Super Tuesday 4 Tweets: Bernie Wins Rhode Island

Tonight, we are featuring the Baltimore Orioles mascot as the state of Maryland joined Rhode Island, Connecticut, Delaware and Pennsylvania in having Democratic and Republican primaries today. Hillary Clinton won four of the five blue state primaries with her challenger Bernie Sanders (pict top) from Vermont winning in Rhode Island.

Donald Trump swept all five of the primaries, but given that each of the states in play are blue states, voter turn-out was significantly lower for the Republicans. But, that did not stop Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ, pict. bottom) from standing by his man Donald Trump during the Donald's 'victory speech' tonight.

Here are the tweets; yeah, we have a center-left bias here, but some of these tweets actually do not:

1) Nate Cohn: Clinton took the lead in Connecticut thanks to a massive 87-13 margin in the wealthy town of Grenwich.

2) Ken Rudin: Trump had a stunning night tonight. There is absolutely no reason for him to be reading a litany of slights he's endured.

3) Chris Cillizza: Cruz keeps getting a pass on finishing third in these northeastern states. He shouldn't. This is the guy who is supposed to beat Trump.

4) David Corn: Waiting for Chris Christie to raise his hand and ask if he can go to the bathroom.

5) Shirley Henry (NPR): Trump citing Sanders: 'He's been telling the truth' about Clinton. 'I think Bernie Sanders should run as an independent. I think he's do great.'

6) Donna Brazile: Oh God! Trump is using Bernie to attack Hillary and trying to drive a wedge.

7) John Fugelsang: For the last 7 minutes, Chris Christie's brain has been saying: 'Recalculating. Recalculating. Recalculating."

8) Robert Costa (Washington Post): NJ Gov Chris Christie with Trump, standing to the candidate's right, Pa Cong. Lou Burletta to Trump's left.

9) Jennifer Levitz (WSJ): Rhode Island voter Connie Swanson, 79, calls any effort to deny Trump the nomination 'sleazy, very sleazy.'  

GOP Debate from Iowa Minus Trump Tweets (3 of 3): Everyone Hates Bernie.......

Wow! This is somehow our 2,750th entry. Of course, when we started this blog, it was in 2005 and Steve Jobs was still alive and perhaps still parking his Mercedes in handicapped parking spaces.

Since we adore irony here, we are starting with an image of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) the democratic socialist who has somehow become Hillary Clinton's main Democratic challenger and nemesis; yes, Bernie is not a Republican, in fact, they really seem to hate him.

The image in the middle is an Iowa wind farm, and the guy in the last photo is Gov. John Kasich, whom the average seventh grader at Stillwell Junior High School in West Des Moines, Iowa, has probably still never heard of.

Here are the tweets:

1) Benjamin Freed (Washingtonian magazine): Sweden is a constitutional monarchy with a prime minister.

2) Brian McFadden (liberal): I'll risk Sweden and it's Seasonal Affective Disorder over the no-government Republican ideal of Somalia.

3) Matthew Yglesias (liberal): Bernie is probably not left-wing enough to lead the Swedish social democrats.

4) Jonah Goldberg (conservative): I think Kasich should have a costume change between every answer, Roman centurion, cowboy, French maid, Klingon warrior........etc.

5) Jonathan Chait (liberal): The immigration round was like The Departed.

6) Marco Rubio (he tweeted during the debate??!!! Oh, it's from his helpers, right....): Let me be clear, there is only one Savior, and it's not me.

7) Dan Zak (Washington Post): Kasich was raised Catholic, but is now Anglican, has a brother who has dealt with mental health issues.

8) Dave Rubin: Solid answer by Christie. Your personal faith should doesn't trump the law. Simple as that.

9) Secular Talk: Chris Christie asked about Kim Davis*, deflects and attacks ISIS. Of course....

*-Davis is the controversial country clerk in Kentucky who refused to issue marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples.

10 for 10 (3rd Entry): Elephants.........

Greetings to our blog readers in Taiwan, Ghana, and the Czech Republic......

Just because we are featuring the images of elephants, the traditional symbol of America's Republican Party does NOT mean we are endorsing Ted Cruz, Donald Trump, Donald Trump again, Jeb Bush, Jim Gilmore, George Pataki, Chris Christie, Scott Walker, Mike Huckabee........well, you get the idea (excuse the political humor, it should be pointed we didn't go with Carly because we did not want to spell her name incorrectly)......

There are many zoos here in America and around the world where one can discover his or her inner child and perhaps see a live elephant, here are four links you can check out:

http://www.marylandzoo.org/ (Maryland Zoo)

http://www.hoglezoo.org/ (Hogel Zoo of Salt Lake City, Utah)

http://zoo.sandiegozoo.org/ (San Diego Zoo)

http://www.zoo-berlin.de/en (Berlin Zoo in Germany)

The Republicans Presidential Candidates List: Best to Worst

As we are listening to REM's "It's the End of the World As We Know It (And, I Feel Fine)" on Simon-FM in Greensboro, NC, we start our list of the Republican candidates list from Best to Worst, which actually makes us soooo glad we are not Republicans here, though we wish Jim Gilmore, the former governor of our home state of Virginia well (he is currently dead last out of the 17 candidates)!

When he last attempted to run  for political office in the state against now Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), Gilmore got about 35-percent of the vote.

Here is the list:

1. Sen. Lindsey Graham (SC, pict. top)

2. former Gov. George Pataki (NY, pict. center, he's getting less press than his fellow New Yorker)

3. Gov. Chris Christie (NJ, pict. bottom, he's a huge fan of Bruce Springsteen)

4. Carly Fiornia (Calif., former CEO executive)

5. Gov. John Kasich (Ohio)

6. Sen. Marco Rubio (Florida)

7. former Gov. Jim Gilmore (Va)

8. Sen. Rand Paul (Kentucky)

9. former Gov. Jeb Bush (Florida)

10. Ben Carson (Maryland, a former surgeon)

11. Gov. Scott Walker (Wisc.)

12. Gov. Bobby Jindal (La.)

13. former Sen. Rick Santorum (Pa)

14. Donald Trump (billionaire tycoon, yeah, you know who he is.......where is the Anacin?)

15. former Gov. Mike Huckabee (Ark.)

16. Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas)

17. former governor Rick Perry (Texas)

http://www.nocturnalguy38.blogpost.com

http://www.politico.com

http://www.thehill.com

http://www.rollcall.com

http://www.c-span.org

Comic Strip Dialogue from The Roanoke Times: Any Cheese Will Do

With Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek sandwiched between Gouda cheese, which should hopefully get us some hits in the Netherlands, and a chocolate glazed donuts, which New Jersey's Republican governor Chris Christie can eat by the dozen (well, even if we were Republicans, we'd have to admit the guy is a bit fat, but at least he's to the far-left of Rick Perry, the execution-happy Republican governor of Texas), we give you dialogue from comic strips which appeared today in "The Roanoke Times."

The Gouda cheese is in reference to "Blondie" as Dagwood asks Elmo, who is presumably the neighbor's son, what kind of cheese he wants on his sandwich. Zizek is in reference to a line in "Dilbert" about philosophy. And, chocolate donuts tempted both John and his beloved title character cat in today's "Garfield."

Here we go:

1) "How are you feeling today, Agnes?" (from "Agnes")

2) "I'm trying to develop a new philosophy for my life" (from "Dilbert")

3) "Look, we agreed this wouldn't be easy.....we BOTH have to be strong." (from "Garfield)

4) "How about Gouda? I've got some smoked Gouda!" (from "Blondie")

5) "It's a New Year Tradition" (from "Jump Start")

6) "Exercise is great, but it's important not to overdo it," (from "Pickles")

7) "You sneeze like a gerbil," (from "Zits")

8) "Now Boarding. Rows five and above" (from "Funky Winkerbean")

9) "Nice. So what's our exit strategy?" (from "Doonesbury")

10) "Security." (from "Pearls Before Swine")

http://www.slovenia.info/

http://www.dilbert.com

http://www.garfield.com

http://www.funkywinkerbean.com/

http://www.philosophytalk.org/ (NPR show about philosophy)

http://www.rnw.nl/english (Radio Netherlands)

Thoughts on the GOP Convention_ The Empty Chair

Last night, we witnessed the surreal attempt by Clint Eastwood to pull off an Eddie Murphy as he made a failed stand-up comedy routine at the 2012 Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., with an empty chair to represent President Barack Obama, which he referred to as 'Invisible Obama.'

We have to wonder what objective journalists like Gwen Ifill of PBS and Brian Williams of NBC were making of this, but liberal commentator Cek Uygur was having a blast making fun of Eastwood's speech on Current-TV.

Assuredly tonight's production of "The Lion in the Winter" (not a Shakespeare play) at the American Shakespeare Center in Staunton, Va., should be considerably more entertaining than last night's Eastwood debacle.

We actually watched close to seven hours of coverage of the Republican Convention, even though I am more likely to throw out the first pitch at a Washington Nationals game than vote for the Mitt Romney/Paul Ryan ticket. The 'Nats, by the way, have a home game with the St. Louis Cardinals tonight.

We are going to cover our thoughts on the GOP convention in an unconventional manner as we use these seven terms to describe the events we witnessed on PBS and Current-TV. : Nutella, Saturday Night Live, Tim Robbins, Attila the Hun, Kurt Cobain, Jordyn Wieber and New Zealand. Yes, we got the idea form Mad Libs:

"New Jersey governor Chris Christie of New Jersey reportedly ate seven bagels with Nutella backstage before his prime time speech on Tuesday night, which was one of the highlights of the Tampa Republican convention. Though the partisans gave mostly red meat speeches, the Republicans are hoping that comparing president Barack Obama to Mao Tse Tung will persuade an undecided voter in Akron, Ohio, to vote for the Romney/Ryan ticket, which is almost as brilliant as getting Clint Eastwood to host 'Saturday Night Live.' After the Eastwood fiasco, Karl Rove might say getting Tim Robbins to speak in Charlotte, NC, at the party convention would help even things out on Fox-TV. But, we fully expect David Axelrod to ignore him. Paul Ryan proved he is hip as he mentioned that bands like Nirvana are in his i-pad, but he also laid it out clear that he is to the right of Attila the Hun, which is a vital characteristic for today's Republican Party.   Every Olympic athlete except Jordyn Wieber, an Olympic gymnast who won team gold in London, was brought on stage to make hollow testimonials about how Romney is as great as Superman. After Marco Rubio's speech which was a prelude to Romney's big talk, many Democratic voters will likely attempt to get political asylum in New Zealand should Batman and Robin actually get elected."

http://www.madlibs.com

http://www.nirvana.com

http://www.ohiodems.org

http://www.floridadems.org

http://www.nuttelausa.com

http://www.jordynwieber.com

http://www.newzealand.com

http://www.nationals.com

http://www.amercianshakespearecenter.com

The Republicans Are Coming! The Republicans Are Coming!

This just in_ tonight in Las Vegas, Republican vice presidential nominee Cong. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.), who is to the right of my namesake Attila the Hun, told a partisan crowd that USA Olympic gymnast McKayla Maroney, who won a gold and silver in London, will replace Gov. Chris Christie as the keynote speaker at the Republican Party National Convention during the week of Aug. 27th in Tampa, Fla.

Maroney is also a worldwide social media sensation as the use of her image when getting a silver on the vault has made her a meme.

We are kidding of course, though we wanted to calculate the weight difference between Christie, who has a major weight problem somewhere around 300 pounds, and Maroney, who weighs 105 pounds, according to Bing.

And, oh yes, we had to capitalize on the Discovery Channel's Shark Week, which seems like a great filler  from the Olympics to the Republican convention. We should point out that not all Republicans are like sharks in a tank, but if we mentioned their names, we might cost them their seats (this is a center-left blog, when we discuss political matters, which is not always the case). Although since he has been in Congress for 32 years, I suppose I can admit I really admire Cong. Frank Wolf (R-Va) for his stance on human rights, particularly Sudan.

Our intention during Shark Week II is to cover the convention both subjectively (as in the Cenk Uygur of Current-TV sense) and objectively (as in the Charlie Rose sense) as well as get some views from some partisan right-wingers (in the Dennis Miller sense).

So, whether you prefer Nancy Pelosi or Michele Bachmann, we look forward to seeing here in 11 days.

http://www.mckaylaisnotimpressed.tumblr.com

http://www.dcs.discovery.com/sharkweek

http://www.current.com

http://www.charlierose.com

http://www.dennismillerradio.com

http://www.state.nj.us/governor

http://www.wolf.house.gov

Quote of the Week- Bruce Springsteen

Today, we quip Bruce Springsteen, the pride of Asbury Park, NJ, (or Long Beach, NJ) in the last Quotes of the Week from famous singers on our two respective blogs. The late Conway Twitty, who hailed from Helena, Ark., is the subject of our other Quote of the Week on The Daily Vampire.

BRRRUUUUCE is known for many popular songs, including "Born to Run," Born in the USA," Thunder Road" and "Tenth Avenue Freeze Out" and he turns 61 on Sept. 23.

There happens to be a folk singer friend of mine named Bruce Piephoff in Greensboro, NC, who has produced almost as many records as the other Bruce (not a joke!). He performs frequently in the Greensboro area, and he will be performing at The Grove Winery in Gisbsonville, NC, on Labor Day.

Even though Springsteen campaigned for both John Kerry and Barack Obama, New Jersey's new Republican governor Chris Christie, who has become the Paris Hilton of "The National Review," is a fan of his music.

Judging by this quote, it seems that like many folks who came of age during the Vietnam War, Springsteen is wary of being to self-servant to any given cause or organization:

"Blind faith in your leaders, or anything will get you killed."

Silly Photo to Fill Space- Trenton Thunder Mascot

We may strongly differ with a reader to "The Roanoke Times" in Roanoke, Va., who said that New Jersey's newly elected Republican Governator (of that's the one in California) Chris Christie is a 'national hero' because he ridded the state 'of socialism' (these Tea Partiers are zanier than H.R. Puf-N-Stuf aren't they?), but we are nevertheless dedciating today's entry to The Trenton Thunder from the state captial of Trenton, NJ.

(Yes, I know that opening sentence was way, way too long!)

The name of the mascot for The Thunder is Boomer (pictured here).

The team lost a home game to The New Hampshire Fisher Cats (yes, that is their real nickname!) on Sunday by a 10-4 margin. Tonight, The Thunder hits the proverbial road to play the Reading Philies in Reading, Pa., at 6:05 p.m.

Upcoming promotions for The Thunder include an All-You-Can-Eat Hot Dogs and Hamburgers Day on Aug. 15 and a Farmer Appreciation Day (they have farmers in New Jersey?!) on Aug. 24.

SIDEBAR: Of course, as a Turkish-American, I have to remind folks that there are many great Turkish restaurants in New Jersey. In Trenton, one can dine at Trenton Kebab House which offers Adana Yogurt Kebab (named for the southern Turkish city of Adana) for $13.95

SIDEBAR TWO: Just down the proverbial road in Philadelphia, one can stop by The Divan Turkish Kitchen, which offers $9.95 lunch specials. They also offer Chicken Adana Kebab for $10.75.

SIDEBAR THREE: Here in the Tarheel State, one can visit Talulla's in Tarheel Town (Chapel Hill, NC) which offers an excellent manti (Turkish yogurt noodles dish) plate. During the weekend of Aug. 20-22, the restaurant on Franklin Street will be one of three Chapel Hill eatieries that will offer live music as part of a downtown music festival.