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Clearing the Browser Tabs – The GOP Goes Debateful Thursday Edition Posted: 08 Sep 2011 03:10 AM PDT The GOP held another debate last night. Oddly enough, they decided it would be a good idea to let the Democratic talking point readers at NBC/MS-NBC and Politico take a few runs at their candidates for a couple of hours (a topic I’ve covered before). On the other hand, the debate was held at the Reagan Library, so we got to see a couple NBC moderators attempt politeness during a surprisingly well-done Reagan tribute video. I have no real idea who won or lost the debate because I didn’t watch it. I don’t have a lot of use for events where some media organization crams a bunch of candidates on a stage, fires random questions at them, and hopes for a couple juicy soundbytes to fill the next day’s news report. I spent part of one episode of The Delivery hashing out a debate idea that would take control from mostly-biased “moderators” and put it back in the hands of the candidates and their campaign staffs. Until we get a format that’s more sensible for a large field, I’ll find something else to watch and tune in when the number of people on the stage narrows to 4 or fewer. From what I could see in my Twitter feed, the three most interesting themes of the night were the interplay between Mitt Romney and Rick Perry on Social Security, Rick Perry’s answer to a death penalty question and the resulting applause (with which I have no problem, by the way), and the distribution of questions which left Herman Cain out in the cold once again. As best I could tell, there were no substantive questions about jobs or the President’s pending “jobs plan” tonight. I expected that. There is no way that the moderators would give a Republican a real chance to point out the President’s miserable economic record. And now, links! The hockey world suffered a horrible tragedy yesterday when an airplane carrying nearly every member of the KHL team Lokomotiv Yaroslavl crashed and killed 43 people. Puck Daddy notes some of the former NHL players who were on the plane. I heard this afternoon that the league wants the team to continue playing this year and may make their rosters available for a draft to fill Lokomotiv’s roster when the team is ready to pick up operations again. I can’t confirm that’s true, but it would be a good gesture from the other teams in the league. One of the aspects of the Canadian Tar Sands that’s often overlooked is that buying our oil from Canada and not Saudi Arabia is good for human rights. John Tabin had a good, short write-up about one man who hasn’t forgotten. The state of Indiana has decided to join a couple others that have introduced iPads to their state legislature. I said a while back that tablet computers would work well for Congress, especially for bills that could be downloaded when new revisions came out. Lawmakers could make notations on their copies and distribute them to staff members and other lawmakers. The initial cost wouldn’t be prohibitive and we’d save a lot of money (and paper) in printing and binding costs. Goodness it’s fun when the left finds itself on the pointy end of a Saul Alinsky rule! Nerd rage is good? Apparently so! My friend Erich played this song for me over the weekend and so I pass it along to you. It’s funny, especially if you’re a gaming geek like me. I have to say, The Oatmeal knows what we really needed to learn in high school (A little bit NSFW).

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