Quick Fact

Did you know India consumes about 46% of the total butter produced worldwide? Well that may have been before the USA got Peach, cause that girl likes her butter. Watch out India here we come.

Surviving Sophie

I imagine if our fish had a blog that is what the title of this post would be. Either that or 'The Adventures of Mac and Cheese' cause that is their names. Anyway last night I had just laid down in bed and Sophie started yelling for me to come into Peach's room because she needed help and the light was off in her room. So I came running in there and here Sophie had started to feed the fish and the lid had fallen off into the fish tank along with about half the can of fish food. So she is standing there trying to get the pump unplugged and I just imagine the fish are swimming in there going "Hallelujah". The fish tank was pretty well filled with food at this point and Sophie was in pure panic mode as she hustled the tank down stairs and did the fastest tank cleaning job she had ever done. As she was pulling the fish out of the tank with the little net it was impossible to not get some food in with them, so they were setting in the little temporary bowl with food still floating around. I wish I would have gotten a picture, but given the circumstances that it was already past midnight and Sophie's head was hurting a little it probably wouldn't have been a very good idea. Old Kirk could have ended up "sleeping with the fishes" if you know what I mean. Anyway Sophie cleaned all the rocks and stuff off as best she could and I cleaned the fish food lid off and the filter stone and carried the clean tank back up stairs. It was definitely something unexpected, but hey now it will be a while before the tank needs cleaned again . . . hopefully.

Happy New Year!!!

Well happy new year everyone. Hope 2010 is a great year for you!!!

Invite Friends To Play Cyber Nations

Invite Friends To Play Cyber Nations

if you want to play cyber nations use this linky. It helps me :D.

Bobcats Bowl Game - Live Event Blog

12:20 PM- I'm going to try and do something new and capture an event as it is unfolding. Right now it is about 40 minutes before the Bobcats get ready to take the field for hopefully their first ever Bowl win. I'm going to keep updating as time elapses. Should make for an interesting read, I hope. I see Bill Simmons do it for the Super Bowl one year. Right now Sophie is out picking up the pizza. Little Caesar's of course.

12:37 for the pregame I'm actually watching 'Overboard' with Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell. Funnier movie than I thought it would be.

12:57 - ok, ESPN has just switched coverage over to the game. I'll have try and catch the end of that overboard movie sometime. Still waiting on Sophie and Pizza.

12:58 - Sophie arrives - With Pizza :D

1:01- kick off and we are underway. stumble in the endzone for OU. O-H-I-O gets the ball first, let's go Bobcats

1:03 - Sophie gets the mail, Christmas letter from the Simmons' is in there. Well time to load up on pizza. Little Caesar's no less. Dang 3 and out for the 'Cats. Good punt 50 yarder. Crap I hope the Punter doesn't turn into the MVP for us.

1:06 - 'Cats hold the Herd to 3 and out. At least Brazill is playing this time.

1:10 - first little Caesar's commercial telling me there is going to be a special deal this weekend. Hope we got that. Whooo hoo 'Cats get the first first down of the game. An end around by Brazill.

1:15 - working on my 3rd piece of pizza.

~1:18 - Ohio drive stalled inside Marshall territory. Lot of positive yardage this drive.

1:19 - Ooooo Marshall Penalty. I hope they don't do a bunch of cheap shots like Central Michigan did. Also Sophie says she is full. Pizza very good after 2 full days of ham.

1:21 - Marshall gets a first down. Yuck

*an observation - I don't like the "little Caeser's" logo in the endzone. I mean it is in the middle of the field and all over the promos - we get it. The team names should have been in the endzone. That is all.

1:26 - 'Official' review of Marshall ball carrier. Peach is playing here new DS and screaming 'Fly'. Yeah. Now it is 4th and 1 good review. Apparently there is a female ref. thanks ESPN.

DANG 17 yard run Marshall

1:30 - Marshall scores, thanks to some horrid tackling from OU. Dang it. Sophie says there are just some things women shouldn't do and I have to agree, why would a woman even want to ref a football game. well 7-0 bad guys.

1:37 - crap another 3 and out for the bobcats. And Marshall scores on the punt. Ghesh.

1:39 - Little Caesar's has a coupon for 3.99 pizza for today and tomorrow only. Sophie is a little hot since she paid full price and was wearing her OU stuff.

1:41 - it may be time for another small piece of pizza.

1:44 - mercifully the first quarter is over. Oh crap personal foul penalty against the bobcats. Terrible call, but the Marshall guy seems to be in a lot of pain. Well maybe it wasn't a bad call. Oooo a play update presented by "Flomax", that just doesn't seem right.

1:49 - no it was a terrible call, he came up and tried to run into the offensive player who defended himself. Well let's see if the 'Cats can tackle this time. Another flag. catch interference i bet.

1:51- Yep catch interference. 15 yard penalty for that, seems a little excessive. They should have varying degrees of interference cause that would be a 5 yarder. Sophie is unimpressed with the announcers, one of which is also a woman who stated that the Bobcats haven't scored yet. Really?!? I guess that is why they have 0, who knew.

1:53 - apparently this game is a snooze fest as Sophie's mom managed to take a nap.

1:55 - Crap another penalty. pass interference on a horribly thrown ball. You know if the receiver has the run into the defender that is not the defenders fault. We need a turnover right here.

2:01 - Shoot another TD, from the hated Herd. 21-0.

2:08 - Turn over OU. Hey isn't there a tuck rule in college? If there was that woman ref probably wouldn't know it. Oh complaints of a phantom whistle that stopped OU players. TO Herd, run back . . . TD for the 'Cats . . . flag on the play . . .fingers crossed

2:10 - TOUCH DOWN OU!!!!!! whew we needed that. Holding on the offense penalty declined 21-7. Maybe a little momentum shift. Way to go Ballard.

2:14 - Sophie's mom wakes up to catch replay of Touch down.

2:22 - OU stops Marshall and the 4 on 4th and 1. WHOOO. That was dumb. Chance to get some more points before the half easy kick and they go for it by pitching the ball and Noah Keller comes up to make the stop. Man if OU can take the ball down here and get something before the half that would be a HUGE shift.

-New Allstate commercial with a dummy, funny stuff

2:26 - well Marshall blew the first play up and called a timeout. OU can run the clock out though as Marshall only has one timeout left. Also Sophie's Mom went back to sleep. Marshall shouldn't even call a timeout. How dumb. Just run it Frank and run the clock out or kneel, yep kneel. Duh. Well we'll have to try and mount a come back the second half.

2:29 - time to check on some laundry

2:47 - Well while I have time I check the old fantasy sports over at Yahoo.

2:50 - Here we go time for a come back, Oooo tackle behind the 20 by OU. Good way to start.

Wow Noah Keller had 11 tackles in the first half. Come on guys don't forget this is for the BELL!!!

2:53 - Oh nice tackle there. 3 and out for the Herd. Let's see if we can get one here from Brazill. . . nope, but well start near mid field.

2:54 - Big pass to Price . . . Here we go . . . O-H-I-O.

2:56 - 3rd and 11, Pryce picks it up but comes back doh! 4th and 1 . . . depends on the spot.

Stopped by less than an inch. Dang.

3:04 - Good Defense OU. Got 'em into 3rd and 12 and then got the sack. Then I think there was a crappy punt too. Sweet. 'So you're saying there's a chance'.

3:08 - Yep crappy punt, then a face mask, OU operating inside the Marshall 25. Little Caesar pizza may be catching up to me. Our yelling about a run inside the 10 wakes up Sophie's Mom.

3:10 - a timeout. Dang my stomach is aching. apparently peanut butter cookies are not a good chaser for bread sticks and then throw in some squirt.

3:12- I (Sophie) have to step in to tell you about the OU TOUCHDOWN because hubby is indisposed. Go Bobcats Go!!!

3:19- Oops Marshall was that supposed to be a punt...Go OHIO!!!

3:22 - Ohio FIELD GOAL!!! 21-17 come back Ohio stop Marshall.

3:29- Hubby's back we will see if he is bad luck guy.

3:31- end of the 3rd quarter.

3:33 - (Kirk) I guess the aching could have been from the chocolate orange slices I had too. Sampson had 5 pieces of pizza. Better get ready for your own belly ache son. Hans was supposed to be here too, but so far he is a 'no Show'.

3:35 - 20 yard pick-up on 2 and 25 . . .Nice bobcats nice, way to start the fourth. Oh yes First down.

3:37 - exciting 4 yard loss by the bobcats . . . But a flag on the play 15 yarder on Marshall . . . Another First Down!!!!! Almost a TD. the flanker pass goes incomplete, but Price was wide, wide open. Another timeout Ohio. Boy I hope we don't need those at the end of the game.

3:44 - Oh yes throw that flag lady! Late hit Marshall another pick up on 3rd down.

3:47 - 4th down, field goal try 29 yards . . . no good. Dang.

3:54 - Ohio stops Marshall on 3rd and short. Oh man that Brazill gets a lucky bounce to retain possession. He is exciting every time back there, whether he returns the ball or not, unfortunately. Hans called apparently he got busy and now is not going to make it. 7 minutes left and the Bobcats need a TD to take the lead now as they trail 21-17.

3:59 - Ohio has to punt the ball away and play defense now. Another Turnover would be real nice. Dang another 1st down Marshal.

4:03 - Another Marshall first Down - less than 3 minutes left now.

4:04 - Ohio has to use its last time out. 1:47 left. Only a flicker of hope remains now for the Bobcats. Sophie and her Mom agree that the Bobcats are done, but I'm holding out for history. What better way to win their first bowl then the come all the way back from down 21 to win.

Starting to wish I had watched the end of that 'overboard' movie. Wonder how that ended.

4:08 - 4th down Marshall. On the 21, 1:02 remaining. Good chance the Herd will go for it. Nope field goal . . . Oooooo Miss. Only his second miss all year.

Here we go 'Cats.

57 seconds left

Incomplete - that's ok it was a short pass anyway.

47 seconds - complete to Brazill out of bounds 4 yard gain. Brazill hurt a little

Interception!!! Game Over.

well Dang it. The bobcats come up just a little short on their first ever bowl bid. Man I was so hopeful. Well there is always next year. Hope you like the post anyway.

New Year's Music

In order to help people transition from Christmas to New Year's I've put a little "New Year's" music up. 10 Auld Lang Syne to help ring in '10. Happy New Year.

Eternal Couturiers Men's Page

Eternal Couturiers Men's Page

Check these out from my good buddy Casca. Lots of neat Religious Shirts just in time for the Christmas season.

Peach the Vet

Peach said today that she wanted to be a vet, but that if someone came in with a skunk pet that she would not look at it. Because "skunks could get their stink on you." So in the future if you are thinking about going the the Peach Helfen Home of Healthy Animals with your skunk you might want to rethink that because she isn't going to even check your skunk. Then you'll just have to go somewhere else anyway.

Bobcats Win!!!

Sampson won his first ever organized basketball contest. Yah! Overall the Bobcats played pretty well, you could tell the second year kids from the first year kids though. Our second year guys really carried the load this first game. Sampson did start contributing late in the second half as he scored his first ever basket and then later scored his second ever basket. So good job buddy and I got it all on tape er I made a digital recording of it anyway. See Sophie and the kids let me have my Christmas present a little early so that I could record his game. In HD no less. It is funny watching him play because I go over a lot of stuff with him and we even played at Maw's house yesterday working on rebounding, but when he got in the game and started playing it was like he forgot everything. Oh well, he has a game Thursday hopefully he remembers to REBOUND. We'll work on it. I think his stat line was something like 4 points, 1 assist, 2 rebounds, maybe a steal or two and at least one turn over. The final score was like 32 to 24 or so. I could check the tape again. I made him watch the game film already. Well I mean I wanted to see it hooked up to the TV anyway so we just went ahead and watched it. Good stuff.

Oh also the OU Bobcats are going for their first ever bowl win on December 26th around Noon Eastern or so against the Marshall Thundering Herd. This is also a rivalry game, so I wonder if they will put the "Bell" up for grabs. I mean the splendor and history of the Little Caesar's Pizza Bowl should probably be enough, but I mean why not throw it out there for a little extra. If you happen to be thinking about it on the 26th think some positive thoughts for the old Bobcats. Thanks.

"Bones" Jones - Future LH Champion

I watched Jon "Bones" Jones on the ultimate fighter finale last Saturday and just let me say I think he is very impressive as a fighter. He is in that light-heavy weight division that is severly stacked, and even though he "lost" I honestly think that in the next 4 years he will be the light-heavy weight champion. No pressure kid. But seriously he really handled Matt Hamil and I thought Hamil was pretty decent. He ended up getting DQ because of illegal elbows, but that was after he beat Hamil in the mount for about a minute straight. He is extremely long and throws very high impact unorthodox shots from crazy angles. Right now I don't see a good defensive strategy because he can out reach you and he has the more dangerous wrestling background of Greco-Roman which is tough in MMA because they like the clinch around the waist and most regular wrestlers like to grapple higher or lower. Honestly because of the crazy 84" reach I don't know how you get to this guy, I guess just shoot early and hope for the best cause if the fight stays standing I'll take "Bones" in the first. But I just wanted to call it on the old blog that by the end of 2014 "Bones" will probably be hoisting the belt. I see a good match between maybe him and Cantewell as he is a good up and comer too. Then maybe a Jardine, which would be interesting because of the two unorthodox styles. Next would be Evans or Griffin and then Machida or Rua whoever isn't champ and maybe a few other fights in there for good measure but within the next four years it will be difficult to keep him out of a title shot, just like it was difficult to keep out Machida.

Also during the finale Kimbo Slice finally looked like an MMA fighter. He was down to 112 lbs. which is pretty impressive considering he is all muscle and only weighed about 230 before. He said he wanted to try and fight at 205, which would probably be better for him than fighting heavy weight, but he is definitely improved. I think he could probably beat Seth now straight up, but the top of the 205 lbs. ranks would give him fits. Houston Alexander was a little disappointing, because he's got that knockout power, but I think he over-thought the fight by trying to key on the leg so much. I think he should have keep throwing the kicks, but he kept distance too much. The circling the whole first round was just way too much for me. If anything the first round could have been 9-9 because of the lack of action. But I thought in the end when it came down to a decision that Kimbo should have won because if nothing else he controlled the center of the ring.

If you'd like to meet Mr. Jones here you go - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsy8aT--bGU&feature=related

Browns Really Did Win This Time. . . No Seriously

For the first time in the history of the blog (yes, for real the very first time since before '04) the Browns have beaten the hated Squeelers. Ending the streak of defeats at 12 and hopefully starting their own winning streak. At the heart of the win was Joshua Cribbs (Note to Cleveland: GET THIS GUY A HUGE CONTRACT) who did basically everything, but play defense, and actually the defense itself which played good enough to not need Cribbs. Cribbs kind of reminds me of the "Water Boy" that way like "com'mon guys you gotta help Josh out there. He can't do it all himself. (then the coach turns to Josh) Ok Josh you are going to have to do this all yourself, cause you have absolutely no help out there." Unfortunately we were without two of the bigger name players on the team and bigger players for that matter in Jammal Lewis and Shaun Rodgers. I wish Shaun could have played cause then maybe the defense would have had about 12 sacks. As it were they pretty much raped the squeeler offense (oops, sorry big ben fans) and held them to only 2 field goals. As a side note, it was the coldest game ever played between the two teams so for those people who said the Browns could only win if hell froze over, I guess it finally did on December 10th 2009.

Browns Win, Oh Wait Nevermind

No they didn't win, in fact they actually came up with a new way to lose. They were actually down in the fourth quarter and came back to score a touchdown and get a two point conversion to go up by 6. Then they stopped the Lions with like 3 minutes left, but couldn't run out the clock so they had to punt back to the Lions. I'm not sure how much time was left at that point, but it didn't really matter. You see the Browns allowed the Lions to make it down to the 1 yard line before coming up with a stop as time ran out. Well it seemed like a stop, but apparently it was pass interference. So the Lions get one more untimed down. And they scored a touchdown to tie the game, then got the extra point to win 38-37. You see in the last few years I've gotten accustomed to Romeo ball, where you get really far behind then make a charge at the end, but still come up short. Apparently with Mangini ball you can actually take the lead, but if it looks like you might win - even though you couldn't run out the clock and I guess you thought throwing on 3rd and 5 was smart with a 6 point lead (it isn't you should run the ball, always run the ball, don't get cute) - you just commit penalties to keep giving the other team shots at the endzone so they can win. I didn't think it was possible, but way to disappoint me in a completely new way.

I also heard a story that some people went to a Browns game and the Dad got arrested and a kid got his noise maker taken off of him and broken right in front of his face, because "people aren't allowed to bring anything into the stadium". Now if this is true, this is the dumbest thing I have ever heard of, and if it happened to me I would quit rooting for the Browns right then. I mean if it wasn't painfully obvious that you have an organizational problem it should be after something like that. If you are going to put a team out there that is as bad as the Browns are now, you should let people bring in what ever they wanted to make the game more enjoyable. I mean let 'em bring in noise makers, or something that could give you some home field advantage. You need to be extra nice to the fans right now, because let's face it you aren't winning any new fans because of the awesome effort you are putting out there on the field. But you know I don't even blame the players, because the fact is that other than a few really good players here and there - Joe Thomas, Josh Cribbs and Shaun Rodgers - these guys just aren't capable of winning games. Right now Cleveland just has a severe lack of talent and that is the fault of the front office in my opinion and I don't think that Mangini is all he is cracked up to be. I would have rather had Mike Shanahan myself - a proven winner with a good zone blocking scheme that made any running back look good. Just ask the Browns about Reuben Droughns remember him, he rushed for like 1200 yards for the Broncos and the Browns traded their entire defensive line for him and he ended up doing squat for the Browns. I guess he did rush for 1,00 yards . . . once. Ok I'm done I need to think happy thoughts before going to bed.

Basketball '09

This is Sampson's first year of basketball and he is only 7, so I worry about pushing him too hard too fast and sucking the enjoyment out of the game, because right now I think he really likes it. You see, me and him play NBA 2K7, yeah I know it is old, but it serves its purpose, on the PS3 and he really likes that, and when we play outside I think he enjoys that too. Plus, of the sports he has played I think he most looked forward to playing basketball. I signed up to help coach too. What, I should be fine remember it isn't like they are 11 and 12 year-olds, only 1st and 2nd graders so I should be good, right? Well maybe I'll pick up a couple of new ankle braces just to be on the safe side. He had an open gym today, conveniently on Maw's 80th birthday (Happy Birthday Mom), but he did good. He just needs to work on his handle and getting stronger to push the ball up. Unfortunately they will always play on Sunday in this league, so no trips to Mom's on Sunday, but there are only about 4 teams so it shouldn't be too bad. I guess they play 16 minutes halves with continuous clock, on 8 foot rims. Should be good, hopefully he gets on a team were he can contribute. He said he didn't make as many baskets as he would have like too, well keep trying buddy you'll get there.

Parade Odessy '09

Well Peach is old enough to go on the float for the Dance Factory in local parades. Right now she only gets to ride on the trailer and the older girls dance behind. They did really well in the first two parades we went to this year, I mean as well as a four year old can do just kind of sitting there waving and being all cute and all. First we had the St. Clairsville parade on Thursday night and that was her first parade ever, so that was neat. Then on Friday we had the Wheeling parade, "the big time". I guess last year there were like 50,000 people that came out to watch the parade and judging from the traffic I would say it was pretty close to that again. While I was watching the parades, I realized that I'm really not a parade person. Not that they aren't nice, but I just wouldn't go out of my way to watch the old parade if I didn't have a personnel interest in it. I mean if they came up with a virtual parade that I could download or watch on YouTube then I might do that, but someone would probably have to send me a link. Just kidding, I probably wouldn't watch that either. One funny thing from the parades though, other that Moon Dog following Santa at the Wheeling parade which is tradition, was in the middle of the Wheeling parade there was like a color guard with a bag pipe player, and following them was a float for a hospital or something. But in between the two were two people dressed up as super heroes, wait it gets better. One was dressed up as Bat Girl and the other one was Spiderman, but it looked like a chick in the Spiderman outfit, plus one is Marvel and the other is DC comics, so there is like no continuity, but the funniest part was I couldn't figure out which float they went with or if they were just like their own float. I think that would be hilarious if they were just random people that kind of slide in between two floats dressed up as superheros. Kind of like parade crashers, but who is going to pull them out of the parade. I mean wouldn't that be great to kind of just randomly join a parade. That is a new goal of mine, to dress up as a super hero and just get in a parade, but I think I would need someone else to do it with me to kind of add legitimacy. I mean in these type of parades there are always random characters and I bet if someone asked you could just say you were with one of the floats, and if the people behind you asked you would just say you are with the people ahead of you and if the people in front of you asked you would just say you were with the people behind you. Genius.

More from the Barn Painter

Well even though I'm not a huge Buckeye fan (understatement), I found this contribution from the barn painter to be very good and well worth the time to view. So head on over to youtube and check it out. Oh also if you are lucky you will even see a couple of vids of me in my youth. But you might have to look hard. Anyway here you go . . .

Also Go BLUE!!

Just How Good is that Romo?

Did you know that Tony Romo ranks third in all-time passer efficiency rating. ALL-TIME. As Kanye would say "He is the Third best passer of all-time, ALL-TIME". This interesting fact was brought up today at work just to stir the pot a little. Apparently he is behind only Steve Young and Peyton Manning. I said he is also down on the list in a couple of other categories. Like did you know that the current active leader in rapes at the QB position is Ben Roethlisberger. Oh yeah everybody knows that. So I guess Romo is like tied for second in this category since he has none, along with the rest of the active quarterbacks in the league. Just another thing the Squealers are on top of in the NFL.

HESCAR boots Jimmie

In what can only be described as a desperate move by HESCAR to appeal to the old blog and all of the readership, Jimmie was forced out of the race Sunday. Well he was wrecked out on the third lap by a combination of two of my new favorite drivers Sam Hornish Jr. and David Reutimann. I had forgot the race started at 3:30 (dumb time to start a race, but HESCAR will rectify this next season when all the races will start at 1PM / 4PM / or 7PM) so Bo called and told that I needed to watch the race so I could catch Jimmie wrecking. Oh it was nice. I mean I never want to see anyone get hurt, but watching him wreck out brought a tear to my eye . . . tear of JOY. All I can figure is that HESCAR is trying to even out the Chase, so that it will look like Mark Martin has a chance to win before Jimmie pulls off a Miracle in the final race to get his fourth "championship" in a row. Yeah I put "championship" in quotes because had it not been for the chase Johnson would have 0 championships, and likely Tony would be winning his third this year. The two worst things to happen to HESCAR in the last 10 years were Jimmie and chase. Among other bad things was taking a second race off of Darlington for California, and taking Rockingham off the schedule completely in all series. You can't tell me that with the lucrative sponsorship agreements and television deals that actual gate revenue is driving these decisions. It is horrible for the drivers, horrible for the sport, and worst of all horrible for the fans. Hopefully HESCAR can pull their heads out of their exhaust pipes and get back to being a fan friendly sport like NASCAR used to be, instead of some bleed every dime out of every sucker by any means possible because it won't be long before people quit watching all together. Seriously I'm about done. No seriously this time, if Jimmie wins another what is the point. He will just win next year and the year after that too, because the chase is totally catered to him. Also Junior has a chance to win his first race of the year this week at Phoenix, same as he has had every other week this year. This is just a fun fact Sophie and I like to remind ourselves of at the beginning of EACH race. Also Bobby Labonte has a chance to win his first race of the season. Sorry Sophie.

Sampson the Ice-Man

Well Sampson is on such an ice kick right now that maw had to buy a new refrigerator just to keep up with ice production. Actually I think she just got it because her's was getting old but between Sampson and Peach when they go out there I think they eat a tray of ice. Just the ice, not like in a drink or anything just eating ice cubes. Sophie says she used to do that, so I guess they get that from her.

Bones

Sophie says she is sick of all the tension between Bones and Booth. It is driving her nuts!!! Just Hook up already.

Also on CSI she says she is ready to right a strongly worded letter. Not because it was too bloody or gory but because in the opening scene a Nikon camera got thrown. Better watch out CBS, Sophie didn't think too much of that. I told her I'm sure it was a stunt camera though and no high end photographic equipment was hurt during the filming of the episode. You might want to add that disclaimer though.

Tuesday Elections

Tuesday the Republicans won the Governorships of New Jersey and Virginia after taking a butt whooping last year in the general election. One other race of interest was the New York 23rd district for congress (not sure if that makes a lot of sense but essentially it was the 23rd congressional district of New York state). You see what happened was Pres Obama nominated John M. McHugh to the secretary of the Army, which vacated the position needing a special off year election to fill it. Now what seems funny to me is that there was no primary for this office rather the republican leaders of the district nominated Dede Scozzafava. And Dede happens to be a very liberal minded republican for this conservative leaning district. Plus the Democrats got to put their own liberal candidate. So now it was playing out that no matter who won was going to be more left leaning than the person they replaced. Well the conservative part of the republican party didn't want Dede to get elected so they got behind Doug Hoffman who ran as a conservative (in New York you can be a registered Conservative - with Hoffman and Sean Hannity they probably have like over a hundred registered). So within a month of the election a bunch of big name conservatives came out in support of Hoffman, only it was too little too late. You see the damage had already been done, because the republican party ran ads against Hoffman and in the last day of the race Dede dropped out, because I guess she didn't want to split the vote. The vote with her liberal counter part that is, because she ended up ENDORSING THE DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE. Let that sink in for a moment. The republican party spent over 900 grand trying to get her elected and then when the leaders of the party realize she wasn't what they wanted, she dumps them and goes with the democrat. Say what? That doesn't make any sense to me. I mean if I saw an election was lost and a group had spent a lot of money on me I don't think I would support someone completely out of the party. Unless you know I didn't really belong in that party anyway. So here is my theory - Obama nominates McHugh to the all powerful and coveted position of Secretary of the Army, and then works out a deal with the locals of the district to get someone elected who would be more inclined to vote his agenda forward. Now what the people of the district would have got in return I'm not sure, but I would bet (yes I said bet - you know what that means) that there will be some sweet kick backs coming to that district over the next year. I guess will just wait and see. My favorite quote from the whole deal was from former Gov. Mike Huckabee who said the Democrats didn't win it because they were smart, the Republicans lost the seat because they were stupid. Well Mike stupid yes, but just how sneaky the democrats were remains to be seen.