“Fired Up” for Tonight’s Results?

No thugs at my Virginia polling place – but then again, thugs don’t tend to get up very early and I voted at 6 a.m.! As a precaution, I was accompanied by my friend the Celtic Warrior Woman. No Dems in sight – only Independents and Republicans were visible. Voting was silky smooth and seamless. My sister voted at 10:45 a.m. and she had the same experience!

We didn’t have any thugs either. But then, we didn’t have any for the presidential election either.

@Patvann:

You are having quite a day, are you sure it’s these elections that’s got you all excited? I have my doubts.

Mike, fun video! I was groovin’ on the song! I know donkeys are kinda cute, but I’d much rather be associated in my political party with those cute lil’ (and BIG) elephants!!

Every vote counts all of you in New Jersey and New York! (VA polls closed now). So, go do your civic duty and vote!! Our guys and gals are in harms way overseas to protect our freedoms, and one of those is VOTING!!!!! Hep two!!

Heck, I might now consider moving to Virginia!!!!

@Mike’s America:
I know, totally awesome!! I’m staying positive!! I know NJ is tight (I think), but WOOHOO anyway!!!

Congressman Connolly (VA 11th), Senators Warner and Webb:

11/3/2009 – Virginia has spoken tonight, are you listening?

Well, tonight is shaping up nicely and I am going to enjoy my IPA’s tonight(and right now).
Now if we could get rid of the demosocialistacrats here in Oregon(beserkly of the north) that would be a grand thing. I know if a vote was held today here in commie, comrade laden
Oregon, it would tilt more so towrads the red, like in conservative red. A national trend shaping up? I think so! Just need to wait and see how us conservatives take the lead and keep this rolling. Obuma was a great help in swinging these elections. And thanks Joe Biden, you actually
have proved to be worth soemthing after all. To the opposition! We AMERICANS(LEGAL ONES,
PLEASE!) must continue to let our opinions and voices be heard. 2010? Maybe looking alot better
after tomorrow is all said and done.

URI: A beer summit is good anytime, just without the far left trolls and leftards.

@Skookum: It is a Donkey…but I suppose it could depend on your perspective. Lately, it’s been more like a Jackass…

Thank You A & M, you have probably heard the expression, “as much class as a stud monkey,” a jackass is known for the same antics. They are difficult to deal with, actually they are usually disgusting; but the jackass is surely the typical reference in most horsemen’s minds.

New Jersey is a win. Two for two, if we can get the 23 rd, it will be quite an evening. Yippeee!

If Hoffman doesn’t win, it’s still quite a showing. Came in late and had to run against two liberals. Also, apparently he doesn’t live in the district…?? But, I’ll wait until all the votes are counted, could be as late a 9 or 10pm PT. The best news is they outed the RINO. Wonder what she’ll get from Rahm? Surely she won’t try to take up space pretending to be a Repub? Seems like that ship has sailed. There’s lots more separating the wheat from the chaff to go.

Hoffman still has a good chance and if he does lose,
it was a great battle that he waged on very short
notice. This has been a good night, a very good
night.

What’s the take home message? Referendum on Obama? What’s a better barometer: state governorships or a traditional GOP congressional district?

District 23 hasn’t elected a Democrat since 1852 (or so says Jon Stewart, which is currently on as background TV).

With 87% of the vote in, the combined vote of the RINO (said to be more liberal than the Democrat) and the Democrat are 55% and the Dem is up 49-45, with 6% for the RINO. This is in an off-off year election where the youth vote is way down, as is the vote of the non-white minorities. This vote won’t be so low in 2010, much less 2012.

So, what’s the take home message?

Did Gingrich have it right, or did Palin?

Dems took Congress not by enforcing ideological purity, but by running moderates in moderate districts. This enabled them to pass health care reform (preview of coming attraction). Will the GOP do the same, or will they only support “true conservatives?”

Just curious.

- Larry Weisenthal/Huntington Beach, CA

Congratulations to the Governors who won, by the way. I don’t see those losses by the Democrats as a repudiation by the voters, but I also don’t see it as an affirmation of Obama either. Most interesting to me is Palin and Company squeezing out the Republican effectively gave the Democratic caucus in the House one more member. Sarah should have went and campaigned for her choice instead of phoning it in via Twitter, but then again, she always quits halfway thru something and they probably couldn’t pay her the speaking fees she wanted….

Sarah Palin, Fred Thompson, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Michelle Malkin, all heavy hitters in the Conservative world put their chits on Hoffman, apparently they were no match for Acorn (sarcasm)

In light of the well earned wins by Republicans tonite, the big news is that Democrats picked up a House seat not held by a Democrat for the last 157 years!

openid.aol.com… Palin got it right. Conservative, not Republican. A New Age.

They won by not enforcing ideological purity? Tell that to lieberman. Besides, all they had to do was bash Bush to get elected. We’ll see how that goes in 2010.
You also miss the point, dede was not a moderate anything. In fact, owens appears to be more moderate than her.
Like I said before, the second dede was picked, the dems were going to take the seat for sure until Hoffman came along. For Hoffman to do so well in such a short period of time while being a novice to campaigning speaks volumes.
Gloat all you want lefties, this is the canary in the coal mine issuing it’s warning. It’s not going to get better for you, but it will for us.

Old Trooper: I remember that Government Cheese, it was really good cheese! And I appreciated Reagan for a creative idea on that too.

I think Bill Owens is a retired Veteran, and I doubt if he charges for his services, like most Whores do….or others who charge very high speaking fees….see comment 28

I’m not really proud, but just entertained watching the biggest Conservative heavy hitters back a guy that the district didn’t want, didn’t even live in that district, build him up and diss the local Republican choice, pour money into his campaign, and end up taking much of the shiny shine off of the night for Conservatives. He was endorsed by the Conservative heavy hitters only for his beliefs, but the guy didn’t even know much about the district he was running to represent. Truthfully, I really thought that Hoffnam would probably win, and I didn’t think the Scozzafava endorsement of Owens would do anything but help Hoffman. Scozzafava is the one who is proud and laughing today, not Palin and friends. I hope Conservatives can do the same thing in Florida, purge the unbeliever Obama embracer Charlie Crist….That man is way too liberal…. maybe we can sneak another one in with your all help.

@ Skookum

Andrew Jackson’s opponents called him a Jackass. Jackson liked it, ’cause he was weird like that. It became his mascot.

Larry, what these elections say about Obama is that now he is a lame duck president! Not even a year in his presidency and these 2 states which are next door to him, turn red and telling him to change his approach. Never seen before and who said it yesterday? Bill CLinton said that the elections last night were a referendum on Obama!. Of course, the Liberal media is going to spin the story.

Larry, the independents donot want the Health Care Reform that Obama is bringing to the table.
Americans are not ready for neo socialism. Hillary got that message decades ago and Podesta cannot take no for an answer.

The question now is…Is this administration going to choose to go forward full speed ahead with their ideology or are these czars going to listen to the people?

No matter what, Obama is a lame duck president now!

PS: Howdy Old Trooper! Hope you are safe.

@ openid.aol.com/runnswim (Larry)

You want tax and spending reform, but not until government gets their share of one sixth of the economy through healthcare and even more with energy? I don’t even know where to start. Last night may not have been a referendum on Obama, I’m perfectly fine with that. I believe voters are still trying to send a message that just isn’t being heard. They sent it when the democrats took over the House in 1998. The republicans were spending money hand over fist. The presidental election was another story. Obama promised everything to everyone and he hasn’t done squat. And if you haven’t read this NY Times article, you should. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/03/us/politics/03year.html

Now, I think the voters have sent another message. They are tired of the spending. How hard is that to understand. I think everyone wants some sort of healthcare reform. But if you think anything with a public option that is going to cost over 1 Trillion smackers is going to pass, you are seriously delusional. If no one else got the message last night, the Blue Dogs did. If they have any hope of being re-elected, they will not be passing a big spending healthcare bill. Cap and Trade…never will it see the light of day. Build smart grids, offer incentives for alternative fuel sources, use LNG, clean coal, drill for oil. In the words of Sarah Palin, all of the above. I highly recommend this article to see how government involvement in subsidizing alternative energy is going to bite us in the rear should we go down that road: http://windconcernsontario.wordpress.com/2009/10/22/germany-is-seen-as-a-leader-in-renewable-energy-but-its-experience-has-been-a-costly-waste/

The private sector will respond to demands of alternative energy. Consumers are looking for more efficient energy. Cap and Trade is not the answer. It will drive up costs dramatically.

I think the message that was sent last night, to both sides, is knock off the spending. There are other ways to make reforms without spending our children and grandchildren into debt. Now we’ll see who is listening in 2010.

@ openid.aol.com/runnswim (Larry)

Larry, I’m not going to go into a healthcare debate again. I think you and I have been through this enough. However, the current bill(s) in Congress offer no such thing. Not that it matters, the current bill(s) will not make it to either floor. They need to start over.

This has been proven at both state (e.g. California) and federal levels.

I lived in California from 1985 until 1996. I was stationed at March AFB in Moreno Valley, separated in 1990 and moved to Palmdale and commuted to Burbank to work. California should never be brought up as an example of how to do things right. They are about to ban big screen TV’s. It will complete the exodus that is currently taking place. California is fiscally, morally and intellectually bankrupt. Even the democrat State Treasurer told the assembly they were idiots. And sure, federal mandates on CAFE standards for cars have worked…not! Car makers have to make a certain amount of cars with those standards. At what sacrafice? They replace steel with aluminum to make the vehicles lighter and much less safe. What did the consumers do? Those that could afford them went with the SUV’s. Heavier, safer, less fuel efficient. It’s not that consumers want to spend money on gas, we just want to be safe. Sorry Larry, wrong on both accounts.

@Mike:

Don’t start up with those phony studies again Larry

.

http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/361/14/e23

http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/361/14/e24

Overall, a majority of physicians (62.9%) supported public and private options (see Panel A of graph). Only 27.3% supported offering private options only. Respondents — across all demographic subgroups, specialties, practice locations, and practice types — showed majority support (>57.4%) for the inclusion of a public option (see Table 1). Primary care providers were the most likely to support a public option (65.2%); among the other specialty groups, the “other” physicians — those in fields that generally have less regular direct contact with patients, such as radiology, anesthesiology, and nuclear medicine — were the least likely to support a public option, though 57.4% did so. Physicians in every census region showed majority support for a public option, with percentages in favor ranging from 58.9% in the South to 69.7% in the Northeast. Practice owners were less likely than nonowners to support a public option (59.7% vs. 67.1%, P<0.001), but a majority still supported it. Finally, there was also majority support for a public option among AMA members (62.2%).

n.b. These findings were entirely consistent with the results of an earlier “phony” study, published by different authors in a different peer-review medical journal, which I previously cited and linked.

- Larry Weisenthal/Huntington Beach, CA

Aye: Well, this is what happens when I go with the mainstream media and don’t check into the facts for myself…I stand corrected on the 157 year drought comment.

In fact that area has been redistricted often and has had a slew of Democrats represent that area over the years:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York%27s_23rd_congressional_district

It can’t be disputed that the Democrats scored an upset victory though in the 23rd and Limbaugh, Beck and Palin have yet to deliver a winner in spite of all their influence. I say keep makin’ them tea bags and kudos for spotting my repetition of wrong info.

@ openid.aol.com/runnswim (Larry)

Don’t get me wrong Larry, I loved California. I spent some of my happiest days there, without a doubt. Of course Pete Wilson was Governor at the time, for the most part.

It’s tough to get into an auto accident when the average speed is 15 mph. It’s the only place I’ve ever lived where there is a traffic jam at 3am. I rode a motorcycle to and from work, because I could white line. I was hit 3 times, luckily I never went down. Just some bumps and scrapes. And I won’t argue about the safety of cars these days, but that isn’t government driven, it’s consumer driven. People would like to have smaller cars that are more fuel efficient, but they want to feel safe.

Time Magazine? Seriously? Does anyone take them seriously any longer?

Interstate Bakeries…Leaving – http://realityalert.electionforum.org/Taxes-and-Regulations/Another-Company-Leaving-California-because-of-High-Taxes-Regulations.html

Novellus…Leaving – http://valueacceleration.wordpress.com/2009/07/20/jobs-leaving-california/

And another one…Leaving – http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20090802/BUSINESS/908021069?Title=Leaving-California

And then there is this: http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/business/Cost-of-Living-Sucks-Everyone-Leaving-California.html

~snip~

The number of people leaving California for another state outstripped the number moving in from another state during the year ending on July 1, 2008. California lost a net total of 144,000 people during that period — more than any other state, according to census estimates. That is about equal to the population of Syracuse, N.Y.

Emphasis mine.

That doesn’t look non-existent to me. Just saying.

@Larry

I was among the first 50 employees of Novellus. It was started by Brad Mattson, who went on to start Mattson Technologies, where I was the 5th employee. As an aside, they do not make chemicals, they make the machines used to make semiconductors, primarily Chemical Vapor Deposition tools. Because of the environ-laws, they can not even have a demonstration lab, even though they don’t do manufacturing like AMD or Intel, without having to pay huge fines. An invention of mine was tossed by Tegal because our lab put out the same CO2 as it took in…The invention would have removed thousands of tons of Florine from the air, but to these idiots, CO2 is worse, even if the net-gain of CO2 used in the process was the same. (Like soft-drinks are.)

They are leaving because taxes and the new environmental laws, just as is the reason Tegal, Mattson, Intel, and many others in the industry are leaving. At one time these industries employed hundreds of thousands, now it is a shell of it’s former self. Those “brains” left as well.

I also used to do construction. Because of the draconian environmental laws, the last remaining cement factory went under. Now all cement comes from a horribly-polluting factory in Mexico, and the cement prices doubled, thus affecting EVERYONE who uses the stuff, primarily the states of CA, AZ, OR, and Nevada.

@patvann:

Thanks for relating your personal experience. Certainly very relevant to the present conversation! Hope that you got a good option package and had the chance to exercise them.

With regard to CO2, there are issues which go beyond climate change. One issue is that the era of cheap fossil fuels is coming to an end. Some nations and some states may fare better than others, if they prepare for this. Virtually everything which reduces CO2 has side benefits: less foreign oil, preservation of domestic oil reserves, reduced pollution by other gases, creation of new technologies and industries based on these technologies.

Another issue, which absolutely no one talks about is that humans did not evolve to breathe the levels of CO2 which we are now breathing. Our bodies utilize a bicarbonate/CO2 buffering system, and increasing CO2 produces more acid in our bodies, which must be buffered, and this changes our bioenergetics at the cellular level. Humans (homo sapiens) have never lived with CO2 levels where they are today, and they are continuing to rise with each year. We have no idea what this may mean for human health, disease, fertility, etc. For example, the effect of chronic CO2 exposure on development of cancers has hardly been studied at all, even in experimental animal tumors. And there are reasons for potential concern, e.g.

1. Chest. 1997 Sep;112(3):779-84.

Carbon dioxide, an important messenger molecule for small cell lung cancer.

Merryman JI, Park PG, Schuller HM.

Carcinogenesis and Developmental Therapeutics Program, University of Tennessee, Knoxville 37996-4500, USA.

Chronic nonneoplastic lung diseases that impair pulmonary oxygenation while
increasing the levels of intrapulmonary carbon dioxide (CO2) are a documented
risk factor for the development of lung cancer in smokers and nonsmokers. Using
established cell lines derived from human small cell lung cancer (SCLC) and
non-small cell lung carcinoma, our experiments demonstrated that elevated CO2
concentrations in the range of those found in the diseased lung selectively
stimulated the proliferation of SCLC but not adenocarcinoma or squamous cell
carcinoma. The proliferative response of SCLC cells involved activation of the
mitogen-activated protein kinases ERK-1 and ERK-2, as well as the p70 ribosomal
S6 kinase and the stimulation of an autocrine serotonergic loop. Kinase
activation was unrelated to changes in intracellular pH. We concluded that CO2 is
an important messenger molecule for SCLC which may contribute significantly to
the high lung cancer burden observed in individuals with chronic lung disease, by
the activation of kinases which play a central role as downstream effectors of
many growth factor-stimulated mitogenic pathways.

We do know that there are unexplained increases in certain cancers (e.g. non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma) and declining sperm counts and increasing autism and on and on.

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/ReproductiveHealth/story?id=3451404&page=1&page=1

It will probably take decades to confirm, refute, establish causality, refute causality, etc. In the meantime, CO2 keeps going up and up.

What we have going on now is the largest human guinea-pig experiment in human history, and it is anything but conservative to allow this experiment to continue.

- Larry Weisenthal/Huntington Beach, CA

@aqua:

No one in their right mind would start up a business there.

Funny that the total amount of venture capital investment in California (10% of the US population) last year was greater than the combined VC investment in the other 49 states (90% of the US population).

Let’s send the psychiatric care emergency response unit up to Sand Hill Road, Palo Alto, CA. Lot of billionaires there who aren’t in their right minds.

- Larry W (aka “The Rug”)/Huntington Beach, CA

@snookum

We weren’t talking political ideology; we were talking high tech, biotech, and greentech. We are talking about where the people who are investing in America’s future are putting their money. More of that money is going into a state with 10% of America’s population than in the rest of the country combined. This was stated in response to Aqua’s assertion that “no one in their right mind would start up a business there.” Well, that’s were most of the new businesses in the tech fields are being started. And the tech fields are the world’s future; so if America is to stay competitive with the world, it’s going to be because of California.

Sure, we’ll lose some bakeries and some manufacturing — at the margins. We sure won’t lose construction, although some contractors may find it more profitable to work elsewhere. So we’ll have some bakers and manufacturing workers leaving the state (although the net population of the state is still growing). Say goodbye to the past and say hello to the future.

I’ve been in business in CA in the private sector for 22 years now, since leaving my academic job. I couldn’t have gotten started and survived elsewhere; fossilized Red State brains certainly would never have given me the chance. Too conservative. Conservative about politics; conservative about business. To change paradigms, you have to push the envelope. Nowhere does the envelope get stretched as much as it does here.

Just got a recent teeny bit of a shout out, by the way, on the blog of a minor celeb:

http://www.suzannesomers.com/Blog/post/Chemosensitivity-Tests-e28093-Why-Does-Big-Pharma-Know-About-Them-and-WE-Done28099t.aspx

Where’s Nagourney located, by the way? Also in California.

The point is that if you want to do something new, this is still the best place to do it.

With regard to your question about carbon:

Yes Larry, with your vast knowledge of biochemistry, perhaps you can enlighten the humble and feeble among us who wonder at the peculiar traits of the carbon atom that facilitate life and whose presence on earth is the main ingredient for life to exist.

I don’t understand what you are asking. You want to be enlightened about — precisely what?

- Larry Weisenthal/Huntington Beach, CA

@aqua:

Apple Computer has expanded in other states, most recently with a $1 billion facility planned for North Carolina.

I wouldn’t expect that from Steve Jobs. But if you look through the list, it’s not just bakeries and manufacturing.

Here’s where you and I are having a failure to communicate. Apple Computer is an enormous, well-established company, in an enormous, well-established industry. They are about as mainstream as you can get. They are large and diverse, and no doubt certain of their activities would be placed advantageously in environments outside of Cupertino.

It’s the difference between discovery, on one hand, and investigation, on the other. Investigation is an incremental, one step advance. It makes up 98% of all research, including University research at places like Emory. Investigative research is built on the shoulders of giants. It is low risk, as it is based on established paradigms. Discovery is a multistep advance, which creates new paradigms. It is very high risk. It has the appearance of disorganization, oftentimes, as the discoverer seeks to create a new paradigm.

This is the essence of California, in virtually all aspects of life. From lifestyle, to entertainment, to business. People taking risks to create new paradigms and having the true societal freedom to be given enough rope to hang themselves. This kind of thinking is supported in business in California as in nowhere else that I know. It shouldn’t be at all surprising that the venture capitalists who support these sort of businesses might also trend to have liberal politics.

I had an interesting debate on this blog some months ago about why academics tend to be liberal politically and why people with post-graduate college degrees trend Democratic by a 60-40 margin. There is this concept among conservatives that there is discrimination against conservatives in academia and this explains the liberal stranglehood there. But I pointed out that post-graduate academics is about discovery and that, even in disciplines such as science and engineering, university faculties are disproportionately liberal. By definition, conservatives are not looking to do things in new ways. By definition, liberals (who often like to be referred to as progressives) are very open to changing the status quo. This extends to judges, as well as to Presidents, legislators, and voters. It also extends to venture capitalists, trying to create new sectors of the economy.

Conservatism has great virtues, in daily life, in business, in politics, and even in science.

But SOMEONE has to be willing to take risks and in SOMEPLACE there has to be an environment supportive of risk taking. No state is as open to new ideas and as supportive of risk taking as California. Coupled with all of the other state resources, described in the referenced Time Magazine article, it is understandable that California will continue to lead the nation in the creation of the technology businesses of tomorrow, for the foreseeable future.

- Larry Weisenthal/Huntington Beach, CA