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Christine Gregoire, my home state's Democratic Governor originally elected in rather controversial circumstances back in 2004, but who managed a clear win last year (53% to Republican and 2004 runner-up Dino Rossi's 47%), appears to be falling out of Washingtonians' good books. New Survey USA data (via Pollster.com) has her sitting, er, ugly, actually, with a mere 33% approval rating.

This result-- and similarly crappy results for other Democratic Governors about which respondents...

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On Tuesday, President Obama will go ahead and announce that he is sending an additional 30,000 or so more troops to Afghanistan-- a controversial move that has lots of his base up in arms and all peed off at him once again, and in relation to which he's presumably going to rely on Republican backing, which will probably constitute the necessary political support in order to execute this particular change (pun intended).
According to Politico, however, Obama is also being "urged"...

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So, here's a bit from my column on this, which ran in The Hill last week. Click over there for the full text.
During the 2008 presidential campaign, Barack Obama, to a then-unparalleled extent, leveraged the most cutting-edge technologies to reach potential supporters, organize them, raise money from them, and ultimately, get elected by them. MyBarackObama and mobile were two such groundbreaking technlogies, and with over a year having passed, many in the political world are...

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Liberals will tell you this doesn't matter, that Obama had no choice but to to pursue fiscal policies that produced this and that it's all Bush's fault (to be fair, on the latter point, it is partly Bush's fault) but don't worry, it's all good and there's nothing to worry about. And hope and change and "do you want the President to fail?" and stuff. Decide for yourself. I think it's, um, kind of a big deal, though.
The US public debt topped 12 trillion dollars for the first time in...

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Oh dear. This is so sad. Really. England has a friendly against Brazil tomorrow (quick side note: Go Brazil!) and look what's happened. Frank Lampard has torn a muscle in his left thigh, and John Terry has injured his ankle. And they are two of England's more invaluable players. And, as luck would have it, two of Chelsea's, to boot.
Look, I don't really wish ill on Lampard and Terry. I actually kind of like them, even though there are two fairly good reasons not to (or should I say...

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One of my pet peeves about now living in the US is that so many people here think soccer (football) is for wimps. I fail to understand why. They should seriously start watching the Premiership, because stuff like this happens-- and it is not wimp-friendly.
[media]AElXm7GDCPw.tube[media]
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, that is Roy Keane, former Manchester United defender, breaking a guy's leg.
I would say this occurred in an effort to get the ball, but actually, it being Keane, I...

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This makes me really, really, really, really mad (and yes, I am republishing it in its entirety):
The federal deficit hit a record for October as the new budget year began where the old one ended: with the government awash in red ink.
Economists worry that if such deficits continue it could push up interest rates, further dragging on the fragile economic recovery.
The Treasury Department said Thursday that the deficit for October totaled $176.4 billion, even higher than the...

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Well, this just totally blows:
An opponent of same-sex marriage, Governor Carcieri has vetoed bill that would have added "domestic partners'' to the list of people authorized by law to make funeral arrangements for each other.
In his veto message, Republican Carcieri said: "This bill represents a disturbing trend over the past few years of the incremental erosion of the principles surrounding traditional marriage, which is not the preferred way to approach this issue.
"If the...

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The political blogs and cable news talkers are a-chatter about the NJ-Gov, NY-23 and VA-Gov races, so while they carry on (and I predict Republican victories in at least NY-23 and VA-Gov, with a decent shot at a win in NJ), I figured I'd do a quick post on two other items for libertarianish types to watch tomorrow night: The results of ballot initiatives relating to, respectively, same-sex marriage in Maine and domestic partnerships in Washington. Maine's Question 1 asks people if they want to...

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Emphasis on his "own polling." Closely followed by "mobbed-up."
Democrat Alexi Giannoulias leads Republican Mark Kirk in the race for U.S. Senate in Illinois, 46 – 43 percent. In addition, voters approve of the job that Giannoulias is doing as state Treasurer by more than a 2:1 margin.
In a matchup against Democrat David Hoffman, however, Kirk fares much better. Kirk leads Hoffman by a 48 – 39 percent margin. Giannoulias outpaces Hoffman’s performance in every...

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