GOP Tea Party Senate contender calls Hurricane Isaac a blessing

This afternoon in Tampa, GOP Senate candidate from Texas, Ted Cruz (R-Texas), a Tea Party favorite, spoke at a Faith & Freedom Coalition event. Here's a transcript of the relevant portions, and here's the audio:

"You know, we have so many things to be thankful for, so many blessings — including even, we can be thankful for Hurricane Isaac. If nothing else, it kept Joe Biden away. (*applause*) I'm thrilled the RNC is gonna be paying to put Joe Biden on a national tour (*laughter*), because he truly is a wonderful spokesman for what this administration represents."

[five minutes omitted]

"There is a tidal wave coming. (*applause*) You know, a tidal wave often follows hurricanes (*applause*), and in November a tidal wave is coming."

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Isaac will hit the GOP convention even if it misses

Forbes:

“Imagine the visuals of homes destroyed and peoples lives ruined while the Republicans are having their convention,” Epstein continues. “This could end up being a no-win public relations nightmare for the Republicans even thought the storm itself won’t hit that part of Florida.”

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Swing state female voters: Romney "out of step" on women's health issues

It's difficult to imagine why any woman would want to vote for a Republican these days. There will be a price to pay in November for their war on women. The Hill:

The survey, conducted by Hart Research Associates, lends credence to Democrats' argument that the presumptive GOP presidential nominee is on the wrong end of a steep gender gap, largely because of his opposition to abortion rights and his positions on issues such as contraception.

By a 20-point margin, women surveyed in the Planned Parenthood Action Fund poll said Romney is "out of step" on women's issues. That number increased as women heard "specific information about Romney's on-the-record statements about women's preventive and reproductive health," the Hart polling memo says.

After hearing those descriptions, 64 percent of respondents said Romney is out of step.

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John Lennon - Instant Karma

Anyone want to take a guess how many Republicans will talk about the vengeful god who sent a storm yet again towards the GOP convention? Maybe god only is vengeful with Democrats, in their pea-sized brains.

Parisians will start rolling into town today, as the peak vacation season is mostly over. Vacation towns around the country will start shifting back to normal. Next week is likely to still be a slow working week for most, as they pick up the pieces from a few weeks away from the office. The first week of September is when people realize that the December holidays are not that far off and they need to get cracking to wrap everything up for the year.

This year though, there's bound to be plenty of stress due to the recession that is hovering overhead. There's a very high likelihood that the unemployment rate will head up as the year goes on, plus there's the general concern over the state of the eurozone. The markets have been calm this summer and the euro has even gained a few points against the dollar but September may be a different story. Read the rest of this post...

GOP to outspend Dems on strippers at convention

They may be cheapskates when it comes to granny, but the GOP appears to love spending cash on strippers. Maybe they view it as young voter outreach?

But if past conventions are any indicator, Republicans are likely to outspend Democrats heavily at topless bars and strip clubs, says Angelina Spencer. She heads the Association of Club Executives, an organization for the nation's 4,000 "gentleman's club" owners. The group talked to members in the host cities of past conventions.

"When we compared spending," Spencer notes, "the average showed Republicans spending $150 per person at an adult club, versus Democrats, who averaged $50 a person."

I did a double-take thinking this was The Onion story about the GOP convention, but no, it's CNN. Read the rest of this post...

Nicely nasty new Obama video on Romney & GOP Convention

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Windows 8 is a disaster

You are going to hate Windows 8.

I have used Windows as my main O/S since the first release of Windows NT. I upgraded to Windows XP and Vista the first week they were released. The griping over Vista always seemed like a lot of noise created by lazy system managers who didn't want to have the hassle of having to upgrade people's machines.

Windows 8 is something else entirely. It is a complete usability disaster. I have been using computers for over 30 years and I can't work out how to start the file manager or any other program that I want to actually use on my computer.

The Metro UI looks wonderful. But that is absolutely no use to me when I can't work out the basic principles of how to use the machine without either looking at a manual or calling customer support. I can't see the typical user that the product is aimed at being any more willing to re-learn how to use a computer.

It took me quite a while to work out how to get out of the 'Start page' and get to the desktop so I could actually start running a program that I wanted to use rather than the freebie photo and video tools that come bundled. Shutting the system down was even worse, I had to call a Microsoft product VP I know to find out how (the bottom left and right corners of the screen have magic powers).

Most frustrating of all is how little effort it would take for Microsoft to make the system right. Why does Microsoft imagine that I have any interest in using their new Metro 'start page' when it doesn't offer any of the programs I have an interest in using and there is no obvious way to change it to offer the programs I do want to use?

Plenty of people are telling Microsoft about this disaster in the making right now but all the signs are that Redmond isn't listening. Read the rest of this post...