Icicles in Memphis

What with all the dreary weather and the voting and the mishigas, let me provide you with a little bit of happy.

Meet The Icicles!

Sometime in the past few months you've likely heard them as the soundtrack to this Motorola KRAZR ad. Strong, clear female vocals over a classic, jangly pop song. They remind me of English, female-fronted bands like The Primitives or The Darling Buds.

It took me a while to track down the band and song, but I did. "Sugar Sweet," by The Icicles. It's even better outside the commercial! Listen to the other free track and you'll hear a similar formula, but the better production of "Sugar Sweet" gives it a more muscular sound and presence that makes it winning. That's always important with otherwise frothy pop confections like this.

I haven't been this charmed by a song since, well ... "Evil" by Interpol. Gretchen DeVault's winsome, joyous singing and the Farfisa organ-like counterpoint totally win me over. So give yourself a little bit of sunny, breezy pop fun and check out the song. It beats listening to "... and I approved this ad" all day!

Nothing to See Here

So I voted today at my usual precinct -- the old Brotherhood of Man building at Poplar and Willett. It was early afternoon, not many people there. I was in and out in minutes. I asked the precinct captain how turnout was and he said quite heavy, despite the lull while I as there.

As I post, you've still got four hours left to vote. (More if you're in a Ford precinct!) Make sure you do.

What's the Choice?

This editorial, from the Washington Examiner points out the simple truth. Democrats and their allies in the media have refocused the debate in the country from defense against the terrorists who would attack and kill us, at home and abroad, and out allies, to a simple question on the President. As the editorial points out, it's a lot more than that.

If we give the Democrats power, we are left with a famous Englishman's plea: "You say you want a revolution. Well you know, we all wanna see the plan." The only things I've heard are to leave Iraq or redeploy troops elsewhere. Maybe slice the country up into provinces, a la the former Yugoslavia. You can see what a success that's been. Or you could, if there were any news from that part of the world at all. Pretty hard to find; it takes looking.

As the editorial notes, the two most important figures in the supposed election debate, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, are MIA. Haven't been seen or heard from in months. It's rather odd for the supposed leaders to be rallying the troops from the shadows.

Do the Republicans have problems? You betcha! But the Dems have nothing but a burning desire to make the last six years go away, with prejudice; to "reclaim" what is "theirs." If given power tomorrow I have no doubt that Congress will be turned into a Bush Investigation Machine intended only to make political hay of anything and everything it can, trying to destroy Bush.

The War on Terror? Our ongoing mission in Iraq? Clearly, not so important to Democrats.

But life or death to Americans.

Corker: 50 / Ford: 38

According to the latest Mason-Dixon polls Corker is now running a 12 point lead over Harold Ford: 50/38. I tried locating the actual data on the M-D site, but no luck. Even with a 2-to-1 breakout for Ford among the Undecideds (based on a breakdown of data from another, Survey-USA poll), Corker still wins.

If this is true -- and another poll from the weekend repeats something like this gap -- this is incredible. Corker will become a legend.

If it's true. We shall see....

SUNDAY AFTERNOON UPDATE: Found the link to a deeper look into the numbers and the methodology. For starters, the poll sample size is just over 600 people, which is small.

The poll also asks about the famous bimbo ad and the results pretty much put the kibosh to Democratic efforts to call it "racist."

Have you seen the television advertisement that mentions Harold Ford’s attendance at a Super Bowl party that featured Playboy bunnies and ends with a blonde-haired woman saying “Harold, call me?”

YES 81%

NO 19%

(IF “YES) Would you describe your opinion of the ad as favorable, unfavorable, or neutral?

FAVORABLE 4%

UNFAVORABLE 67%

NEUTRAL 29%

(IF “YES) Would you say that the ad makes you more likely to vote for Bob Corker, more likely to vote for Harold Ford, or does it have no real effect on your vote?

FORD 10%

CORKER 23%

NO EFFECT 67%

Take a look at the levels of support found in the poll across the three Grand Divisions of the state and you'll see that the conventional wisdom is true. Corker's support is very strong in the East (61%) and falls as you move West (to 39%) whereas Ford's is strongest in the West (49%; not even a majority!) and falls precipitously going East (to an incredible 26%!) Bear in mind, though, the large unreliability factor in these numbers.

And in all three of the "Who do you think would best handle ...?" questions (Iraq and the War on Terror; energy; the economy) Corker holds decisive leads where Ford struggles around 1/3 of the polled.

Just to add some confusion to the mix, according to the latest (this weekend) Rasmussen poll, it's still a statistical dead heat: Corker at 51, and Ford with 47. (Box at top right of page.)

And from our WTF? files, comes a real outlier poll, from Hamilton-Beattie that has Ford leading 46 to 40! If I remember correctly H-B is the firm that does internal polling for the Ford campaign, so deep skepticism is needed. This result matches no other polls I know of at this stage.

Observation for the Day

Bob Corker's "Call Me" ad is provoking the strangest partisan reaction. Some folks refer to it as I just did. Most call it the "bimbo ad." Why? Because the "bimbo" is the most notable thing in it, the one that catches the attention and sticks in the memory.

But visit leftist/Democratic blogs and the ad is almost invariably referred to as the "racist bimbo ad." Why the extra modifier? Because the Democrats want you to believe their contention that the ad had some secret racist subtext.

They figure if they repeat it ad infinitum then it will be true. They figure if it's everywhere that history will record their version of events as "truth." They figure if they keep pounding the point home, folks will quit arguing with them and they win by default.

Harold Ford's Soliloquoy

I posted this eighteen months ago but I figure it bears repeating at this late date. Hamlet as re-imagined for Harold:


To run, or not to run, that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler for the candidate to suffer
The slings and arrows of campaigning
Or to take refuge against a sea of troubles in a safe House seat,
And by ducking again avoid them? To run: to campaign;
Once more; and by running to say we welcome
The heartache and the thousand political barbs
That candidates are heir to, 'tis a falsehood
Devoutly to be put forward. To run, to campaign;
To campaign: perchance to win: ay, there's the rub;
For in that endless campaign what difficulties may come,
When we have shuffled to yet another press conference,
Must give us pause. There's the "gotcha"
That makes calamity of political life.
For who would bear the whips and scorns of Republicans,
The grand jury's wrong, the proud uncle's contumely,
The pangs of early polls, the national committee's delay,
The insolence of voters, and the spurns
That patient merit of unwashed crowds takes,
When I myself might my legacy make
With a safe House seat? Who would cable show hosts bear,
To blather and sweat under a hot light,
But that the dread of life as a private citizen,
The anonymous country from whose shadow
Few politicians return, puzzles the will,
And makes me rather bear those perks I have
Than work for others I might not earn?
Thus does indecision make wafflers of us all;
And thus the native hue of Harold Ford
Is made even paler with this endless uncertainty;
And campaigns of great and lofty platitudes
With this regard their volunteers turn awry.
And lose the name of Senator.

Fun With Numbers: Media Bias Dept.

I know, I'm not supposed to be blogging, but this story really got me. It's a sleazy effort to make FOX News look bad by selectively using numbers, or not using them.

The author frontloads the story with lots of hard numbers showing FOX's supposed decline; then he goes on:

But Fox's problems go deeper than that. If it was just the dearth of big stories this year, all the other cable networks would be down as well. Two were actually up in October.

CNN has also been down steeply this year in total viewers and 25-54s but not as much as Fox, and in October its 25-54 primetime audience was essentially flat at down 1 percent.

And both Headline News and MSNBC were actually up in that demo last month, by 18 percent and 19 percent.

Notice the comparison of year-to-year trends with last month numbers. Notice how, if the point of rebuttal is that 2005 was an anomalous year, he doesn't go back to 2004 to compare trends without the anomaly! (I tried to find the 2004 numbers, but without luck.) Also, notice the lack of hard numbers for the other networks.

Curious what those numbers might be? Try looking here or here. What you see is that FOX is still smoking the competition. Even with downward drifts, they still are far ahead.

Which is a point the author seems afraid you'll realise. Hence hiding the numbers. Pathetic.

And lastly, notice how the author states a political thesis:

As the network most identified with conservative America and in particular the Bush White House, Fox News is suffering the most from the disenchantment among conservatives over the war and the political scandals.

The news formula that worked for so long is now working against it, they say, as fewer of those disenchanted viewers bother to tune in to watch the news.

... and then quotes from three "independent" scholars who support it.

Another reporter taking the facts of a situation -- which ought to be bricks, immutable -- and using them isntead as clay to mould a thesis not entirely supported by those facts.

INSTANT UPDATE: Ah hah! Found some 2004 numbers here (scroll about halfway down), which undercut the author's thesis for certain.

CABLE NEWS RATINGS

August 11, 2004

FNC: Total day: 915,000 / Primetime: 2,058,000 / O'Reilly: 2,666,000 / H&C: 1,793,000 / Greta: 1,714,000

CNN: Total day: 412,000 / Primetime: 730,000 / Zahn: 554,000 / King: 985,000 / Brown: 652,000

MSNBC: Total day: 205,000 / Primetime: 363,000 / Olbermann: 383,000 / Norville: 372,000 / Scarborough: 333,000

CNBC averaged 139,000 in total day and 177,000 in primetime. Dennis Miller had 293,000, McEnroe had 66,000 viewers. This is the 14th night in a month where MacEnroe has averaged less than 100,000 viewers a night.

So, when we compare those numbers, we get this:

2004 2006
FOX 915 1002
CNN 412 501
MSNBC 205 313
CNBC 139 222

Hmmmm.... Viewer growth all around, and FOX is still beating the pants off CNN. (Though you can have "Fun With Numbers" by pointing out that CNN had 20% growth over the two year period vs. FOX's 10%. Wow! Double the growth!)

Half the viewers.

Terrorists Say: Vote Democrat!

Aaron Klein has spent two years developing sources and contacts inside Palestinian terrorist organisations. He interviewed those leaders for their opinion of who should win the election is month. Overwhelmingly, they say, =Vote Democrat.

"Of course Americans should vote Democrat," Jihad Jaara, a senior member of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terror group and the infamous leader of the 2002 siege of Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity, told WND.

"This is why American Muslims will support the Democrats, because there is an atmosphere in America that encourages those who want to withdraw from Iraq. It is time that the American people support those who want to take them out of this Iraqi mud," said Jaara, speaking to WND from exile in Ireland, where he was sent as part of an internationally brokered deal that ended the church siege.

Jaara was the chief in Bethlehem of the Brigades, the declared "military wing" of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party.

Together with the Islamic Jihad terror group, the Brigades has taken responsibility for every suicide bombing inside Israel the past two years, including an attack in Tel Aviv in April that killed American teenager Daniel Wultz and nine Israelis.

Muhammad Saadi, a senior leader of Islamic Jihad in the northern West Bank town of Jenin, said the Democrats' talk of withdrawal from Iraq makes him feel "proud."

"As Arabs and Muslims we feel proud of this talk," he told WND. "Very proud from the great successes of the Iraqi resistance. This success that brought the big superpower of the world to discuss a possible withdrawal."

Abu Abdullah, a leader of Hamas' military wing in the Gaza Strip, said the policy of withdrawal "proves the strategy of the resistance is the right strategy against the occupation."

"We warned the Americans that this will be their end in Iraq," said Abu Abdullah, considered one of the most important operational members of Hamas' Izzedine al-Qassam Martyrs Brigades, Hamas' declared "resistance" department. "They did not succeed in stealing Iraq's oil, at least not at a level that covers their huge expenses. They did not bring stability. Their agents in the [Iraqi] regime seem to have no chance to survive if the Americans withdraw."

Abu Ayman, an Islamic Jihad leader in Jenin, said he is "emboldened" by those in America who compare the war in Iraq to Vietnam.

"[The mujahedeen fighters] brought the Americans to speak for the first time seriously and sincerely that Iraq is becoming a new Vietnam and that they should fix a schedule for their withdrawal from Iraq," boasted Abu Ayman.

Straight from the horse's mouth, so to speak.

Video Sought

I'm trying to find the video of the Clinton/Ford event yesterday. Both WMC/5 and WREG/3 had the full videos up all day yesterday but seem to have already taken them down in favor of much briefer stories.

I know, I know, "bandwidth costs money." But still, taking it down the same day? Sheesh....

Anyway, I'm specifically looking for the segment where Harold the Lesser introduces and thanks some of his family.

Thanks for the help.

What Harold Ford Jr. Really Meant

From Harold's own animated lips comes the truth: "He spent millions of dollars of his own money telling the truth about my record. That's wrong.... I approved this message because I won't let them make me into someone I already am."




Just watch it. Low-key and devastatingly funny.

Via John Harvey's Voting in Memphis blog, which also notes that Memphis is on track to have a 25% turnout in early voting. That's incredible, especially for a midterm election.

And We Want a Democratic Senate Why?

Harold Ford Jr, Congressman from Tennessee, and John Kerry, Senator from Massachusetts, have little in common but a party name. But putting Ford into the Senate will empower people like Kerry who say things like this:



Kerry makes it worse by clarifying his comments thus:

If anyone thinks a veteran would criticize the more than 140,000 heroes serving in Iraq and not the president who got us stuck there, they’re crazy. This is the classic G.O.P. playbook. I’m sick and tired of these despicable Republican attacks that always seem to come from those who never can be found to serve in war, but love to attack those who did.

John McCain, former POW, is already demanding a clear apology, to no avail. Of course Kerry, as a returned soldier from Vietnam said this to a Congressional committee:

I would like to talk, representing all those veterans, and say that several months ago in Detroit, we had an investigation at which over 150 honorably discharged and many very highly decorated veterans testified to war crimes committed in Southeast Asia, not isolated incidents but crimes committed on a day-to-day basis with the full awareness of officers at all levels of command....

They told the stories at times they had personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the countryside of South Vietnam in addition to the normal ravage of war, and the normal and very particular ravaging which is done by the applied bombing power of this country.

And so we must ask: Do we really want a Democratic Senate? Do we really want to give them power by giving the open Tennessee seat to Harold Ford Jr?

Thought for the Day

Via Jerry Pournelle:

I would rejoice greatly if the election were between Libertarians and Burkean Whigs, for I would not fear the outcome.

Junior, Jesus, Guns, Taxes, Marriage and Babies

The sloppy description of Harold Ford Jr as "conservative" is, of course, just plain wrong. You might could make an argument for "conservative Democrat" but I think he's a disciple of Clinton's DLC, finding where most Tennesseans are and then moving himself into that position. Sometimes he does what his party tells him and sometimes -- like voting for the Bankruptcy Bill which will hurt his constituents -- who knows why he votes that way.

But he has voted in the past, and a lot of single-issue partisan groups have tracked and ranked his votes over the years. Via Free Republic comes an enlightening list:

Harold Ford, Jr. On Guns

1999-2000 Gun Owners of America assigned Representative Ford a grade of F-

1999-2000 Representative Ford supported the interests of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence 100 percent in 1999-2000.

2000 the National Rifle Association assigned Representative Ford a grade of F

2001-2002 Gun Owners of America assigned Representative Ford a grade of F-

the National Rifle Association assigned Representative Ford a grade of F

2002 On the votes that the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence considered to be the most important as of 2002, Representative Ford voted their preferred position 87 percent of the time.

2003 Representative Ford supported the interests of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence 77 percent from 1988-2003 (Senate) or 1991-2003 (House).







2006 Representative Ford supported the interests of the Planned Parenthood 78 percent in 2006.

2005-2006 Representative Ford supported the interests of the National Right to Life Committee 22 percent in 2005-2006.

2005 Representative Ford supported the interests of the NARAL Pro-Choice America 60 percent in 2005.

2004 Representative Ford supported the interests of the NARAL Pro-Choice America 100 percent in 2004.

2003-2004 Representative Ford supported the interests of the National Right to Life Committee 25 percent in 2003-2004.

2003-2004 Representative Ford supported the interests of the Democrats for Life of America 33 percent in 2003-2004.

2003 Representative Ford supported the interests of the NARAL Pro-Choice America 30 percent in 2003.

2001-2002 Representative Ford supported the interests of the National Right to Life Committee 19 percent in 2001-2002.

2001 Representative Ford supported the interests of the Planned Parenthood 75 percent in 2001.

2001 Representative Ford supported the interests of the NARAL Pro-Choice America 100 percent in 2001.

2000 Representative Ford supported the interests of the NARAL Pro-Choice America 75 percent in 2000.

1999-2000 Representative Ford supported the interests of the National Right to Life Committee 6 percent in 1999-2000.

1999 Representative Ford supported the interests of the Planned Parenthood 88 percent in 1999.

1995-2004 On the votes that the National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Assocation considered to be the most important in 1995-2004, Representative Ford voted their preferred position 82 percent of the time.

1995-2003 Representative Ford supported the interests of the Planned Parenthood (House) 78 percent in 1995-2003.





2006 In 2006 Sierra Club endorsed Representative Ford.




2005 Representative Ford supported the interests of the Family Research Council 23 percent in 2005.

2005 Representative Ford supported the interests of the Children's Defense Fund 56 percent in 2005.

2004 Representative Ford supported the interests of the Family Research Council 25 percent in 2004.

2003-2004 Representative Ford supported the interests of the Children's Defense Fund 73 percent in 2003-2004.

2003 Representative Ford supported the interests of the Family Research Council 15 percent in 2003.




2003-2004 On the votes that the U.S. Border Control considered to be the most important in 2003-2004, Representative Ford voted their preferred position 10 percent of the time.


Representative Ford supported the interests of the American Immigration Lawyers Association 83 percent from 1995-2004.



2005 Representative Ford supported the interests of the American Federation of Government Employees 69 percent in 2005.

2005 Representative Ford supported the interests of the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers 75 percent in 2005.

2005 Representative Ford supported the interests of the Service Employees International Union 75 percent in 2005.

2005 Representative Ford supported the interests of the United Auto Workers 71 percent in 2005.

2005 Representative Ford supported the interests of the AFL-CIO 73 percent in 2005.

2005 Representative Ford supported the interests of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Worker 83 percent in 2005.

2005 Representative Ford supported the interests of the American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees 100 percent in 2005.

2004 Representative Ford supported the interests of the American Postal Workers Union 86 percent in 2004.

2004 Representative Ford supported the interests of the AFL-CIO 86 percent in 2004.

2004 Representative Ford supported the interests of the Communications Workers of America 100 percent in 2004.

2004 Representative Ford supported the interests of the United Auto Workers 87 percent in 2004.




2006 Representative Ford supported the interests of the Secular Coalition for America 60 percent in 2006.

2006 Representative Ford supported the interests of the Population Connection 71 percent in 2006.

2005 Representative Ford supported the interests of the NETWORK, A National Catholic Social Justice Lobby 67 percent in 2005.

2005 Representative Ford supported the interests of the Population Institute 50 percent in 2005.

2005 Representative Ford supported the interests of the Population Connection 83 percent in 2005.

Waaaauuuggghhh!

I just had to post on this, as I was there to witness the event. My gaming buddy, Mark, won an important tournament victory on Wednesday. Here's the story.

I've posted in the past on playing a tabletop wargame called Epic: Armageddon. I'm only a middling player, but it's a lot of fun. Mark, though, has been fine-tuning and tweaking his army list all year so that his Orks (think large, green, ugly and violent) are a formidable force. My Space Marines (the best of the Emperor's best) rarely beat them any more.

His opponent, Greg, is a long time player and is mighty good. I sat on the sidelines -- trying hard to be quiet, not point things out or kibitz -- and just watched the play. It was a really, really hard-fought game. No one made any big mistakes, so it was pure strategy and luck. Just a great game.

Mark's write-up presupposes some knowledge of the game, but he has pictures! And he was the tournament champion, his first major win! He was incredibly pumped after, and deservedly so. Go on over and wish him congrats.

Yep, Definitely Over

The surest sign that Harold Ford Jr has turned the corner to Loserville? The lunatics are using Klan imagery. It's the last refuge of intellectually bankrupt scoundrels who know they've lost and have nothing left.

Nazi Klansmen with (photoshopped) Corker signs? Flaming crosses? KKKorker?

Nothing scares off average middle-class whites faster than crazed partisans screaming inflammatory race iamgery at them.

Yep, it's over.

I had been a bit worried. Look at some of the data in this poll from SurveyUSA. Look at the Corker/Ford poll data, under "Ideology." See "Moderates?" They break out 2 to 1 for Ford. They're the people Ford is desperate to get.

Stuff like the extremism you see at KnoxViews is going to poison that well. It's kinda surprising that the kids over at the Flypaper Theory haven't joined in, but then they've been hacking at Ford, not Corker, for a while now.

Over.

INSTANT UPDATE: Ahahahahaha! And just now, this afternoon, the latest Lefty hysteria is upon us: jungle drums! That's right. Supposedly this ad (Warning: MP3 file will load into your browser.) has "jungle drums" playing behind Ford's name, in an attempt to scare listeners with racist innuendo.

Hey, clue-deficient Americans, it's called symphonic film music. Those are tympani, an instrument found in Euro-American orchestras and symphonies. They are employed to heighten drama. You want real "jungle drums?" Listen to the opening theme from Battlestar Galactica.

But you can't convince people who see ghosts in every shadow that every shadow doesn't have a ghost. Oh! Wait. Did I just say ghost, in a post talking about Ford? Was that some deeply subtle, hidden racist comment I buried subliminally?

This is getting ludicrous. It really is. Tennessee's Democratic Left believes it's lost the momentum in the Senate race and so everything is now all-stops-out for them. They are reaching for anything, it seems. Turning standard, bland symphonic music into race-baiting.

Yeah, that's the ticket.

Or take the anti-Ford ad that Democrats have called "racist" because a white bimbo mimes holding a cell phone and says, "Call me." to Harold. Someohow, after years of being told by Democrats and leftists that interracial dating is OK, they're suddenly seeing it as a bad thing.

Somehow, the choice of a blonde bimbo has some secret meaning. Well... no. She looks exactly like the kind of women you find at Playboy parties: bottle-blonde with roots showing and too much makeup, a badly stylised idea of what's trendy, hot and sexy. Racist? Not hardly. If anything, it's sexist. She's a modern, empowered young woman unafraid to let a powerful man know that she's attracted. And Democrats are angry at that? Sheesh....

I was right. Ford's been knocked off his stride. His supporters sense it and now they're over-compensating for him. Over-compensating wildly.

Yep. Over.

SERVICE NOTE: Blogger is doing maintenance this evening and the blog has been intermittently unavailable. It will apparently be going on for a while. Sorry if you can't access Half-Bakered with typical Internet ease.

"MY KUNG FU IS STRONGER THAN YOURS" UPDATE: Randy Neal, the proprietor of the blog linked above, has apparently noticed the problem and schoolmarmly advises the troops to cool it:

Denounce the negative, disgusting ads, too, but don't get goaded into responding in kind.

"Goaded?" Blog reports show up claiming "jungle drums" and racism and Democrats immediately roll out the Nazis and Klan. No goading; it's a reflex reaction. Or a natural instinct.

It's an admission that Corker is winning. "Don't scare the folks we're trying to woo. Wait until the election's over."

Anyway, in comments further down, Neal writes:

Oh, don't get me wrong. I agree with you 100% on that. They are using the reverse racist ju-jitsu to great effect to innoculate their candidate. And they should be told that forcefully.

The trouble is that when you cross the line into enemy territory, you let them set the rules of engagement. All I'm saying is don't get sucked in.

Yeah, because my kung fu is stronger than his, I guess. His point about sticking to issues is well taken and should be listened to by his legions. Because it was them who first cried wolf.

Some Democrat devised this triple-reverse "nuh-uh!" move a while back: A Republican / Christian / right-winger / traditionalist says or does something. Some easily offended or partisan tool quickly leaps up to cry foul, whatever the merit of the charge. (Remember the "niggardly" flap?) The R/C/r-w/t responds, "Oh please. Am not." And then the Nazi and Klan symbols and photoshops start flying. Then the story is no longer the charge, but the conflict and the charge.

Look at Neal trying to defend the lunatics:

The image of the white woman giggling about Harold and telling him to call me evokes one of the deep-rooted Southern taboos about interracial sex. It used to be a lynching offense for black men.

To paraphrase Freud: Sometimes a bimbo is just a bimbo. As noted above, she was intended to "evoke" a Playboy playmate/party girl -- the subject of the ad.

Notice how he manages to go straight to lynching? Who mentioned that? Why, he did. Just now. He gets to chastise his critics and stir the pot a bit deeper. Sly and revolting at the same time; unless he did it unconsciously and then it just tells you about his frame of mind.

If you want to talk offensive subliminals, I can play that game. Let's go back to Ford's "kick the dog" ad. First of all, whose house is this he's walking through? His? Niiiiiiice. It's the kind of kitchen a whole lot of middle-class folks would like to have.

But notice the woods -- the rich expensive woods -- behind him. Blonde woods. White painted woods. Is he saying, "See? I'm white, too. I'm safe." It's all intended to be reassuring.

Or is it all just me over-reacting, over-reaching, straining? Looking for something that's not there.

When Democrats do this sort of thing, of course it's true and statements by their targets are "denials." But if Republicans do this sort of thing? It's crazy! It's "... using the reverse racist ju-jitsu to great effect...."

Yep, the race is over.

AND NOW, THE CAPPER The Corker campaign has now pointed out that the "jungle drums" music was used in another, prior, ad. This one. So, since the opening "jungle drums" play under an image of Ol' Bob, does that mean the campaign wanted you to think of him as a scary black man?

And, to see the kinds of knots, the kinds of dank, scary places, that Democrats get themselves into read this article looking at Chris Matthews. Here's what Matthews says about a Michael Steele (black Republican running for governor of Maryland) ad:

I love the ads, my wife loves the ads, they're really funny, some of them. And very unthreatening. An African-American guy, it seems, has to run an ad that's so unthreatening that he's almost child-like in his presentation, but it seems to be working.

Still wanna talk modern racism and the Democratic Party?

The Other Ford Ambush

Harold Ford's "ambush" of Bob Corker last Friday isn't the first time that Fords have staged an ambush.

Best Sporting Event
Ford family smackdown. On July 10th, Fords John (state senator) and Joe (commissioner) and Jake and Isaac (both Harold Sr.'s sons) entered the ring during a Memphis Wrestling event. They were there to back up a friend getting whupped by a threesome that included Jerry "The King" Lawler.

That's the Memphis Flyer's take on that epic ambush at the MidSouth Coliseum. I had almost forgotten this incident from two years ago, July 2004.

But wait! There's more:

This is the first time that Jimmy Hart and myself had the chance to speak to Memphis about the big ambush that took place at the Midsouth Coliseum.

Don't try to deny that was an ambush, Cory. You had your buddys, the Ford Family. There was John,Joe,Isaac,Jake and the entire Ford family. Are there any female Fords? You asked all your buddies to save you, Cory.

Cory, I invited them to the Coliseum and I had no part in them in the ring. The entered the ring on their own. They came to save me....

You had your buddies hits the ring. The Fords are one of the most influential families in Memphis. They are congressmen, senators etc. The[y] are all that and a bag of chips as Maclin would say. You tried to sway public opinion against the King.

Cory, You are doing it yourself.

Jerry Lawler, The only reason that I did not punch out the Ford family is because they brought their Children with them. I have been wanting to lay out Joe Ford out a long time ago. I would of punched his lights out. His teeth would of been rolling around the ring like Chic lets but out of respect for the kids I did not do anything.

That's a garbled transcript of wrestling promoter Cory Maclin and wrestler Jerry "The King" Lawler. Hardly seems like it's been two years ago. That "John" is former State Senator John Ford and that "Jake" is current Independent 9th Congressional District candidate Jake "Joke" Ford and that "Joe" is Shelby County Commisioner Joe Ford.

They actually entered the ring and began to fight! It was caught on tape and was shown on the local news as one of those "can you believe it?" moments. I've been trying to track down the video but with no luck so far.

Ah, Summer '04. I knew even back then that little bit of theater would come back to haunt someone. It seems that time is now and that someone is Harold Jr.

And it shows, yet again, that Harold is a Ford. You can see that "ambushes" run in the family.

TUESDAY EVENING UPDATE: We're getting closer! I've found the original WMC story now. Some choice quotes:

In the video you can see as State Senator John Ford enters the fray. Shelby County Commissioner Joe Ford is there, as are the younger Isaac Ford and his brother Jake Ford. You can see Jake Ford whipping Lawler with his belt....

"I know I put a whipping on Jimmy Hart. And I know I put a little whipping on Jerry Lawler leaving that ring," said Jake Ford.

The family claims the event was harmless. Sources tell Action News Five that part of it might have been designed to promote Jake Ford as a professional wrestler....

Both State Senator John Ford and Congressman Harold Ford Junior refused comment tonight. Congressman Harold Ford Jr. was not a part of Saturday's smackdown.

I've got more emails out, especially to WMC, trying to get that video. I'll update as I learn more.

Here's what the Commercial Appeal's Wendi Thomas had to say at the time:

Now, if County Mayor A C Wharton were to get in the ring, it might be
funny. Such behavior would stand in stark contrast to his polished
professional demeanor; the satire would be overwhelming. Not so much
with the Fords, whose personal lives tend toward the messy.

Given that the public deems politicians only slightly more honorable
than used-car salesmen, why would four Fords squander even a smidgen
of credibility on a stupid stunt?

"Some people probably would say that, but everyone I've heard from
said, 'Congratulations, you won the match,' " Joe Ford said.

"It wasn't anything I was ashamed of."

Saving the Ford family from themselves (Harold Jr. excepted) may be a
frustrating exercise in futility.

I guess, after last Friday, Harold the Lesser is no longer excepted.

Here is some discussion from Memphis wrestling fans.

More as I find it, or hear back from folks.

The Tennessee Senate Race is Now Over

Un-frakking-believable. The Senate race is now over. Harold Ford actually calls Bob Corker a dog kicker.

Corker's strategy of needling Ford on his family (which I think, in the context of Tennessee, is a fair thing to do) is finally paying off. Big time.

The race is over, y'all.

The YouTube page is here.

There's also a clip of a Ford / Corker pairing from Sunday night on CNN. Listen for the part where Ford disappears his aunt Ophelia from the family. (Yes, clueless literalists, I know what he meant to say and I'm sure most Tennesseans will here it too. But anyone unfamiliar with the Ford family -- in this case nearly everyone viewing CNN -- will think he has no auntie!) Also watch how he puts words into Corker's mouth -- right in front of you! -- by claiming Corker called Harold Ford Sr and Jr "crooks." Clever, but also the very, very thing he is railing against. Does he think people are this stupid?

(Thanks to commenter "b" on the Pesky Fly blog for the CNN link.)

The race is now over.

Ford Stumbles, or The October Surprise, or "Ford Bus Crashes on Runway"

It had to seem like a good idea to Harold Ford Jr and his campaign handlers: Swoop in on a Bob Corker event and take over, making Corker look bad. They were no doubt assured in their belief in Ford's on-camera glibness and charisma based on previous forums with Corker. Pounce, let kitty play with the mouse, gloat.

Except a strange thing happened on the way to political legend: Bob Corker displayed a backbone . When the Ford campaign behemoth bus started circling the Wilson Airport parking lot, then opened its door to drop Harold Himself onto the tarmac Corker didn't duck into a building, trying to hide. Instead he strode over to Ford, got in his face, took control of the situation, told Ford what he was going to do, then turned and walked away. Leaving Ford to stand there, close to sputtering, explaining to the cameras.

For Ford it's almost the worst of all possible outcomes. (The worst would have been Corker telling the media pool, "Come with me back to the press conference." and having them follow, showing Ford standing there, alone and receding, on the parking lot. Not keeping the cameras with him was a Corker mistake.) Ford tried an ambush and Tennessee got to see that, when ambushed, Corker could rise to the occasion and act decisively. Even if the moment was small, Bob was devastating. Who knew?

That's the point. You can't know until the moment strikes, as it did (in far larger and more sweeping ways) for Roosevelt on December 7, 1941 and for G. W. Bush on September 11, 2001. Ford unwittingly handed Corker his decisive moment and Corker proved himself ready. On camera. Campaigns live and die by this stuff. Remember Bush being told at the Florida school about the WTC attacks?

Someone in the Corker campaign needs to move fast and, in a Clintonesque fashion, devise a nickname for Bob based on the moment, like "Backbone Bob" or something. A strong, catchy reminder; something that everyone but the campaign can use to constantly drive the point home. Not that I expect that to happen; Corker's new campaign staff still seem to be the usual dim-witted plodders that you always find. But the opportunity is there. Clinton had many faults, but seizing the moment wasn't among them.

It wasn't a good day for Ford anyway. Tennessee's highest-profile blogger, Instapundit, one of the biggest in the nation with more readers than all but a few newspapers, declined to vote for Ford. Although he's widely and incorrectly assumed to be a conservative, Professor Glenn Reynolds will be the first to tell you he's a Democrat -- albeit a self-described "9/11 Democrat," one whose worldview was altered by that day so that national security became Issue One.

Instapundit is precisely the voter that Ford needs to win: centrist independents, Democrats and Republicans who are security-minded. That he couldn't sway Reynolds is telling.

But he's not the only Democrat who remains unconvinced. In Shelby County -- where Ford's base is, the engine of his victory -- the lefty blogosphere is notable for its antipathy to Ford. They too are just the voters he needs: white and middle-class. But if you read The Flypaper Theory, LeftWingCracker, River City Mud Bugle and The Freedonian you see a litany of disgust verging on anger with Ford. Most of them loudly announced during the primaries that they would not vote for Ford only to ostentatiously recant and decide to hold their noses when they voted for him.

It's interesting to me that while Ford gets lots of media attention this little bit of backfire goes uncommented. I guess it doesn't fit the narrative of the Great Mocha Hope that is Harold Ford Jr.

One bit of irony, too. Corker's press conference was to talk about "ethics" legislation, which was all keyed to Ford's family shenanigans. Ford called him on it. It's something Ford just can't get away from and lately he's been getting a bit testy on it. (That may be what launched the ill-fated bus-drop.) I watched the Saturday morning news, just to see what kind of coverage the "presser crasher" story got. WREG/Newschannel 3 carried the story and then immediately followed it with a story about former State Senator John Ford's inability to pay alimony to one of his many mistresses / ex-wives. Harold and his family; paired like ... well, family.

The Ford campaign will sweat out the weekend. This kind of mano a mano confrontation is just what the media loves. The story was on the Drudge Report Friday evening! Will it make the Sunday news shows? I'd imagine the Ford people are worried now about how to handle it. Leave it alone and hope? Call the shows today to downplay the story, only to arouse their interest and have it picked up? A true "damned if you do, damned if you don't" quandary.

I've said since the beginning that this was Corker's race to lose. The polls have been a toss-up since the primaries, despite the newspaper horserace headlines. (Note to reporters: If a candidate is leading by 2 or 3% and the poll's margin of error is 2 to 4 %, then the race is a statistical dead heat. Talking about someone "leading" is just bad reporting. Stupid reporters....) Corker was tilting slightly ahead again in a poll released this week, and a Tennessee legislator says that unreleased numbers show Corker with a true lead and momentum. After Friday's flub, Corker was handed a big boost. Can he build on it for the next two weeks?

"Backbone Bob." Remember, you read it here first!

See the full video here. Click the "Harold Ford Junior Crashes Corker Presser" link in the "Add to Playlist" box.

This is Your Vagina on Drugs

A woman in police custody began to behave erraticly and incoherently, so she was given a standard battery of exams. Imagine the doctors' surprise when the vaginal x-ray shows a gun!

The eventual explanation is both sad and not entirely surprising.

Strike Three!

Harold Ford Jr has been caught in another lie out on the campaign trail. This time it is a bald-faced one where he claims to have voted for the Deficit Reduction Act when, in fact, he voted against it twice and filed a legal brief against it in court!

This follows his lie about supporting the Kelo decision and a lie about his record on gun rights!

Ford has lied about his voting record! You'd think the local media would be all over this, but ... not so much. They are too locked in to the "support the local boy doing well" template to consider anything that might muck it up and make their jobs harder.