Daily Archives: May 8, 2012

GOP Primary: Now it’s weird.

In a very strange turn of events, everything that was predicted and expected to happen in the three primary elections tonight did in fact happen.  There are a few funny side notes but the main issues fell as people had figured they would.

First and foremost, Governor Romney crushed in all three primaries.  In West Virginia the Governor took 70% of the vote.  In North Carolina he took 66%.  Indiana gave him 65% of the vote.  The two issues that made tonight news worthy also broke out as expected.

So long Dick.  A Republican Senator from Indiana since 1977, Dick Luger was cleansed, Tea Party style, out of office.  His heinous crime: living more in DC than at one of many homes and ranches he owns in the Hoosier state.  It was also revealed that Lugar was one of the few Senators that could get work done between the two parties.  So yeah by all means get him the hell out of there.  We want the government to be totally dysfunctional.  If it’s not, what will we do with all the “I hate government gridlock” signs we just ordered.

In North Carolina the people voted to uphold an amendment defining marriage as between one man and one woman, in effect banning gay marriage.  I said before I’m not a big fan of legislating principals or Biblical morals.  If you have to create laws to achieve a biblical moral code, how biblical can that moral code be.  The reason this is a victory; the people of North Carolina got to decide for themselves.  They should not be forced to live with a law they don’t want just because other parts of the country want it.  Likewise, if Vermont or California want to make it legal for two men to marry and enjoy all the same legal protections, benefits, and entitlements of a married man and woman, have at it.  As long as the people of California or Vermont decide that for themselves.

It’s not the end of the institution of marriage just because Ellen Degeneres can go to New York or Massachusetts to marry her girlfriend.  I’m pretty sure Kim Kardashian or that dude Kelsey Grammer took out the sanctity of marriage already; both heterosexuals by the way.  Grammer is on wedded bliss #4 and Kim the K is moving on to #3.    Marriage is treated as a joke in this country, and it started long before the gay community was allowed to do it.

Like wise if a state’s citizens believe marriage should be between one man and one woman I don’t think that means they are a bunch of homophobes or racists.  People have the right to believe what they want and vote on that belief.  Again the key to me is the citizens of each state get to decide for themselves.  Look now for Hollywood to call for a boycott of business in North Carolina.

To lighten the mood a great story comes out of the West Virginia primary.  Apparently the President was not running unopposed in the Mountaineer state.  He faced and is currently facing a withering campaign from Keith Judd.  Have you not heard of Keith Judd?  You people.  I try and try to educate, what do I get for my trouble.  Alright here is the 411 on Mr. Judd

Keith Judd:  Democrat, ran unsuccessful for President in 2008.  He made only one ballot – the state of Idaho.  He is the Founder of World Peace Through Musical Communications Skills, 1963-present.  A member of the Federation of Super Heros, 1976-1982.  And he is currently winning 40% of the vote in the democratic presidential primary against one Barak Obama, President, United State of America.

If you want to contact Mr Judd, his number is #11593-051.  That’s not a phone number, that’s the number on the back of his prison uniform.  Yep, Mr Judd is in the federal pen in Texas for extorting and threatening the University of New Mexico.  He was incarcerated in 2008 as well when he managed to get on the Idaho ballot.  His name appeared right next to then Senator Obama and Senator Hillary Clinton.  This time he’s getting traction.  It’s so bad the democratic Senator from WV, Joe Manchin, won’t say who he voted for, the President or the felon.  But this takes the cake.

Because primary election law says that any candidate receiving at least 15% of the vote gets at least one delegate at the national convention, Mr Judd will have probably more the one representative in the West Virginia delegation at the Democratic National Convention in North Carolina in September.  Holy cow this guy got more votes for president than half the republican field.  Here is the most current mug shot or campaign photo I guess, of Mr. Judd.

Felon or politician – Yes.

 

 

Only in America!

 

 

 

 

Diary of a Stay At Home Dad: I’ll be takin these Huggies…

Guess what? Turns out Stay At Home Dads are a pretty sensitive lot. Honestly, who knew? I was educated quick, fast, and in a hurry I can tell you that. A little background is in order.

Huggies launched an ad campaign in February of this year to tout their new Snug n Dry diaper. For all you in the business of changing diapers, Pampers came out with the Baby Dry diaper and the Snug n Dry is Huggies answer to that. Full disclosure statement: I like the Baby Dry by Pampers. It’s what Frank wears, it will be, God willing, what Anne Marie wears when she finally comes home.

Ok, so the ad by Huggies is something to the effect of ‘our diapers are so much better they can even survive a day with dads’. One of the ads is here if you care to watch: Diaper-gate

Apparently this ad campaign caused such an uproar with dads that a boycott of Huggies was called for at the DAD 2.o summit in Austin Texas and on a lot of dad-centric web sites. Yes there is a block of dads and they call themselves DAD 2.o, and how did I miss the summit? Somebody’s not passing the memo’s on to the rest of us. Although after what happened when I offered one comment on one website that was hosting a discussion on this ad, it may have been providence that I didn’t make DAD 2.0. The summit was taken seriously by Huggies because they sent one of their big dogs from the advertising department to the summit to talk all the dads off the ledge. It didn’t work.

I decide to do a little more reading on this after I saw the initial article and found the web site goodmen project and they were hosting a discussion under the label DadsGood. It was a spirited little conversation. The majority, no actually all, of the dads were up in arms, ready to storm the cooperate castle of Huggies and demand an apology, removal of the ad, and correction of all social injustice in the world, ever. Then a voice in the wilderness of over-sensitivity cried out. It was Todd from parts unknown, much like Racer X from Speed Racer.

The gist of Todd’s post is well represented by the following quote: “What the heck happened to the world where nothing is funny anymore? People need to just lighten up.” Amen brother. Todd was alone is this sentiment, save for a female sociology major just finishing her PhD, who was arguing it could be proven that mothers were better at child rearing than fathers. Hahaha. Man she picked the wrong day to push that theory. I took a few shots at her and her argument, but she artfully repelled those and set me straight on a few of the more salient details of her position. Turned out to be a good discussion.

Anyway the gang of rabid but deeply offended fathers were crucifying her until Todd spoke up. They didn’t turn their bloodlust on Todd though. Nope, they saved that for me. You see I commented on Todd’s post just to say that I agreed with him and I wished others thought the way he did. I might as well have nailed Christ to the cross. Yes theologians, I know my sins nailed him there, I meant actually physically swung the hammer.

The battle cry went up. A dissenter! A person who has no problem with the Huggies ad! Kill him! He’s a stay at home dad?!?! Blasphemer!!!! BUUUUUUUURNNNNNN HIM!!!

OK it wasn’t as bad as all that, though one particular keyboard cowboy who would have peed his pants had we been standing face to face, threatened me several times. Yes, Mark Nell appointed himself the corrector of anyone who has ever been wrong on the internet, decided to take me to task for not being properly offended by the Huggies ad. He babbled something about not understanding the implications of all this and how this precedent would make it harder for me to get my kids in a divorce settlement unless I had my wife committed. No, not making that up.

Between threats and ridiculous conclusions he urged me to read his previous posts where he was crucifying the PhD candidate and to answer his questions. After the fourth time he called me “boy” I went back to read and see who this guy was. Turned out he’s neither a husband nor a father, neither brother nor uncle and more to the point had used neither Huggies nor Pampers. Now I know I’m getting old and soft, or just bored, because once I discovered all that, I ignored him. Mark Knowitall was not indicative of the people doing all the complaining. Most were father’s and most were not urging violence on people who disagreed about the Huggies ad.

However a lot of the dads had one thing in common with the non-parent named Mark, they were deeply offended at the ad and could not understand why I wasn’t. They felt the ad continued the myth and stereotype that dads are not as good with the kids as moms are. As a father I found this a little bizarre. People who know me would honestly say I am arrogant, too confident in my abilities regardless of task, and normally let my ego speak first. That’s only more pronounced since becoming a stay at home dad. I made a bad assumption that most dads were like me, prideful, self-confident, with a high self esteem, seeing as how they are responsible for the life of their children. Not sure if they’re all jack-asses like me but I figured they had a lot of those other qualities.

Turns out a lot of the dads I encountered on that web site and similar web sites, don’t have those qualities and are hyper-sensitive in my opinion. If you’re happy and confident at what you do, why would you care about an ad made by a company that developed a device to collect poop? Poop.

My advice to DAD 2.0, first count me out, I’m too heartless to be that sensitive. Second, don’t cry about a boycott on a bunch of websites, just stop buying Huggies. Don’t tear your garments in exasperated disbelief that Huggies could make such a heinous and insulting ad, just go buy Pampers.

My advice to the rest of you, if you find your opinion is in opposition to father’s opinions around the internet, stay off their web sites unless you’re ready to throw down. The hissy fits are especially epic.

I probably lost my membership to the Dad club and maybe a few followers of this blog as well but at the end of the day I don’t care. I have actual, adult problems, I don’t have time for made up, childish ones.

GOP Primary: It’s still going, and going, and going….

For those of you still keeping up with the GOP Primary race there is an election tonight.  The good citizens of Indiana, North Carolina and West Virginia get their chance tonight.

Shouldn’t be much excitement in the main event.  Governor Romney should sweep all three states.  With 132 delegates at stake the Governor can run his total to 989 total delegates.  That leaves him only 155 delegates shy of final victory.  Or does it?  More on that in a second.  But first there are some games with-in the game tonight that should make for interesting news stories tomorrow morning.

First, in Indiana, Republican Senator Richard Lugar, his friends call him Dick although at the moment it appears he has no friends, is about to lose a primary challenge to the state treasurer.  In the ongoing quest by the Republican party to cleanse itself of all those deemed not conservative enough by the Tea Party, Senator Lugar is about to be unseated by little known Richard Murdock, after 35 years in the Senate.  Lugar was the Mayor of Indianapolis from 1968 to 1976 before winning his current Senate seat in 1977.  He was once known as the George Washington of Indiana.

The big issue that felled Lugar and so angered the Tea Party; Lugar had no idea that his residence was listed as Washington DC, and had less than a clue as to where the DMV sends his mail.  He was painted as a DC insider and that was that.  Yes, clearly these are the important issue of the day in Indiana.  You think there was more to it than that, google it and find me the issue that separates Lugar from Murdock other than this silly business of residence.  Even Murdock admits he has been voting for Lugar for years.

On to North Carolina.  A gay marriage ban is up for vote by the people of the Tar Heel State.  Actually the amendment would not ban gay marriage directly but would define marriage and a union between a man and a women and cement it as law in the state’s constitution.  So by implication it bans same-sex marriage.  This is much bigger than Lugar getting busted by his own party in Indiana.  There are a lot of polls out there that say the American public is ok with gay marriage.  Still other polls show that most don’t care one way or the other.  So you have to believe the numbers showing favor over against might be misleading.  Not caring about something is not the same as being for something.  Also, the gay marriage movement has been gaining steam since 2009.  This might be a big setback for those that favor gay marriage.  Count me among those who care not, one way or the other.

While all this is going on, Governor Romney might have a little problem on his hands.  That problem is the Keebler elf, otherwise known as Congressman Ron Paul from Texas.  Way back when I tried to define unbound and bound delegates, county caucuses versus state conventions.  Read some of those here for a refresher: Unbound Delegates   Washington State Caucus

Well it turns out Paul and his campaign are taking advantage of the caucus rules and have been winning the unbound delegates that Romney won during the initial caucus.  How has he been doing that?  His camp has been going to the state conventions and getting their delegates elected to the national convention where they will likely vote for Romney when the roll is called.

For example, Governor Romney won the Nevada Caucus, taking 14 delegates to Newts, Santorum’s 3 and Paul’s 2.  However at the Nevada state convention 22 of the 25 delegates are Paul supporters.  Paul realized that the candidates don’t normally take part in the state conventions so he sent his boys to each one and they got elected to fill the delegate positions.  In the states where the delegates are not bound to vote for the initial caucus winner.  So that means at the national convention when Nevada is called, it is likely the if not guaranteed, most of the delegates will vote for Paul.  This situation is occurring in several of the states that held a caucus instead of a straight up primary election.  Paul can’t win the nomination this way but mathematically he could keep Romney from winning the nomination on the first roll call at the national convention.

This is more than likely a play by Paul for more influence and personal participation at the national convention and possibly in a Romney White House.  Stay tuned, it could get interesting.

Man I love that guy.

Election results late tonight cause, you know, it’s the silly central time zone.