I watched the president’s speech on education just now. Fantastic speech, very uplifting, and totally devoid of political context.

Can we now agree that Glen Beck is a frigtard that’s just striking up fear and loathing with a soothing tone?

Anyway, I did watch it via the FB Live stream so I could see the stream of idiots’ comments flowing on the side as I watched. It was … enlightening. Here’re some golden ones:

Curtis Dale Johnson this a bunch of horse crap why would we won our children to listen to this its taking our children learning time???????? why.
10:53am – Denver, CO

I … yes. Exactly. Thank you.

Michelle Thornton They told me to pull my kid out of school to watch at home if I wanted my kid to see it!
10:56am
Mandi Foust Wofford is keeping her son home today so he can watch with me…we live in Texas…
10:57am – Dallas / Fort Worth, TX
Kelly Caplinger Silvers Getting ready to watch Obama’s speech to students. Very upset that they are not showing at my son’s school.
10:58am – Indianapolis, IN
Cody W Warner Shame on TX schools for not showing this.
11:09am
Faye Skaggs I can’t believe some schools aren’t even offering this to students…shame on you. This is bi-partisan and should be viewed as such. Good for you President Obama.
11:14am – Harrisburg, PA

I saw this one come up a lot. That was just sad to see.

Wesley Gaines HEY OBAMA SAND BLOWER GO BACK OVERSEASE.
11:07am
Wesley Gaines OBUMMER STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM MY KIDS AND THATS AN ORDER FROM A US MARINE.
11:10am
Wesley Gaines WHEN A MARINE TALKS OBUMMER U SHUT THE HELL UP.
11:11am

This fellow was rather prolific and I do hope he sees some black SUVs soon.

Haters

Pat Lowe thinks that the president shouldnt be addressing kids about school when they are in school. a bit hypocritical dontcha think?
_10:59am – Minneapolis / St.

And he sent them to preach the kingdom of God, and to heal the
sick.

And he said unto them, “Take nothing for your journey, neither
staves, nor scrip, neither bread, neither money; neither have two
coats apiece. And whatsoever house ye enter into, there abide, and thence
depart. And whosoever will not receive you, when ye go out of that city,
shake off the very dust from your feet for a testimony against them.”

And they departed, and went through the towns, preaching the
gospel, and healing everywhere — as long as they had private health
insurance.

House Democrats today voted to raise gas prices to $4 a gallon, nearly double consumer electric bills, and to ship 2 million American jobs a year to China and India with passage of the environmental extremist national energy tax bill. Congressman John Carter (R-TX) voted against the measure, which passed the House by a strictly partisan 219-212 margin, with 211 Democrats and 8 Republicans voting for the bill. 168 Republicans and 44 Democrats voted against it.
via email newsletter

1. How is it “strictly partisan” if 8 Repubs voted for it and 44 ‘Crats voted against it? English, much?
2. It’s not extremist and it won’t double energy prices, you moron.

1. I feel embarrassed that you “represent” me, and my state, to the nation. You are ignorant, bought, and past your prime. Sadly, enough of your constituency has similar traits that you keep your job. I hope things change in six years in that department. A blue Texas would be a nice gift.

The end of this election ran like the end of a really good movie, only it was real. Think about it:

A black community organizer from Chicago decides to run for state office to make the changes he can’t on the ground. He wins and spends some time in office getting to know the system and making himself known. After some time, he runs for the Senate and wins. Again, he makes friends and makes himself known.

Then he gives one unlikely speech at the DNC and the world starts to really pay attention to him. The next election cycle, on a cold Chicago morning, he stands before a small crowd and announces his candidacy for president. He runs a tough race against all manner of qualified people, narrowing it down to the biggest name in the party as his opponent. Through persistence, an even tone, and the support of the people he manages to win the nomination, and eventually the support of that opponent.

On to the main race, the other side chose a man that riles up the crazy people, the religious people, the gun people, and the intolerant people. The opponent pulls out all the stops, stoops to all the lows in an attempt to undermine Our Hero’s support. He presses on, talking about hope and change, about the future.

The days before the election, the polls are close and there’s the looming threat of the old, crazy man winning. People showed up in epic numbers across America to vote early and the numbers look good. Then he gets a call: his grandmother is dying. He leaves the campaign in its final moments to travel to her and be at her side one last time. She dies the day before she could see the election, but she managed to get her vote in!

The day of the election. People are still showing up in numbers that amaze the media. Everyone is shocked that the turnout is this large, but the exit polls are wonky. Some show Obama, some have surprising McCain numbers. It’s iffy. Then the actual counts start to roll in, and Obama wins Ohio and Pennsylvania. He’s won.

I’ll get it out of the way early on: I’m pro-life. I’m not just “standard” pro-life, I’m the crazy kind that starts with the zygote and ends when worms have had their fill of your fleshy container. Yep, I’m That Guy™. Don’t bother trying to argue with me, either. I’ve made the decision long ago and I’m sticking with it. I’ve thought about it, I’ve pondered it long and hard, and I’m of the opinion that life is immeasurably valuable and it’s not something we can ethically take from another without an extremely good reason (ie. protecting my own life).

And yet, I voted for Barack Obama.

Why? Abortion and euthanasia are not an issue in this election at all. Consider, Bush is as overtly pro-life as they come and all he managed to legislate was a ban on a specific method of carrying out a partial-birth abortion. He didn’t and couldn’t get the actual act of a PBA outlawed, he could only get one method of it outlawed. Previously, Clinton had signed a ban on the act of PBAs but a federal court struck it down. Bush had no way of getting around that, so those involved chose to attack one of the procedures instead.

Eight years in office with both a Republican and Democratic Congress and that’s all the movement on the issue that happened. That’s it. Look at what we had to endure as a society to make that small move. Look at the lives we lost compared to those that could be saved by that measure. No one who is remotely pro-life can argue that it was in any way worth it.

The best statistics I can find show 17K PBAs a year in the US, but 190K lives lost (US, allies, and Iraqi) during the Iraq fiasco. As the Bush ban can’t stop PBAs completely, we can’t even say the number of PBAs will go down as a result of this one movement on the issue. Yet, people are still dying overseas in numbers that dwarf those from this issue.

Pro-life is all life. Adults count, too. This war is the price we’re paying for people voting solely on this issue.

Pay attention: McCain can still win it.

Why? The undecideds. Any time you have polling ratios for two major parties and there’s more than 6% missing from the sum of the percentages, the undecided votes are sleeping in the results and could easily screw things up.

As of today, that shows Obama at 51% and McCain at 43.4%, 1.7% to Barr, 2% to Nader with 4.5% undecided (rounding brings that over 100%). If that 4.5% undecided goes to McCain then we have McCain at 47.9%. If the Nader voters join in, he’s at 49.9%. (The Barr voters have likely solidified, being crazy Libertarians to begin with. )

We know from experience that a little voter caging and a small number of “problems” with voting machines (which always seem to vote Republican, curiously) can easily toss the vote by 2%. McCain would then have the popular vote.

However, what matters is the Electoral College, correct? So, what scenario gives McCain a victory?