New Wisconsin poll: Walker by six among likely voters, Romney tied with Obama at 46

The last Marquette poll, which had Walker leading Barrett by one thin point, made me want to drink whiskey in the daytime. This one makes me want to drink champagne. Yesterday’s dKos/PPP poll had nearly identical numbers so it’s safe to say this really is the state of the race in Wisconsin at this moment.

I can’t believe I’m asking this, but are we headed for a Scott Walker landslide?

Republicans are more likely to say they are “absolutely certain” to vote on June 5, at 91 percent, than are Democrats and independents, both at 83 percent. In other areas of participation, Republicans also have an advantage. Sixty-two percent of Republicans say that they have tried to persuade someone to vote for or against a candidate, compared to 54 percent among Democrats and 48 percent among independents…

Read More

Report: GOP might keep parts of ObamaCare if law is struck down

The sourcing on this one is awfully thin, which raises two possibilities. One: The details are exaggerated or outright made up to try to start a firestorm among ObamaCare-hating conservatives. Two: The details are spot-on and are being deliberately leaked to see how ObamaCare-hating conservatives react. Can some parts of this thing be preserved or must the stench of The One’s greatest victory be completely expunged before Congress takes another run at health care?

If the law is upheld, Republicans will take to the floor to tear out its most controversial pieces, such as the individual mandate and requirements that employers provide insurance or face fines.

If the law is partially or fully overturned they’ll draw up bills to keep the popular, consumer-friendly portions in place — like allowing adult children to remain on parents’ health care plans until age 26, and forcing insurance companies to provide coverage for people with pre-existing conditions. Ripping these provisions from law is too politically risky, Republicans say…

Read More

Audio: Cherokee genealogist says it’s time for Elizabeth Warren to come clean

Via William Jacobson of Legal Insurrection, who’s owned this story along with the Breitbart team. Her name is Twila Barnes, she’s 7/32 Cherokee, and she just dropped a truth bomb on the Democrats’ favorite non-minority “minority”:

You see, Ms. Warren, some of us have independently done our own research and we know you have no documentation supporting your claim of Cherokee ancestry.* We wonder why you believe you have the right to claim Cherokee ancestry and to call yourself a Native American when you have no evidence to support your claim. While you cling to a family story and the inaccurate report that ONE document was found that supports your claim, we real Cherokees understand that those things mean nothing. You see, we Cherokees have lots and lots and lots of documentation supporting our claims of our ancestry. Our Cherokee ancestors are found on every roll of the Cherokee Nation (30+ rolls!) dating back to before the removal and in all sorts of other documentation, including but not limited to claims against the US government for lost property; the Moravian missionary records; ration lists before and after the forced removal, etc…yet your ancestors are found in NONE of those records…

Read More

Van Jones: Yeah, we enviros took a dive for Obama during the Gulf oil spill

Not exactly a stunner, you say?  Well, you’d be right, but it’s probably worse than what Jones admits here, too.  Not only did they pull their punches towards the President in 2010, they tried to shift the blame for the Deepwater Horizon spill to the Bush administration, even though Barack Obama and his Interior Secretary Ken Salazar had been on the job for more than a year — and the lack of quick response made the situation worse.  Now, though, Van Jones expresses remorse for the lack of response from the environmental community:

I’m critical of myself, first, and the environmentalists. When the oil spill had happened in the spring of 2010, there was another moment to say, ‘Hold on a second, let’s relook at energy policy in America. Should we be subsidizing companies who are risking our health immediately and in the long-term?’” We didn’t do it. You’ve never seen the environmental movement more quiet during an oil spill. I guarantee you, if John McCain had been President, with that oil spill, or George Bush had been President with that oil spill, I’d have been out there with a sign protesting. I didn’t, because of who the President was. Well, that’s a bad, uh, uh…that’s not good for the earth, it’s not good for the cause, it’s probably not good for the President. It’s certainly not the way we should conduct ourselves.

And so, I’m very tough on progressive movements and leaders, including myself, who did not stand on principle, based upon who we looked across and saw as President.

Uh-huh.  The timing of this isn’t very good for Obama, but it’s not as if Jones will abandon Obama, or the rest of his enviro allies, either.  This sounds more like a mild warning shot from Jones to get Obama focused once again on hammering oil companies and traditional energy producers on behalf of so-called “green tech” subsidies.  Since the first name that gets associated with those efforts is “Solyndra,” Jones had better be prepared for even more disappointment in the future.

Read More

LG OPTIMUS SOL: Sol curry

LG’s updated its Optimus smartphone with a couple of mid – range options and the SOL adds on to the already crowded shelves. Encased in a piano black plastic body, the 3.8 – inch blower sports an ‘Ultra’ AMOLED WVGA display, packs in a 1GHz processor and runs Android Gingerbread. The inclusion of Wi – Fi Direct and DLNA sharing is a pleasant surprise. There’s a gig of internal storage and it comes with a 2GB microSD in the pack… useful since it boasts of DivX/Xvid playback capabilities out – of – the box. An FM tuner is also on board.

As usual, LG decks up Android with its Optimus UI. You can pinch to view thumnails of the seven home screens, jump directly to the desired one with a tap, and even choose the one to display when the home key is tapped. The app drawer classifies apps according to the ones preinstalled and the ones you download. You can create your own app categories… a pinch collapses or expands headings. Preloaded apps include Polaris Office for document editing. Social+ widget for displaying social feeds and also a network data monitor widget.

The 5 – meg snapper can do 720p vids, but its below par – the lack of flash doesn’t help things. The screen is quite vibrant thanks to the AMOLDED goodness and the phone performs without any hiccups. It sure is a capable device, but doesn’t have any standout feature to distinguish it from others. At a similar price point, there are other contenders such as Sony Ericsson’s Xperia ray and even LG’s own dualcore Optimus 2X vying for your dough.

Read More

Travelling to China? Leave your laptop at home

American Government officials and private business people travelling to China are taking more and more precautions against hacking and digital espionage, according to a report in The New York Times. While many people simply leaving their electronics behind, others have separate devices for travelling or follow elaborate routines for blanking out the hard drives before leaving and sanitizing them once again upon return. Travellers have also learnt to take the batteries out of their phones to protect themselves from spyware that might clandestinely start recording their meetings and conversations.

China isn’t the only offender, but its growing importance in world politics and economics make it a huge danger. Laptops that make it back from China are often infected with malware that spreads across a company’s network as soon as they connect to it upon return. The malware then sneaks into other computers, printers and networked appliances in order to avoid detection and allow remote attackers to gain access to corporate secrets.  Top government officials are said to be fully aware that every single laptop taken into China by officials in various government had returned without some sort of deliberate and persistent malware infection. It is also illegal to carry encrypted storage devices into China without prior government approval.

Read More

BRAG CARNELIAN : EXOTIC ENTERTAINMENT

In an age svelte consoles, tablets, handhelds and smartphones that usually inhabit the pages of T3, the Brag Carnelian stands out. It’s an oddity, a heavily priced one at that – so much so that If you were to work out its cost, it could fetch you two Tata Nanos. Yes, in these heavy times rising hardware prices, 99 – cent apps and exponentially cheaper consoles, it seems like an awful extravagance.

Then you switch it on, and fire up. The Elder Scrolls V.Skyrim  in all its high – res glory. All those pricing concerns melt away. As good as the game was on slightly inferior devices, you can’t help but feel that the most intricate of details gave seemingly come alive. Water looks real enough to take a bath in, the fireballs spewed by the game’s iconic dragins seems to singe on each touch. An hour in and we can’t believe we actually settled for playing it on anything less.

In a way it’s unsurprising. Chance upon the specs and you’ll realise that this is a brute of a system. It ploughed through heavy hitters like indie PC – killer Hard Reset, our favourite post – apocalyptic shooter, Metro 2033 and Batman Arkham City without a hitch at a glorious 2560×1440 resolution with all the bells and whistles turned on. Thanks to the liquid cooling it wasn’t too noisy either.

The Carnelian isn’t exactly the most cost – effective solution to complement the fact that PC games are as cheap as they are and yes, you can build a discontinuing their Aurora desktop range in the country, you’re short of options for a branding gaming rig.

Having said that, if you’re an enthusiast with money to burn, you can’t go wrong with Brag’s latest.

Price: 1,85,000 Rs

Specifications

• Processor: Intel Core i7 3930K@ 3.2 GHz, Liquid cooled
• Memory / Storage: 16GB DDR3/120GB SSD, 2TB HDD
• Optical Drive: Blu – ray writer
• GPU: AMD Radeon HD7970, 3GB
• Connectivity: N Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, HDMI, DVI, USB 3.0

Read More