2010 In Review

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.

Crunchy numbers

The Louvre Museum has 8.5 million visitors per year. This blog was viewed about 170,000 times in 2010. If it were an exhibit at The Louvre Museum, it would take 7 days for that many people to see it.

In 2010, there were 597 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 8504 posts. There were 68 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 6mb. That’s about 1 pictures per week.

The busiest day of the year was January 27th with 1,092 views. The most popular post that day was Obama State Of The Union: LIVE VIDEO – 1/27/10.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were en.wordpress.com, blogtrepreneur.com, misscellania.com, litbrit.blogspot.com, and america-weeps.blogspot.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for osama bin laden, kosovo, wings, osama bin laden captured, and rwanda genocide.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

1

Obama State Of The Union: LIVE VIDEO – 1/27/10 January 2010

2

The waning power of truth June 2009
3 comments

3

Kill, Burn & Loot (4/7) July 2008
4 comments

4

…MORE Sarah!!! Whew (check out these pics) September 2008
18 comments

5

Man Loses His Pants In Vail Chairlift Accident (PHOTOS) January 2009
75 comments

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Angry Voters Choose Government Gridlock, Investigations and Shutdown

There are a variety of explanations for the frustratingly backwards outcome of yesterday’s election.

Clearly Americans were dissatisfied with the objective reality that the Obama administration and the congressional Democrats actually made things better by cutting the deficit by an historic $122 billion; creating upwards of three million new jobs; ending the war in Iraq; passing the largest middle class tax cut in history; and rescuing the economy from the brink of collapse. Not good enough, obviously.

Or did voters simply not know about these accomplishments? That’s entirely possible given the Democratic Party’s uncanny penchant for running away from its successes, while also fumbling very basic add-water-and-serve marketing chores. (And, by the way, adding to the party’s failures to ballyhoo its accomplishments, the progressive movement was systematically out-hustled, out-gunned and outmaneuvered for much of the last two years.)

Of course there’s also the Flailing Rage Factor, which I tend to favor as a reason for yesterday’s outcome more than ignorance or lack of Democratic marketing chops. For two years now, Americans have been incited by fakery and horror stories to the point of being pumped up into a ‘roid raging mob chanting shallow platitudes and bumper sticker zingers — incoherently attacking Speaker Pelosi’s face, and bent out of shape by the fact that there’s not a doddering old white guy stumbling through the West Wing spinning grandfatherly yarns about American mornings and saintly cowboys.

Ultimately, what Americans voted for yesterday was divided government, which admittedly isn’t new in American politics. We typically like the idea of two sides, Congress and the White House, locking horns and ultimately compromising on the important matters of the day.

Unfortunately, this is a “pre-01/20/09″ mindset. It’s a mass delusion based on antiquated political attitudes.

The era when Republicans would, at least reluctantly, compromise with a Democratic president is long gone.

What voters unknowingly asked for yesterday was gridlock: immovable, unprecedented, insufferable gridlock of the worst kind, and at the worst time imaginable.

The Republicans have no intention of handing the president any successes. They’ll never in a million years compromise with this White House, or the Senate Democrats for that matter, because any move in that direction will bring down the loud, screechy tweet wrath of Sarah Palin and the Tea Party who will neither accept nor support anyone who appears to be leaning in the direction of the Obama agenda.

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Rand Paul Supporter Tim Profitt Wants Stomping Victim To Apologize To HIM

Rand Paul Supporter Tim Profitt Wants Stomping Victim To Apologize To HIM

The Huffington Post |  Nick Wing First Posted: 10-27-10 10:30 AM   |   Updated: 10-27-10 11:24 AM

Tim Profitt, the Rand Paul supporter behind the white sneaker that notoriously stomped on a MoveOn activist’s head in Kentucky, sought to play down the importance of the incident Tuesday, and went so far as to ask the victim for an apology.

“I don’t think it’s that big of a deal,” Profitt told WKYT. “I would like for her to apologize to me to be honest with you.”

While the victim, Lauren Valle, said Tuesday that she believed the campaign workers’ violent reaction to her presence there was “premeditated,” Profitt told WKYT that he thought Valle was following a strict protocol with the intent of creating controversy.

“She’s a professional at what she does,” Profitt said, “and I think when all the facts come out, I think people will see that she was the one that initiated the whole thing.”

He then blamed the forceful downward motion of his foot on the head of Valle as a function of chronic back pain, a claim he has made before:

“I put my foot on her, and I did push her down at the very end, and I told her to stay down. I actually put my foot on her to — I couldn’t bend over because I have issues with my back,” Profitt said.

Profitt, who was once touted proudly by the Rand Paul campaign as its Bourbon County coordinator, has since been cut off from the Tea Party-backed Republican Senate candidate.

VIDEO HERE

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AZ-03: Shocking Democratic Pickup Opportunity

Daily Kos- by kos

Mon Oct 18, 2010 at 11:20:03 AM PDT

Public Policy Polling for Daily Kos. 10/16-17. Likely voters. MoE 3.8% (No trend lines)

Ben Quayle (R) 44
Jon Hulburd (D) 46

Yeah, that was a real WTF moment for us in this open seat being vacated by conservative icon John Shadegg. Completely unexpected. Sure, the idiot son of the idiot former vice president is a bit of a joke, but this is a solidly conservative district, one in which McCain won 57-42.

Now there is no intensity gap here. Or better put, there is a gap, but it goes the other way — the composition of this sample is 52-40 McCain, or three points more Democratic than in 2008. That’s likely part of the “favorite son” gap we’ve seen in polling in Illinois, Delaware, Hawaii and Alaska — in which the presidential ticket boosted partisan performance for the home-state candidates.

In any case, Democrats have a legitimate and serious pickup opportunity in this district. The reason is that Quayle is having a bitch of a time locking down moderates and independents.

Hulburd is winning independents 50-36, and moderates 66-27. While only eight percent of Obama voters are defecting to Quayle, 18 percent of McCain voters are going with Hulburd. And even 19 percent of Republican voters are choosing the Democratic candidate, likely an artifact of a nasty primary. In fact, Quayler’s favorable/unfavorable rating of 34/52 is shockingly bad for a first-time House candidate, and incudes 30 percent unfavorables from Republican voters, and 29/51 from independents. Hulburd is at 33/20, including 37/16 from independents. Yet given that half of voters have no idea what to think of Hulburd, he may be benefiting from an “anyone but Quayle” dynamic.

John McCain is winning this district easily in his current bid for re-election, 53-39, further suggesting that the sample isn’t too Democratic. And most undecideds come from 18 to 29 year olds, suggesting Hulburd has the best chance to grown his support past 50 percent.

Those of you who voted to poll this district last week, great call. I wouldn’t have chosen this one, but I’m glad you did.

• Discuss (182 comments)

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/10/18/911384/-AZ-03:-Shocking-Democratic-pickup-opportunity

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