SOTU Blogathon: Republicans Against Cancer Prevention

We bring back an image of Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan to make fun of the new house speaker who failed in his attempt to unseat Julia Louis-Dreyfus as vice president of the United States (for those of you in Romania: yes, we are kidding. Joe Biden is our veep)....

You will figure out why we dumped an image of Thomas Jefferson (pict. top) when you read this. As for Miss Piggy, even though her presence may hurt our hits coming from Dubai, we think it is a great way to make fun of Congressional pork and the fact that her show was on right before the State of the Union (SOTU).

Here are the tweets:

1)  WNYC: Obama: It's one of the few regrets of my presidency--that the rancor has gotten worse instead of better.

2) Roll Call: Obama: We've got to make it easier to vote, not harder, and modernize it for the way we live now.

3) Talking Points Memo: Obama: ISIL doesn't threaten our national existence.

4) Washington Post Politics: Obama: This isn't a matter of political correctness. It's a matter of understanding what makes us stronger.

5) Peter Sagal (NPR talk show host): This is true! Our Founders were a bunch of jerks who hated each other! (Yeah, that's the reason for TJ).

6) Colorado Avalanche: Tampa scores again. (the Tampa Bay Lightning won the hockey game 4-0).

7) Colorado Dems: Obama: We need to reject any politics that target people because of race or religion.

8) Cong. Mark Sanford (R-SC): Obama mentions closing Gitmo while he lacks the legal authority to take such actions.

9) Rachel Blevins (conservative college student from Texas): For his 8th and final SOTU, Obama promises to shut down Gitmo yet again....

10) Paul Ryan: For too many, the American dream is slipping. Nothing I've heard tonight is very reassuring.

11) The Onion (satire news): Obama Praises Own Resiliency in the Face of Hardship During the SOTU.

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/

http://www.rollcall.com

https://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/

http://www.theonion.com

Sunday Comics Dialogue_ A Cameo from Big Bird

Greetings to our friends in Baltimore, St. Louis, Denver and San Diego here in the USA, and to those of you in London, Frankfurt, Istanbul and Dubai.........

Today's entry looks at funny pages dialogue from the Sunday, Nov. 18th edition of "The Charleston Gazette-Mail" in Charleston, W.Va., which still carries the wonderful comic strip "Mother Goose and Grimm," which features a cameo from Big Bird, but Mitt Romney was nowhere to be seen (to think 47-percent of our fellow Americans wanted Mitty Rich to be prez.....wow!).

Oh...but, first an update on how former American gold-medal winning gymnast Shawn Johnson is doing on "Dancing with the Stars," drats, someone changed the channel!

Here we go:

1) "Just a turkey hallucination. I get them this time every year" (from "Garfield")

2) "Ok, I'll need to but a turkey," (from "Grand Avenue")

3) "It's not proper for a girl to call a boy on the telephone" (from "Peanuts")

4) "They're trying to kill me out there. They want to cut my head off. I'm going to die!!" (from "Mother Goose and Grimm," a turkey is talking)

5) "What a great cook! I'm the luckiest man in the world!" (from "Hagar the Horrible")

6) "It says here that more Americans are eating something besides turkey for Thanksgiving." (from "Over the Hedge")

7) "Our invitation for tonight is lit up........more than 200 and climbing!" (from "Rex Morgan M.D.")

8) "Very nice?! Are you kidding?! She's world-class!!" (from "Blondie")

9) "I'm still fond of soft-spoken intellectuals" (from "Shoe")

10) "She asked me to put up the holiday lights while she was gone." (from "Dilbert")

11) "When I come back, I'll show you some trout holes you won't believe." (from "Judge Parker")

12) "What are those funny-looking birds?" (from "Hi and Lois")

http://www.wvgazette.com

http://www.grimmy.com

http://www.dilbert.com

http://www.blondie.com

Greetings from Mister Frog

Yes, even though we know frogs are amphibians instead of reptiles, we are stubbornly featuring them as part of Reptile Week because every frog deserves his or her day.

The frog being featured here is the American bullfrog, which is usually green or yellow with a white belly. It can be found quite readily in southern states, such as Louisiana. We would give a shout out to Louisiana's governor Bobby Jindal, but we don't want to be mistaken for a Republican although Jindal did have the guts to criticize Mitt Romney for his sour grapes speech to major campaign contributors regarding his well-deserved loss to President Barack Obama.

Apparently, the difference between amphibians and reptiles are that amphibians are born as soft eggs in water then hatch into eggs whereas reptiles are born in shelled eggs. Zzzzzzzzz.........sorry, thought I was back in my 10th biology class at Ragsdale High School in Jamestown, NC, a suburb of Greensboro.*

Reptiles and amphibians can be seen at the San Diego Zoo though at the moment, it appears that a giant panda cub who was formally named "Little Grit" on Tuesday (the cub was born over the summer) is the latest animal celebrity at the park.

SIDEBAR: In ACC women's college volleyball action tonight, the home team Clemson Tigers won a tough 3-2 game (25-21, 16-25, 25-19, 16-25, 15-12) over the visiting Duke Blue Devils on Senior Night. Serenat Yaz, a Turkish player for the Tigers who wears number one, was among the four seniors who were honored for Senior Night. Yaz had 13 kills and 13 digs for Clemson. Moneisha Simmons, a junior from Bufford, Georgia, contributed with 14 kills and 7 digs in the victory for the home team.

Here are other results from ACC volleyball games from Friday night; the home teams are marked with the # symbol:

#Georgia Tech 3 Wake Forest 0

# UNC 3 Virginia Tech 0 (more details on this are available on our sister blog "The Daily Vampire:" http://www.nocturnalguy38.blogspot.com ).

#Maimi (Fla) 3 Boston College 0

#Florida State 3 Maryland 0

#North Carolina State 3 UVa 0

http://www.louisianatravel.com

http://www.coolamphibians.blogspot.com

http://www.sandiegozoo.org

http://www.clemsontigers.com

http://www.ragsdalemarchingband.org

*- We did not go to Ragsdale High School, but we hear that they have a great marching band!

Election Day #s (4 of 4)_ Ok, Yeah, Perhaps This Was a Bad Idea

Wow~! We are almost done..........eight entries in two blogs dealing with Election Day numbers. It might be time for Anacin, but before we do that, let's take one last look at the numbers:

62.6-Percentage U.S. Senate-elected Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) got in an open seat election

374.-Percentage Linda Lingle, Hirono's Republican opponent got in the election.

60.5- Percentage Cong. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) got in his re-election bid.

39.5- Percentage Cong. Howard Berman (D-Calif.), ironically Sherman's opponent, got.

48.7-Percentage Sen. Jon Tester (D-Montana) got in his re-election bid

44.8- Percentage Tester's Republican opponent Denny Rehberg got.

50.1- Percentage President Barack Obama got in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire

48.4- Percentage Mitt Romney got in Hillsborough County, NH

49.9- Percentage Romney got in Carroll County, NH

49.1-Percentage Obama got in Caroll County, NH

55.7- Percentage Romney got in Maricopa County, Ariz., which has a highly controversial right-wing sheriff Joe Arpaio, who has also made dubious efforts to prove Obama was not born in America.

79-Percentage of the evangelical vote that went for Romney

68.8- Percentage Obama got in King County (Seattle), Washington

73.5- Percentage Obama got in Denver County, Colo.

55.3-Percentage Obama got in Charlottesville, Va.

61.6-Percentage Obama got in Miami-Dade County, Fla.

50.1- Percentage Sen. elect- Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) got in an open seat election

45.6- Percentage Flake's Democratic opponent Richard Carmona got.

332- Final electoral college tally for Obama

Election Day by the #s (3 of 4)_ All the Votes are Finally In

Here is a look at Election Day numbers in Virginia as well as other parts of the country. Luray Caverns in Luray, Va., which is in the Shenandoah Valley, is pictured above.

Today, President Barack Obama was declared the official winner in Florida, which propels him to 332 electoral college votes.

Rural Nelson County, Va., near Charlottesville, was perhaps the closest jurisdiction, and it was one of the few rural areas won by the president, but Obama did win substantially in major metro areas.

Here are the numbers:

50.7- Percentage that went to Obama in Nelson County

48- Percentage that went to Romney in Nelson County

51.6- Percentage that Obama got in Loudoun County, which had been a Republican stronghold

47.1- Percentage that Romney got in Loudoun County

4,274- Votes for Romney in Dickenson County, in far southwest Virginia, a coal-mining district

2,472- Votes Obama got in Dickenson County, the president did substantially better here in 2008

51.1- Percentage Romney got in King and Queen County in northeast Virginia

16,685- Votes Romney got in Franklin County

9,082- Votes Obama got in Franklin County

688-Votes that Constitution Party candidate Virgil Goode got in Franklin County, his home area

20,036- Votes Romney got in Montgomery County, one of the most politically divided areas in the country

19,903- Votes Obama got in Montgomery County, which includes Blacksburg, the home of Virginia Tech

20,075- Votes that Senate-elect candidate Tim Kaine (D) got in Montgomery County

19,335- Votes that George Allen (R), Kaine's opponent, got in Montgomery County

64.9- Percentage Romney got in Shenandoah County

90.1- Percentage Obama got in Prince George's County, Maryland, a DC-suburban area

9.2- Percentage Romney got in Prince George's County

This is NOT an Endorsement_ 3 Third Party Candiates

There is one presidential candidate who has previously lost to Mitt Romney; she is Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate from Boston who was arrested in Texas this week for trespassing while protesting the development of the controversial Keystone XL Pipeline.

Stein only got four percent of the vote when she ran with the Greens for the governor of Massachusetts in the 2002 race won by Romney, but it was only a five percent differential which allowed him to eek out a victory over Shannon O'Brien, the Democratic candidate who had been the state's treasurer.

Stein is on the ballot in 47 states; the three states where she is not are Oklahoma, Nebraska and Nevada_ the Silver State is the only one of those three which is considered a swing state. In fact, political experts say the city of Elko, Nev., was the jurisdiction which was most helpful towards George W. Bush's victory over John Kerry in 2004.

Cheri Honkak, a Native American activist is Stein's running mate, and she was also arrested during the protest.

Rocky Anderson, who is ironically the only Utah native in the race (Romney is a Mormon, which is the main religion in Utah), the Justice Party candidate, is openly agnostic and he is known for his progressive stances on immigration, climate change, gay rights and military defense. Anderson served as the mayor of Salt Lake City from 2000 to 2008. His vocal opposition to the Iraq War made him known nationally.

In 2011, Anderson left the Democratic Party for the newly formed Justice Party. Anderson's running mate is novelist Luis J. Rodriguez.

At 28, Peta Lindsay is far and away the youngest person running for president in this election cycle. Ironically, she and far right Constitution Party candidate Virgil Goode were both born in Virginia. Lindsay is the candidate for the Socialist Party, which is actually the oldest third party. Lindsay, who is also an alumnus of Howard University in Washington, DC, is a feminist and African-American rights activist. Her running mate is Yasi Osorio; neither candidate has previous political experience.


http://www.jillstein.org

http://www.gp.org

http://www.voterocky.org

http://www.howard.edu

For information on three other third party candidates, go to our other blog "The Daily Vampire:" http://www.nocturnalguy38.blogspot.com

12 of the 24 Countries Mentioned Last Night: Let's Go to Poland

According to the BBC, Poland along with (surprisingly) Pakistan are two of the very few countries where citizens prefer that Mitt Romney take the throne (we are making fun of a highway billboard near Burlington, NC, which says: 'We must dethrone Obama') over President Barack Obama.

Poland was one of the 24 countries mentioned in the 'last debate' from Boca Raton, Fla., last night.

In case you are wondering, the flags above are of: 1) Poland (Donald Tusk, prime minister), 2) Egypt (Heshan Qandil, prime minister), and 3) Russia (Dmitry Medvedev, prime minister).

Here is a list of 12 of those countries:

China, Egypt, Libya, Mali, Poland, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, South Africa, Syria, Tunisia, United Kingdom, Venezuela (the only South American country mentioned, which was disappointing to those who watched the debate in Colombia according to the BBC).

Well, actually, that's 13 countries.........oh well!

For a list of the other countries, visit our sister blog "The Daily Vampire" http://www.nocturnalguy38.blogspot.com

Friday Night Tweets_ Marijuana and Unemployment

A few weeks back, we were going to start a series on interesting U.S. Congressional races, and our first one was to be the race between Cong. Jim Matheson (D-Utah), perhaps the most conservative Democrat in Washington, DC, against Mia Love (R), the black Mormon mayor of Saratoga Springs, Utah. The Beehive State is about three percent African-American, and Mitt Romney, who is also a Mormon, is expected to win Utah by a wide margin. But, surprise, today "The Salt Lake Tribune" endorsed President Barack Obama! This was according to a tweet from Democratic strategist Dana Vickers Shelley.

Here we go:

1) @TheOnion ("The Onion" is a faux news publication): "WARS FOR THE WHITE HOUSE: "Romney's Terrifying Google Search History Leaked."

2) @SFWeekly ("San Francisco Weekly"): "City's first Union Medical Marijuana Dispensary Opens_ Finally!"

3) @current (Current-TV): "Pot & politics: @GovGaryJohnson joins @TYTCurrent in 10 min to talk marijuana laws #Election2012" (Gary Johnson, the former Republican governor of New Mexico, has switched parties and he is now the Libertarian Party nominee for president)

4) @WSOC_TV (WSOC TV, the ABC affiliate in Charlotte, NC): "Unemployment rates drop in both North Carolina and South Carolina."

5) @dcweatheralerts (Weather Gang Alerts, for Washington, DC-metro area): "Tornado warnings for Baltimore County until 7:30 p.m."

6) @nprscottsimon (Scott Simon of NPR): "I like GQ's defense of debate moderators: 'You sit there and try to rein in two egomaniacs....' "

10 People Who Will Decide Election (10 of 10)_ Wisconsin

It is now 7:00 a.m. in Stockholm, Sweden, 9:00 a.m. in Dubai, and high noon in Shanghai, wherever you are, you're with the greatest blog in the universe....well, we don't take ourselves that seriously. And, we are ripping off that slogan from the BBC World Service.

Today, we finally conclude our long-drawn out series on the American Presidential Election, which is now a mere 26 days away. Our focus will be on Wisconsin, the home state of Republican nominee Mitt Romney's veep choice Cong. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) who has so far motivated partisan Republicans and far right Tea Partiers while alienating center-left Democrats and possibly independents with his potentially radical views on small government.

And, here is a look at our last fictional voter:

Name: Alexia Demopolous

Ethnicity: Greek-American

Residency: Racine, Wisc.

Age: 26

Gender: Female

Occupation: Pizza delivery

Voting status: Undecided

According to the latest "Politico" swing state map, which we are watching as closely as Jimmy Stewart watched Grace Kelly in Alfred Hitchcock's "Rear Window," President Barack Obama is winning Wisconsin by a 51-46 % margin.

The local newspaper in Racine "The Journal-Times" is reporting that the Racine Tea Party will hold a 'Victory 2012' rally on Oct. 27th in which U.S. Senate candidate Tommy Thompson (R) will be schmoozing with the most extreme elements of the conservative movement. Thompson is being opposed for the open seat by Cong. Tammy Duckworth (D-Wisc).

Wisconsin is, much like Minnesota and Iowa, a hard state to pinpoint in terms of the state's political swings. Wisconsin was served by Sen. Russ Feingold (D), one of the more progressive members in the U.S. Senate, but after three successful terms, Feingold was surprisingly ousted by Tea Party favorite Ron Johnson who now holds Feingold's seat.

Racine itself seems a bit hard to forecast as Racine County voted for Obama by a 54-46 % margin in 2008, but the county turned around and supported Johnson just two years laters.

Ryan represents Racine as Racine County is in his first district. Tomorrow (or later today) in Danville, Kentucky, Ryan will face Vice President Joe Biden in the only vice presidential debate.

http://www.derangosdelivers.com (a pizza delivery place in Racine, Wisc.)

http://www.journaltimes.com

http://www.politico.com

Weekend Tweets Log- Is Mitt Romney Out of Touch?

Today, we our posting some actual tweets we saw earlier this afternoon, about three hours ago. Let's explain the images: 1) Well, we always love making fun of Mitt Romney and we think the image is self-explanatory; 2) Lots of college football games today, hence this image; 3) We have flight attendants from Singapore Airlines to accompany a tweet from the faux news magazine "The Onion." Let's get started:

1) @HuffingtonPost (Huffington Post): TELL US: Is Mitt Romney out of touch?"

2) @slate (Slate): "Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn are going to shoot a movie on the Google campus. It's about 40-year-old interns."

3) @DoughtyOnAir (Douglas Doughty, a sports writer for "The Roanoke Times" in Roanoke, Va.): "Wondering if UVA will score @TCU, where it's 14-0 @ halftime. Cavs can't run the ball and receivers aren't  making big plays." (The University of Virginia ended up losing the game 27-7).

4) @VT-Football (Virginia Tech football): "Virginia Tech honoring Officer Deriek Crouse right now. Standing Ovation." (The Virginia Tech police officer was killed last year by an armed off-campus person who committed suicide after the shooting).

5) @NastiaLiukin (Nastia Liukin): "Hi Portland. It's National Gymnastics Day! Who's coming to celebrate with tonight at the #KelloggsTour?" (The 2008 gold-medal winning American gymnast of Russian heritage is among the all-stars performing tonight in Portland, Oregon).

6) @DailyNewsEgypt (The Daily News Egypt): "Iraq aims to reunite with a new national anthem and flag."

7) @TheOnion (The Onion): "Dad suggests arriving at airport 14 hours early."

http://www.nocturnalguy38.blogspot.com

http://www.theonion.com

http://www.singaporeair.com

http://www.thedailynewsegypt.com

http://www.notmittromney.com

http://www.nastialiukin.com

10 People Who Will Decide the Election (5 of 10)

Name: Stephanie Montgomery

Age: 54

Race: White

Reisdency: Smyrna, Ga.

Job: Secretary

Will Likely Vote: Mitt Romney

At the outset of the election cycle, it seemed like Georgia, the home state of Newt Gingrich, might be a swing state since Barack Obama almost beat out John McCain in the Peach State's electoral college vote in 2008. But, it now appears to be safe for Romney, though given his latest rounds of serious gaffes, it does appear that if the election were held today, it would go to President Obama.

We should add that Stephanie Montgomery is a fictional character based on demographics, and that Smyrna, Georgia, is a bit of an in-joke. The actual Smryna is the city of Izmir, Turkey, my late father's country. Izmir is the third largest city in Turkey.

http://www.georgiademocrat.org

http://www.gagop.org

Ten People Who Will Decide Who Becomes President (4 of 10)

Today, we continue our series, which had its last entry back in July?! on ten possible people who could decide this election. Today, we look at the swing state of Colorado, with this fictional librarian.

Name: Nancy Rose

Occupation: Librarian

Residency: Loveland, Colo.

Age: 49

Party Affiliation: Independent Who Leans Democratic

Will Likely Vote For: Obama

Loveland, Colo., is located some 40 miles north of Denver; the city is located in Larimer County. Cecil Guiterrez is the mayor of the 14th largest city in Colorado.

In 2008, Larimer County voted for Barack Obama by a 55-45 margin; the eventual president won by even bigger margins in San Miguel County (Telluride) with 78 percent of the vote and Boulder County with 73 percent of the vote. But, rural parts of Colorado are heavily Republican as is Colorado Springs, which has a large evangelical base and is home to the Air Force Academy.

President Obama gave a stump speech at the University of Colorado just days before the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte; the 2008 convention was in Denver.

http://www.coloradodems.org

http://www.barackobama.com

http://www.coloradogop.org

http://www.mittromney.com

http://www.denverlibrary.org/

Virtual Postcard from Florida (even though we're not there)

We are sending a Virtual Postcard from Tarpon Springs, Florida, tonight, even though we are nowhere near there, and I didn't get a press pass for the Republican National Convention in Tampa, though a backup check would have revealed I don't share their politics.

But, I am not quite as liberal as Michael Moore, who said today that he think Mitt Romney will win the race, I suppose this means Michael Medved, an arch conservative movie critic turned talk show host, needs to say Barack Obama will win to even things out.

I have actually watched a fair amount of convention coverage, and even though I have no plans to vote for Mitty Rich, and I am eager to watch tonight's Romney speech.

I will add more thoughts on the GOP convention tomorrow, including thoughts on Republican veep candidate Paul Ryan, who is now definitely a grown-up, real-life Karate Kid villain, in my humble opinion.

In case, you've missed it, tonight's speeches have been from Al Gore, Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi (I was just seeing if you were paying attention), but actually such 'exciting' speakers as Romney's former business partners, Bob White and Tom Stemberg.

Clint Eastwood is expected to be tonight's surprise speaker, according to "The Huffington Post."

Tarpon Springs is a fishing village and tourist attraction near Tampa with a significantly large Greek-American population.

http://www.spongedocks.net

http://www.visitflorida.com

GOP Day One (Delayed Due to Weather) Tweets

Today, we continue our tweets regarding the 2012 Republican Convention in Tampa, Fla. We should explain that we decided to go with Cuban-flag flip flops because the Republicans depend on the small, but significant Cuban-American vote in the Miami area of Florida and because the GOP's candidate Mitt Romney has radically changed positions on abortion, gun control, health care and perhaps even which baseball team he roots for...

The Turkish tea glass is our way of making fun of the Tea Party, a mostly far-right movement which has actually thrown out Republican members in both houses of Congress deemed to be too moderate, and we thought that Democrats, like sharks, ate their own.

Lastly, we have an image of Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) who represents a swing state, and we quote a tweet from him here as well.

So, to borrow a right-wing cliche; let's roll:

1) @hillballotbox ("The Hill," a journal covering Congress): "Poll: Women overwhelmingly back Obama, concerned about the economy."

2) @NickKristof (Nicholas Kristof of "The New York Times"): "Global warming may be linked to hurricane intensity. Do we see a divine reprimand of Republicans for climate skepticism?"

3) @theonion ("The Onion," a satirical faux news publication): "GOP Convention To Feature Strong Lineup of Conservative Women Listeners."

4) @LOLGOP: "For a guy who has betrayed every political belief he's ever had and lies about everything all the time, Mitt gets treated pretty well."

5) @ChuckGrassley (Sen. Chuck Grassley): "Read 2day wallstreetjournal editorial for treatsie on how ObamaCare will ration healthcare 15 bureaucrats will be dictating to doctors."

6) @hardball_chris (Chris Matthews of MSNBC): "It's ashame when the #RNC has to to go back to Ronald Reagan to pay tribute to a past president. What happened to GHWB and GWB?" (These are references to George and George W. Bush)

7) @Jasoninthehouse (Cong. Jason Chaffetz, a Republican from Utah): "Up at the Diamond Fork fine. Growing fast. May triple in size today. Very windy." (This is in reference to the awful weather in Tampa).

http://www.gopconvention2012.com

http://www.visittampabay.com

Our sister blog:

http://www.nocturnalguy38.blogspot.com

GOP Pre-Convention Tweets: I Am Not a Republican Because....

Before we run down our tweet log from a busy night on Twitter, in which one trending topic was #IAmNotARepublicanBeacuse, here is a list of the images above:

1) Donny Osmond. The '70s icon from Utah who is a Mormon is a strong supporter of Mitt Romney. To his credit, unlike country singer Hank Williams Jr., Osmond has not made disparaging comments about President Barack Obama or the Islamic faith. We learned than in recent years, he has been a game show host?!

2) A Tampa Bay Buccaneers cheerleader: We tried to find an image that would not get our blog banned in Qom, Iran, well, it probably is any how.

3) A Chow Chow puppy: Today is/was National Dog Day in America, and this breed is worth $3,000-8,500. Perhaps, with a hefty tax break that Romney would give rich Americans, that demographic will indulge in lots of expensive pets.

The GOP Convention is reportedly delaying its first day due to Tropical Storm Isaac.

Here are tonight's tweets:

1) @amazingatheist (The Amazing Atheist): "#IAmNotARepublicanBecause: "I'm not tricked into focusing on my pseudo-moral indignation over social issues to the detriment of all else."

2) @OlivierPortugal (Benjamin Button): "#IAmNot......I Don't Blame Teachers for a Recession Caused by Bankers."

3) @HuffPostPol (Huff Post Politics): "Seniors, Occupy movements protests GOP convention."

4) @KatrinaNation (Katrina vanden Huevel, she is the managing editor of the liberal journal "The Nation"):
"Will Huckabee Defend Akin in His RNC Speech?"

5) @lobsterpajamas (Michelle Morgan): "IAmNot.....I have a soul. Common sense helps too."

6) @LOLGOP (LOL GOP): "I blame Obama for creating 4 million jobs, getting bin Laden and ending the Iraq War. Things used to be so awesome."

7) @davidfrum (David Frum, the former George W. Bush speech writer has become a leading advocate for moderation in the conservative movement): "I want a modern Republican party precisely because I am a Republican. If I weren't, I wouldn't care."



 http://www.nationaldogday.com

http://www.donny.org

http://www.mormon.org

http://www.visttampabay.com

http://www.gopconvention2012.com

http://www.frumforum.com

http://www.atheists.org

http://www.thenation.com

http://www.islam-guide.com

For a link to our other blog, which features an image of a toy version of Tampa Bay Lightning captain Vincent Lecavalier, go to "The Daily Vampire:"

http://www.nocturnalguy38.blogspot.com

Quote from International Writers_ Franz Kafka

This just in, a mere three days after they have their vice presidential candidates debate in Danville, Ky., Vice President Joe Biden and his challenger Paul Ryan will have a wrestling match during half-time of the Cincinnati Bengals-Cleveland Browns game in Cleveland on Oct. 24th. They chose the occasion because Ohio is a swing state; I'm sure the late comic actor Andy Kaufman would be proud.

We are joking, of course, but like us, the satirical publication "The Onion" is having fun at the candidates' expense, one recent 'story' this week said that perhaps Paul Ryan should have told Mitt Romney about the guy he's dating.

With that, today we start a series of quotes from famous world-known writers. And, we begin with the Czech writer Franz Kafka (1883-1924), whom I'm amazed to see that I've actually outlived him, as he died in his very early forties.

Kafka is well-known for penning "The Trial" (1925); here is his quote:

"A book should be an axe, to break the frozen sea within us."

http://www.clevelnadbrowns.com

http://www.theonion.com

Politics vs. The Olympics_ A Battle of Tweets

Before we start our round-up of tweets from earlier in the day, let us explain the three images; they are of: 1) Cobi, mascot of the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, which Mitt Romney was responsible for putting together (forgive the political humor), 2) American Olympic gymnast McKayla Maroney who two medals in London and is now a popular meme on the web and 3) A young Mitt Romney.

We should point out that we had a real task in finding an image of Maroney that could be used as the term "McKayla Maroney meme" has gone viral.

We also want to issue a SPOILER ALERT for those of you in Denver, San Diego or Honolulu as these Olympic events have yet to air in your areas at press time.

There will be an explanation of info in the tweets at the end of this segment:

1) @newsobserver: "Former Riverside High School star Megan Hodge helps U.S. win indoor volleyball silver." *

2) @TheFix: "Paul Ryan in Manassass currently doing a better job than Mitt Romney of telling the Mitt Romney story." **

3) @InsideGym: "Also how amazing was @TomDaley1994?! Terrific performance and handled all the pressure incredibly well! Nicely done, sir!"***

4) @BarackObama: "FACT: Paul Ryan would ban all abortions, even in cases of rape or incest."

5) @WashingtonPost: "U.S. women's basketball wins 5th straight Olympic gold in a rout." ^

6) @GymnasticsView: "McKayla Maroney without MakeUp: The Olympic gymnast goes Bare-Faced."

7) @BorowitzReport: "Paul Ryan being sworn in as President would be a great last scene in Planet of the Apes remake."

*-Brazil upset the United States to win back-to-back gold medals in women's volleyball. Megan Hodge played at Penn State and Riverside High School in Durham, NC. Japan won over South Korea for bronze, but Korean volleyball star Kim Yeon-Koung aka Queen Koung top all scoring in the Olympics with 185 points.

**-For those of you in a cave in Mongolia, Mitt Romney chose Paul Ryan as his running mate today.

***-British diver Tom Daley took bronze

^- Team America beat France 86-50; Australia beat Russia 83-74 for bronze

10 People Who Will Decide the Presidency (3 of 10)_ Termite Inspector in Tampa, Fla.

Name: Ahmet Jones

Job: Termite Inspector

Residency: Tampa, Florida

Age: 39

Race: Mixed

Will Likely Vote for: Obama

Note: The top photo is of termites; the bottom one is of cockroaches.


Today, we are profiling Ahmet Jones, 39, a fictional termite inspector who works for Bug Busters in Tampa, Fla. (note: there is a real company by that name in Portland, Oregon, but we thought of Bug Busters before googling them). He is one of the people who could well decide who will in November as President Barack Obama or his Republican challenger Mitt Romney.

Tampa, Fla., is also the city which is hosting the 2012 Republican Convention. WUSF-FM, the NPR station in Tampa, says that Tampa Police chief Jane Castor says her department is prepared for the tens of thousands who will come to town when the convention meets from Aug. 27-30.

Obama won Florida, which is considered to be among the key swing states in this year's election, by a 2.8 % margin; though John McCain lead in the Sunshine State until September. Florida was the state which also allowed George W. Bush to prevail over Al Gore in the most highly disputed, controversial election in American history in 2000.

"The Young Turks with Cenk Uygur," a liberal political talk show on Current TV said during the program's broadcast last night that Obama is currently narrowly winning in Florida.

The Hispanic vote, including the generally partisan right-wing Cuban-American community in the Miami area, will likely have a huge impact in the election, especially in Florida. Most non-Cuban Hispanics are strongly supporting Obama.

Obama won Broward County (Ft. Lauderdale), Miami-Dade and Volusia County (Daytona Beach) in 2008; McCain won Polk County (Lakeland), Seminole County (Orlando suburbs) and Lee County (Fort Myers) that same election cycle.


http://www.wusf.usf.edu

http://gopconvention2012.com

http://www.current.com

Quote of the Day/Week_ John Adams

No time to make fun of Mitt Romney, Donald Trump, Bill O'Reilly or Nancy Pelosi today (we figured we would be partisan, and even Bill Griffith, the cartoonist behind "Zippy the Pinhead" had made fun of the Democratic congresswoman from California), as it's fish tacos time here in New Haven, Conn. (not really where we are).

So, we will go ahead and quote John Adams, the second American preisdent, who has in recent years been portrayed by actor Paul Giamatti in a HBO mini-series; they might actually like this one in Yozgat, Turkey* (hey, Turkey is the home country of late father, so this is fair game....well, we hope):

"I must not write a word to you about politics, because you are a woman."

*-Along with Konya, Yozgat is considered to be the most conservative city in Turkey; it is the birthplace of the late far, far right political figure Alpastan Turkes.

10 People Who Will Decide Election(1 of 10)- Fiddle Player in Missouri

Name: Gary Tate

Hometown: Branson, Missouri

Occupation: Fiddle Player

Age: 72

Will Likely Vote For: Mitt Romney

Wow! We are having lots of tech glitches with this entry. At any rate, this is the start of our series on how one person can decide a state, which can in turn determine the winner of the presidential election. Places like Beckley, West Virginia (George W. Bush 2000), Elko, Nevada (Bush 2004) and Cary, NC (Barack Obama, 2008) have helped determine the last three winners of very close presidential elections.

Today, we focus on the tourist mecca of Branson, Missouri, located off Highway 76. Branson has a population of 10,520, but more importantly the town in southern Missouri near the Arkansas border has popular theatres with mostly country musicians and old-time crooners, such as Roy Clark, Andy Williams,  and Lee Greenwood. Branson also has a theatre run by Russian emigre comic Yakov Smirnoff, who like Greenwood, is known for his conservative politics.

We expect that since Missouri will once again go Republican as John McCain narrowly won the Show Me state in 2008, but President Barack Obama should perform strongly in St.Louis and Kansas City.

DISCLAIMER: Though he shares his name with a pastor in England, Gary Tate is a ficticious person. The image is actually of North Carolina bluegrass legend Hubert W. Watts (1885-1976).