Debate Roundup

I tried, people. I wanted to watch the first debate with Fred Thompson and react to it, but I just couldn’t do it. Two hours of talking about economics with half the screen time still given to the numerous also-rans… I don’t get paid enough for that. I decided to just let the other bloggers watch it and then react to their reactions. That’s how I usually do things, anyway.
MKH, trying to turn lemons into lemonades, puts up LOLdebatez.
Matt Lewis has a minute by minute breakdown.
John Hawkins liveblogged as well. He gave this debate to McCain. All the front runners seemed pretty on the ball from what I saw.
Jim Geraghty has his post debate opinions on the candidates.
Pajamas Media has a round up of their own.
Hot Air has some clips.
And, of course, there’s the live blogging from Fred Thompson site.
The consensus seems to be that Fred Thompson did good enough and picked up steam as the debate went on. That probably means more expectations on him for the next debate which should hopefully be on more interesting topics with fewer people.
Anyone else watch it?

Ronin Profile: Forensicator

Forensicator

Let’s meet some more IMAO readers. Today, it’s Forensicator.


What’s the story behind your name? In both high school and college, I’ve been active in the speech and debate community, which often goes by the name of Forensics. It also sounds a lot cooler than my actual name, and if you want street cred, you’ve got to have a cool name.
[That’s why I go by Frank J. The letter ‘j’ is the coolest letter. -Ed.]
Where do you live? I attend college in Bowling Green, KY
How old are you? Sadly, I’m but a wee lad of a mere eighteen years.
Tell us briefly about yourself. I was born and raised in Indianapolis, IN until my family moved to the People’s Republic of Seattlestan. I went through my “stupid young years” when I was a liberal (we’re not going to go there, okay?), and now go to the University of Western Kentucky on a debate scholarship. I love studying economics, because anybody who takes that course becomes a conservative. It’s almost as though education makes you smarter. After I graduate from here, I’m going to be attending a Presbyterian Seminary. Haven’t decided where I’m going to go yet, but I’m really excited.
How long have you been reading IMAO? I started reading IMAO shortly after Bush’s 2004 re-election after seeing one of your tee shirts, so about 3 years.
What’s your favorite IMAO post? All the Know Thy Enemy posts are absolutely fantastic. Frank’s Editorials (along with Frank Advice) comes in a close second.
If you were to describe IMAO in three words, what would those be? Superior to Kos.
[Damning us with faint praise? “IMAO: Better than a sack of crap!”]
What’s you favorite political issue? What isn’t my favorite political issue? As a member of the right-wing conspiracy, I’m required to care about immigration and national security. One of my professors actually was an adviser to the pentagon and helped develop the modern counter-insurgency strategy in Iraq, which is a very engaging issue.
Do you have a website? If so, please tell us briefly about it. Sadly, no. I don’t have the follow-through to actually make a blog. I have a facebook, if that counts.
Why do you think liberals hate the troops? Honestly, Frank, I don’t know why anybody would hate the troops. I mean, they’re sympathetic, intelligent leaders who shoot ter’ists. Every friend of mine who has served has been an outstanding example of not only a soldier, but of a human being. What’s not to like? So I believe that the liberals’ hatred of the troops could only possibly be traced to a mental disorder of some kind. Probably the same one that makes them liberal.


If you commented in the last post asking for participants, you’re still in the running. Thanks to everyone who has participated so far; just because you may not think you’re interesting doesn’t mean we won’t enjoy your story.

The Basics of War and Terrorism

A lot of people wonder how the war is making us safer since there are still terrorists out there who want to kill us. Well, when the terrorists come to kill me, I’m like, “Why are you guys trying to kill me?”
And they’re like, “Because of the war in Iraq!”
And I’m like, “I didn’t have anything to do with that. I’ve been here in America the whole time minding my own business. You should take this up with the soldiers in Iraq.”
And the terrorists are like, “We will!”
So they go to Iraq to kill the soldiers, but the soldiers have lots of guns and they kill the terrorists back. And that’s why we’ve had no terrorist attacks in America in the past couple years but lots of dead terrorists.
I’ve probably explained this before, but it’s always worth repeating.

Daily John Edwards Fabulous Fact

john edwards fabulous.jpgJohn Edwards once killed a man for saying his favorite lavender shirt was actually more of a lilac color.

lolterizt! Part 18

Once again, pass ’em around, spread the love, and if you make your own, don’t be shy about dropping a link to your pics in the comments. The more, the merrier.


Butch Sundance.jpg
[reference link]
grassy knoll.jpg
kirok.jpg
ted rall flags.jpg
numa numa.jpg
[reference link]


From Richard:
ahmadinejad denial.jpg
From Brian:
scuse me.jpg
From Tom:
parking lot.jpg
From AlanABQ:
new piercing.JPG
From Tom in Knoxvegas (caption from me):
iran gays.jpg
Two from Nihil:
fantastic four.jpg
LolTERIZTSPARTA.jpg


PRODUCTION NOTE: When creating lolterizt! pictures, please caption with either black or white text, as colors like red and yellow tend to blur badly when I compress the images.
Send your submissions to lolterizt-at-gmail.com and – if they aren’t obscene (IMAO is a PG-13 site) and don’t suck too terribly bad – I’ll post them for you. Remember to include your name (and blog URL, if applicable) so I know who to thank.

Within the Inner Circle of the Fred Thompson Campaign

I pretended to be Jim Geraghty from National Review Online and snuck onto a conference call with Fred Thompson campaign manager Bill Lacy. According to him, no matter how huge your expectations are for the debate this afternoon, make them even huger! He expects both Rudy and Mitt to drop out of the race in shame afterwards. Also, he says they will win Iowa by at least 20 points or they’re just going to go ahead and give up!
No, he didn’t say any of that. Instead, the bloggers on the call asked lots of smart, boring questions. Surprisingly, none of them were very pointed. The real Jim (cut and past last name here) has a write up of all the questions asked (I chimed in with the only substantial one).
Anyway, the debate is on CNBC at 4pm ET, and Jon Henke will be liveblogging it at the Fred File (I’m guessing he’ll be biased, though… but who couldn’t be; it’s Fred Thompson!). The debate will also be rerun at 9pm on MSNBC right after Keith Olbermann (Keith Olbermann had this to say), but that’s the same time House is on. Did you know the actor who plays House is British? So is the woman playing the the Bionic Woman. We can’t even find American actors to play Americans anymore? That’s being outsourced to? I hope they’re asked about that in the debate.
UPDATE:
Erick of Redstate and Tommy Oliver of Race 4 2008 on the conference call.
UPDATE 2
Here’s Matt Lewis of Townhall.com’s take and here’s what John Hawkins of Right Wing News thought.
Hey, I find events somewhat significant if I’m involved in some way.

Hillary Clinton Terrible Truths

Hillary Clinton uses the empty space where her soul should be to keep her change.

I Was Thinking…

Who profits if there’s a war with Iran? I think that’s pretty obvious. It’s people who make protest signs, effigies of Bush, giant puppets, and anti-war bumper stickers. It’s hard to get people out to protest these days with such high employment, so the protest industry needs wars to sell their wares. I bet if you look who’s behind the push for war, it’s Big Protest.

What Obama Now Wears on His Lapel

Daily Fred Thompson Fact

Debate organizers decided there has to be at least a week between debates involving Fred Thompson to allow sufficient time to clean the blood off the walls.