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Overnight Open Thread 9/28/14 (tmi3rd)

Hi there, Morons and Moronettes. Maetenloch is tied up with other things at the moment, but my understanding is that it’s not contagious and the burning sensation should clear up fairly quickly.

Let’s get the bad news out of the way first…
Bieber To Voice KITT In New Hasselhoff Film, Confirming Apocalypse

Jesus wept.

Per Yahoo! and The Insider, this is actually a thing that is happening as part of a quid pro quo between the Biebs and the Hoff. The latter evidently appeared in one of the singer's videos, so now he's calling in the favor, all of which is explained in the Insider segment that you can watch here. Please note that watching it will make you feel as if you were just lobotomized with a pick axe, so consider yourselves warned.

Is This A Thing?

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On the left, Dwyane Wade. On the right, Cam Newton. Note the shoes.

I’m just asking, is this a thing? If it is, that’s worse than the short suits that were being pushed earlier this season.

This ONT’s Edition Of…
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It’s podcast pimping night.

The first one is from our buddy UCFGoose, and it’s for vapers (folks who are e-cigging to quit smoking)… it’s titled The RAW DEAL with UCFGOOSE, and it runs on Thursdays from 10 PM-midnight Eastern. It’s delivered from the Moron perspective, so check it out if you’re so inclined.

Two other podcasts of note can be found over at the NewsNinja site... our friends PolitiBunny and Texas Uncle Sam have their podcasts back-to-back on Thursday, at 9 PM and 10 PM Eastern, respectively.

You can fight over who you listen to on whatever given Thursday it’s convenient to do so, but please, support our Morons!

Oh, and on a programming note- our friends over at Hookers & Booze are going to be down for a while while they retool their site. Their content (which can be VERY NSFW- you’ve been warned) can be found here. Check ‘em out if you’re so inclined.

Disturbing, Disturbing, Disturbing…

The Secret Service took five days to realize a gunman had fired several rifle rounds into the White House.

A contract-labor IT worker crippled the Chicago air traffic route center with a knife, a gas can, and a lighter.

Hospitals are largely unprepared to handle Ebola waste

One of the things that’s really concerning about the culture that’s sort of set in over the past few years has been this indifference to incompetence and a lack of attention to detail. Regarding the Secret Service- nobody reading this blog regularly is a fan of TFG, but an attack on him is an attack on all of us. The Secret Service HAS TO BE THE BEST AT WHAT THEY DO, period.

With the air traffic situation- nobody could have seen this coming, but this cat WRECKED Chicago Center’s operations, and there’s a lot of stuff that’s got to be fixed before Chicago’s airspace can get back up to speed. That means that nobody’s adequately securing sensitive gear, and it’s not just in Chicago.

Finally, with regards to Ebola- I can’t go into detail what all has gone wrong with the Ebola response both overseas and domestically (it’ll come out fairly shortly), but issues that should have been resolved in terms of communication and chain of command on the heels of 9/11, Katrina, and a few other incidents are still problematic.

With a contagion as lethal as Ebola is (and there are a few other bugs that are just as nasty out there), indecision and poor communication will get people killed. This has been a hallmark of federal response for well over a decade, and that’s simply not acceptable.
On An Equally Serious and Thoughtful Note…
If you haven’t read Ace’s take on why the GOP sucks, please go give it a look. While you’re at it, you’ll also want to take a look at David Drucker’s piece on why Senate races come down to the wire. Finally, Carol Brown points out that being pissed off at the GOP establishment isn’t a good reason to stay home.

I’m of this mind about it: I think Ace is right in that the Republican Party is not a conservative party, no matter how it may be portrayed. As such, expecting conservative, or even libertarian, governance out of them is a mistake.

The culture isn’t on our side right now, and that’s something that needs to not be overlooked. A potential Senate flip is not happening because our side has effectively sold our point of view, but because the other side has screwed things up so badly that much of the country has nowhere else to go. Losing sight of that is a sure path to defeat in the long term.

Douthat’s piece is a good lesson in coalition-building, but the categories it creates are debatable. Drucker’s piece is a bit more poignant in that it points out that voter intensity will drive the results much more than polling will.

Republicans are panicking because donations aren’t coming in, and they don’t seem to realize that nobody’s going to donate to an empty hole just for the sake of donating. A good example is in Kansas… this should be a safe seat, but due to an indifferent and lazy incumbent, the Democrat running as an independent is playing with a solid lead. For good measure, it would appear that the liberal wing of the Kansas GOP is about to toss Sam Brownback out for the sin of governing as a conservative. What reason would any principled conservative have to give money to the party?

Conversely, Carol Brown’s piece begs everyone to get involved and give money. I appreciate her point that Democrats holding the Senate does not help our side at all, and I agree with it. That said, it’s hard for me to get excited about helping out a group that seems so openly dismissive of my best interests.

My boy Blackiswhite, Imperial Consigliere and I were talking about this last night… his stance is to starve the beast in terms of finances and in terms of votes, and that’s not an unreasonable stance under the circumstances. I can’t get behind that stance because I feel like it’d be abandoning any voice in the state of things. It’s still frustrating, because it does feel futile a lot of the time, but...
At the moment, I’m going to go ahead and pull the lever for our side in the election, but I can’t and won’t spend my time and money to help these guys out. I haven’t made the decision to openly ignore GOP candidates in elections, but I’m done with people who swear they won’t do that in my mouth.

Tonight's Musical Selection

W.A.S.P. are one of these hair bands that have some talent to go with their hairspray and makeup. Most people do it wrong when they cover The Who, but they got this one dead right.

And Tonight's Cartoon Selection

Old school, yo.

You crazy kids have fun, and play nice! Thanks for reading.

-tmi3rd