Michelle Nunn: 'Fugly shemail Obama loving Democrat'

OMG I'm dying here.

This dude is crackin' me up!

@ChrisCoon4 @AmPowerBlog David Perdue he is my vote. I ain't voting for no Fugly shemail Obama loving Democrat

— Thomas Kayler (@KCSI_RW) October 25, 2014

Cooper Harris, 22-Month-Old Baby in #HotCarDeath, Had 'Scratches' on Face, 'Abrasions' to Back of Head

Well, CNN had on the whole probable cause bond hearing for Ross Harris today. The case will be going to trial. See the Marietta Daily Journal, "Judge rules there is probable cause for trial; no bond for father."

Just the fact of the alleged premeditated murder of the boy, Cooper, who died of hyperthermia, is horrible enough. But at the hearing the detective testified to as many of six graphic "sext" messages sent by the defendant, including that of an erect penis. Harris had also received images of women's breasts. So it's salacious and depraved, as all this sexting was going on as the baby was boiling to death outside in the car. Jane Velez-Mitchell was on a CNN panel earlier and she was just horrified, noting especially how the child was obviously thrashing violently in an effort to release himself from the seat-belt, scratching his face and causing lacerations to his head. I don't see video for that, but here's a live-blog transcript at HLN, "Cop: Dad sexted while child died in hot car":

2:09 p.m. ET: Stoddard said several injuries were found on the toddler’s body:
“Marks on the child’s face. It would have come from the child or a scratch being made while the child was alive and then not healing or scabbing over or anything after that, soon after he passed away.” There were also abrasions to the back of the boy’s head, according to Stoddard.

During the day, Harris was having conversations with up to six different women, according to Stoddard, who said explicit photos were being exchanged.

“We’ve only scratched the surface,” said Stoddard in regards to the searches done on Harris’ computers.

Some video of the detective's testimony, "Detective: 'We've only scratched the surface'."

And watch Nancy Grace's segment pre-hearing, laying out her theory of likely developments in the case. She pretty much nailed it:

Winter Storm Wipes Out Power for Thousands in the South

At the Wall Street Journal, "Storm Wipes Out Power for Thousands in South: Many Lose Electricity in Georgia, Carolinas; At Least One Death From Icy Roads":

ATLANTA — A deadly storm that has hammered the Southeast—knocking out power in three states and jamming roads in North Carolina—is expected to sweep farther up the coast Thursday, bringing more heavy snowfall to a winter-battered region.

Georgia and the Carolinas were raked with freezing rain and snow Wednesday, on the front end of a two-day storm that the National Weather Service warned could be of historic proportions.

Of particular fear was an ice cover that could measure more than an inch, slicking roads and weighing down power lines. The snow and rain, pelting in waves, hardened into a thick layer of frozen slush.

Roads were gridlocked in Charlotte and Raleigh, N.C., as people who drove to work in the morning when skies were clear headed home in a fast-falling snow. Some abandoned their cars and walked home or checked into hotels.

The North Carolina Highway Patrol said it responded to twice as many accidents as usual.

North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory asked people to hunker down for a "tough 48 hours," staying off the roads and taking precautions at home.

"Don't put on your stupid hat," Mr. McCrory said a news conference.

More.

In Georgia, Urging Republicans to Stand Strong

At NYT, "Conservative Georgia District Urges G.O.P. to Keep Up the Fight":

FORT OGLETHORPE, Ga. — Just down the road from where Union troops suffered their worst defeat of the Civil War, Jeff Epperson sang the praises of his congressman, Representative Tom Graves, whose Defund Obamacare Act set the table for the partial government shutdown.

Even though business has been slow at Mr. Epperson’s sword and knife shop since tourists stopped visiting the historic Chickamauga battlefield, which closed on Tuesday because of the furlough of federal workers in the shutdown, he said the only thing that would weaken his support for Mr. Graves would be if the congressman caved in now. In that case, he might vote for a more conservative choice in the next Republican primary.

“If he backs off, then I would say absolutely I’d be inclined to look for someone else,” said Mr. Epperson, whose store flew a Don’t Tread on Me flag.

The Republican insistence in the House on tying financing of the federal government to dismantling the Affordable Care Act is being driven by a deeply conservative caucus from places like Mr. Graves’s 14th Congressional District, newly created by Georgia’s Republican-controlled Legislature.

Even as Republican elders warn that the party is risking a voter backlash that could cost it in future elections, interviews here indicate that hard-liners like Mr. Graves have more to fear, if they waver, from a potential challenger to their right.

Mr. Graves, 43, won 73 percent of the vote in November in a district that is 85 percent white and has a 16.6 percent college graduation rate. A journey through the district, which stretches from the exurbs of Atlanta to the northwest mountains on the Tennessee border, found many voters who, even if they were unfamiliar with Mr. Graves’s biography, strongly supported him.

“He represents the people,” said Tim Ferguson, a forklift operator who was waiting for a haircut at Paul’s Barber Shop in Calhoun. “He’s not going to commit political suicide by backing down.”

Voters here viewed the Washington stalemate just as Mr. Graves and many of his party members in Congress portray it: a tale of Republicans who have repeatedly shown a willingness to compromise, while Democrats petulantly refuse to meet halfway.

“Obama should not be so dogmatic,” said Julia Welch, 82, who runs an antiques store in Dallas, the seat of Paulding County. “He wants his way and no other.”

Jon Tripcony, a surveyor in Dallas, recalled a photograph of Republican leaders in shirt sleeves facing empty seats across a table. The photo, which Mr. Graves posted on Twitter, was staged to dramatize Republicans’ call for Democrats to discuss a budget passed by the House. It may have been dismissed as a publicity stunt by much of the news media, which noted that House Republicans repeatedly refused to join a conference on a budget the Senate passed earlier. But in northwest Georgia it was taken at face value.

“There was not one single Democrat,” Mr. Tripcony said. “They’re just spoiled little kids. I don’t get it.”

Mr. Ferguson, 48, said House conservatives should not shrink from the next fiscal deadline, raising the debt ceiling, even if it means defaulting on government bonds, a prospect that economists overwhelmingly say would bring down catastrophe.

“If it has to happen for the American people to get what’s best, defunding Obamacare, so be it,” Mr. Ferguson said. “Our credit rating’s going to go down, but it went down before. Did the apocalypse come?”

The number of hard-line House conservatives is estimated from two dozen to as many as the 80 who signed a letter to Speaker John A. Boehner demanding that he tie financing the government to defunding the Affordable Care Act, which he had initially ruled out. Their politics are shaped less by the national picture for Republicans, who have lost five of the last six popular votes for president, than by the demographics of districts like this one that were drawn by conservative legislatures after the 2010 census to ensure safe Republican seats.

That the president, who lost Mr. Graves’s district by 49 percentage points last November, is unpopular was no surprise. But the level of animosity from some was acute. He was compared to a tyrant preparing to end constitutional democracy, as in Germany in the 1930s. Peggy Newsome, 73, who was picking up bags of groceries at the Paulding County Helping Hands food bank, said, “Everything he’s put his hands on, he’s screwed up.”

Shoot, Ima move to Georgia. Damn, them thar's some conservative voters.