Combat! - Page 246 of 406 - A blog by Dan Brooks

Super-important Ohio contains super-vulnerable voting machines

By Dan Brooks in representative democracy, Uncategorized October 23, 2012 6 Comments

A tech savvy voter determines the next President of the United States.

If Nate Silver is to be believed—and if he is not, pretty much all is lost—FiveThirtyEight blog is running 40,000 election simulations per day. In 50% of those simulations, the candidate who wins Ohio wins the presidency. Silver makes a compelling case that Romney needs Ohio to complete his (editorial opinion alert) baffling comeback; he can get to the White House by other routes, but each is more tortuous than the last. One major provider of electronic voting machines to Ohio is Hart Intercivic. One major investor in Hart Intercivic is HIG Capital, seven of whose directors are former employees of Bain & Co. Four of HIG’s directors are Romney bundlers, and the company has contributed over $300,000 to the Romney campaign.

The real illusion of voter fraud

By Dan Brooks in Department of Irony? October 22, 2012 2 Comments

The pleasingly-named Hans von Spakovsky

Let’s say you lived in an exceptionally honest town where theft was almost unheard of. After years of almost zero larceny, the Honestburg Police Department announced that a massive crime wave had struck the city. Thieves were thick, according to the HPD, and so the cops went house to house confiscating stolen property. Occasionally they would take the television some old lady had for decades, but they returned it to her eventually and, besides, such mistakes are inevitable when battling a crime wave of this scale. So a question: does Honestburg have a theft problem now? On a completely unrelated note, the Ohio Voter Project filed a complaint with the Hamilton County Board of elections alleging that Theresa Sharp was fraudulently registered at the house where she has been living for 30 years.

Friday links! Dubious pleasures edition

By Dan Brooks in Friday Links October 19, 2012 0 Comment

So much of what makes us feel good makes us feel bad on further consideration. It’s as if we had two selves: one who experiences pleasure in the short term, on a timeline of about three seconds, and one who wants only to live abstemiously in retrospect. It so happens that self #1 is located entirely in the past, and self #2 keep scolding us for associating with him. Today is Friday, and the internet has spent all week delivering us stuff we probably should not like so much. The past is a garden of dubious pleasures.Won’t you wish you hadn’t frolicked in it with me?

On calling certain other people liars

By Dan Brooks in lying October 18, 2012 1 Comment

Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!

If the internet has reduced your brain to a stimulus/response meme generator, the most exciting part of Tuesday night’s debate was Mitt Romney’s “binders full of women” remark. It was weird! He kind of misspoke! Let’s put it on that “walk into Mordor” thing! For my money, however, the strangest moment in the presidential debate was when moderator Candy Crowley corrected Romney regarding Obama’s use of the word “terror” after the attack on the US consulate in Libya. He did say that in the Rose Garden the day after the attack. What Romney claimed was not factually accurate, or strictly correct or, you know, true. But was he lying?

Combat! blog hurtles along ground, isn’t useful

By Dan Brooks in Uncategorized October 17, 2012 1 Comment

Combat! blog continues to make its way back from Portland today, and I can’t type in the car or I will through up. You didn’t know this blog was written by a nine-year-old, did you? I’m so glad that I cannot hear your answer. While I periodically flick my eyes between a point on the horizon and the right edge of my peripheral vision, what say you read about the contest between two men that currently captivates America: Jon Jones versus Chael Sonnen. Ben al-Fowlkes has written a scathing indictment of the UFC’s decision to make the light heavyweight champion fight a mouthy middleweight for the purposes of a reality show. If you don’t know who Chael Sonnen is, it’s even better. I’ll see you tomorrow, with my ginned-up rivalry and my fake belt.