Rod wrote: 
make sure you keep the faucet running on full. apparently, that's important to the german germs.

I heard about Phil Spector and Arlen Specter flying low over Manhattan in a jumbo jet dropping the swine flu virus? Something like that, I was only half paying attention to the news this morning while I continually washed my hands.

 dionysius wrote: 
That, and I rarely watch the news.  Usually depresses or pisses me off.

 oldslabsides wrote: 
Well, in OK you have real things to worry about, like thunderstorms, tornados and flying cows. In NYC, they're just...jumpy, I guess.

 dionysius wrote: 
Guess I missed the whole thing.

 n4ku wrote: 

Seen it. Did the outrage. Heard the official apology.

 n4ku wrote: 
So I stretched. Sue me.

Anyway I didn't detect any panickable events today, so I thought I'd recycle one from yesterday.

 Alafia wrote: 
btw, regarding Specter, saw the following on Electoral Vote dot com:

Toomey Has Huge Lead over Specter in Pennsylvania     Permalink

First one poll then another poll have shown Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) trailing former congressman Pat Toomey by double-digit margins. The Rasmussen poll published yesterday puts Toomey ahead 51% to 30%.

Specter's real problem was the Democratic presidential primary in 2008. With the battle between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama still raging last April, hundreds of thousands of moderate Republicans in Pennsylvania switched registration to vote in the Democratic primary. Most of these people normally voted for Specter. Now they are officially Democrats. With a big primary looming on the Democratic side in 2010, probably most of them will remain Democrats to vote in the Democratic primary. Thus the center of gravity of what is left of the Pennsylvania Republican Party has moved far to the right—towards Toomey and away from Specter. Under far less favorable circumstances, Toomey came within 1.7% of beating Specter in the 2004 senatorial primary. Now with the wind at his back and Specter unpopular with the right wing of the Republican Party for his occasional roll call votes with the Democrats, Toomey has an excellent chance of winning the nomination. Unfortunately, he has almost no chance of winning the general election against any of the numerous Democrats trying for their party's nomination. He is simply far too conservative for a state Obama carried by 11 points. Thus a Toomey win in the primary means that Pennsylvania will very likely flip and give the Democrats their 60th seat in the Senate (assuming Franken is seated by January 2011).

 Zep wrote: 
Hardly breaking news. That's SO yesterday. And talked to death here, there, and everywhere.

 Alafia wrote: 
These guys never heard of photoshop?

 Zep wrote: 
Man.  What the FARK were they thinking?

"It seemed like a good idea at the time.'

 Zep wrote: 

The Party of No is becoming the Party of No(ne).

 Alafia wrote: 


Holy crap! With Al Franken, that's 60!

 brandog wrote: 
Ha! so bad.

 mrs_amanda wrote: 
He is a good guy. I'm from PA.

 dionysius wrote: 
Spector is going to be switching some other preferences, methinks...

 Alafia wrote: 




Oh, Specter, not Spector!

Well, the SS Conservative is sinking and listing WAY starboard, so any level-headed salt would abandon ship. And, he faces a tough primary challenge from a hardcore Tory, so it's a canny political move to leave the minority party and join the winning side. We'll see how fairweather a friend Specter turns out to be. Like me, he will be an independent who caucuses with the Dems.

 Alafia wrote: 

Just heard him yesterday on NPR, good man, he got in trouble with his party for fighting for the constitution/protecting our right to privacy.

On CNN online:

Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter will switch from the Republican to the Democratic Party, multiple sources tell CNN.