink by the outcomes. Chris Christie has a golden opportunity to show New Jersey voters how serious he is about fiscal conservatism and ethical governance. Good Republicans (not to mention all of the other voters who elected him) need to hold Christie’s feet to the fire. Just because he’s been elected doesn’t mean squat if he just turns out to be Corzine II.

I must admit I’m bummed about the NY-23 race, if nothing else because Doug Hoffman just seemed like such a nice guy. But just as adversity brings out the real individual, I have seen the guys who would step up to the plate and support real conservatives. Mostly I am thinking about Sarah Palin and Fred Thompson. While “their guy” didn’t win, those two (as well as the other guys who supported Hoffman) hung onto conservative values in public. Good on ’em.

On the same topic, I have lost additional respect for Newt Gingrich, the triangulating man from Georgia (yeah, by way of Pennsylvania). Newt is a newly converted Catholic. Didn’t anybody tell him during his RCIA classes that (good) Catholics don’t support abortion? Dede Scozzafava got the Margaret Sanger Award from Planned Parenthood! Geez, Newt! Scozzafava has apparently nothing in common with Republicans other than an “R” at the end of her party affiliation statement. Yeah, she’s dependable.

My biggest shock, oddly enough, comes with the knowledge that Maine voters rejected same-sex “marriage.” From Fox News:

“Gay marriage has now lost in every single state — 31 in all — in which it has been put to a popular vote.”

Get the hint.

———

Gorgeous morning: we’re probably a couple of days away from the first frost, but this morning was picture-perfect: clear, sunny, nicely cold. Had a good run along the river, and I am trying to keep from getting too tied to the area. Saturday is my last day of vacation, and then it’s back to work and all the fun that goes along with the Sandbox. Yippee.

Virginia goes red!

OK, the Virginia electorate is not only smart (they elected a Republican Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and an Attorney General), but they’re efficient: with polls closing at 7:00 PM local, they were able to announce the results well before 10:00 PM. New Jersey is still too close to call, but I’m suspecting the more populous precincts will be voting heavily for Corzine and won’t announce until some time later this evening. No word so far on New York’s 23rd Congressional District race. But I just read polls were open until 9:00 PM, so it’ll be a while. My hope is Hoffman will win there, making at least two races against the Dems.

But now it’s late (for me), so it’s off to bed. See you tomorrow.

Best headline of the day so far

From FoxNews:

“In Key elections, Republicans sense victory, Democrats play down results”

Election day, early evening

So the polls will close in a few hours, and it’s looking good for McDonnell in Virginia. The New Jersey race is still neck-and-neck: neither of these are surprises. What is surprising is the White House’s Robert Gibbs acknowledged the President’s interest in the NY-23 race.

It seems the White House has allocated almost $1 billion in spendulus cash for counties in the 23rd Congressional District of New York State. So it appears the time-honored tradition of buying votes is still very much around. That surprises no one.

The thing that surprised me was (prior to finding out about the cash in NY) was that the White House has been almost manic in its messaging: these races today would have little to no effect on the President, he didn’t care what would happen, let the best man win, all that spin. Barack Obama’s ego is partly on the line here. He visited New Jersey three or four times, once even this past weekend, so if Corzine loses, Obama’s fingerprints will be all over that loss.

Yes, New Jersey is “the bluest of blue states”, as Brit Hume mentioned, but it is also so heavily taxed and regulated that normal citizens could conceivably be ready for a change. And even if the union stranglehold on the Garden State were so secure, why is Christie doing so well at all? Corzine could win by the barest of majorities (and it looks more like it would be a plurality) and it would not look so hot for him or for Obama.

Election Update

So I went to my favorite website for news, FoxNews.com, and (no surprise) the Virginia race (Bob McDonnell vs. Creigh Deeds) seems to be trending for McDonnell.

One item I forgot to mention, though, was that today Maine state voters will decide on whether or not they will allow gay “marriage” in Maine. Leaving aside the idiocy of redefining “marriage” for the sake of votes, the bigger problem will come with the inevitable demand from the feds that states must recognize said “marriages.” No, nothing bad could possibly result from that.

I found this little gem when I went to Fox as well: the latest and greatest from Real Clear Politics. Sometimes, it just must not be good to be Barack Obama.

Real Clear Politics. Good stuff here.