Happy Halloween and Happy Anniversary To Us

Happy Halloween to everyone around the world........even in remote parts of Indonesia.........

Today, also marks the 7th anniversary of this blog, and part of the reason why it is called "The Daily Vampire" is because we launched the blog on Oct. 31st, 2008.

Our first image was of Christopher Lee who sadly died earlier this year.

Today's image is of the late Turkish actor Atif Kaptan who played Dracula in "Drakula Istanbul'da" in 1953.

Our other personal favorite vampire actor is Bela Lugosi.

Thanks for checking whenever you can, and we look forward to providing new entries whenever we can, even though there are some pessimists who strongly feel that blogging is dead (no pun intended)!

Colorado Republican Debate Tweets: The World According to Ben Carson (3 of 3)

Yes, we thought it would be fittingly ironic to have Martin Sheen, one of Hollywood's leading liberal activists who also played a fictional American president on "The West Wing," for this entry on the CNBC Republican Debate from Boulder, Colorado, tonight.

These tweets are mostly from partisans on both sides of the political spectrum, one of these tweets contains mature language:

1) The Daily Edge: Ben Carson: "I will eliminate regulations on small business, but dramatically increase them on your wife's uterus."

2) Dean Obeidallah: " 'Please someone on stage tell me how I'm losing to Ben Carson.' The thought of every candidate on stage."

3) Elaina Pott (conservative): "Please recall that at the last debate I wondered if Ted Cruz had disappeared from stage, ripping tequila shots. I have been vindicated."

4) Alexis Levinson (conservative): Oh hey look, Rand Paul is still here.

5) David Corn (liberal): Rand Paul: 'People in Washington think they were sent there to be adults and govern.' Whoa, we certainly don't want that!

6) Dana Libelson (liberal): Love how candidates use wives as stand-ins for people who don't understand money.

7) Bret Baier (Fox News, we assume he's conservative): "The Marco Rubio pushback to Jeb Bush and to the media narrative on his votes plus the Cruz media rant probably the leading moments so far."

8) Suzy Khimm (liberal): "Cruz bemoans the plight of single mothers and poor women but doesn't offer a solution other than BIG GOVERNMENT BAD."

9) Cyclone Volleyball (Iowa State, SPOILER ALERT): Kansas defeats Iowa State 3-1 (20-25, 28-26, 25-15, 25-20....(the game was played in Ames, Iowa, as the debate was occurring).

Colorado Republican Debate Blogathon: People Are Watching This in Israel?!

It dawned us that it was quite ironic that tonight's CNBC Republican debate was taking place in Boulder, Colorado, the state's most liberal community, which is represented by Cong. Jared Polis (D-Colo.), one of the few openly gay members of Congress.

Polis is not the man pictured here who is in fact Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) one of three current U.S. Senators seeking the GOP nod; Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), a democratic socialist is seeking the Democratic Party's nomination.

Here are tweets from a crazy night:

1) Felix Salmon: Carly Fiornia thinks she can bring the tax code down from 70,000 pages to 3 pages. So realistic.

2) Red Six Jones: I'm going to need more wine for this debate.

3) E.J. Dionne (Washington Post): One of my NH Republicans: "Wow! This is a zoo!"

4) Cyclone Volleyball (Iowa State): Different lineup to start set four. Capeizo. Conaway. Lazart up front, Berta, Harris, Nolan in back.

5) Michael Medved (conservative radio host): Whoever advised Jeb that he could help himself by attacking Marco Rubio did him no favors....makes a nice, serious guy look like a bully.

6) Ken Rudin (non-partisan political analyst): Methinks Jeb's attack on Rubio's attendance record in the Senate was a mistake. There was no need for it.

7) Chemi Shalev (Haaretz, Israeli newspaper): Finally, GOP debates gets heated enough to start resembling Israeli tv shows.

8) Cenk Uygur (liberal talk show host): Republicans think it shows strength to ignore the questions and talk over the moderators.

9) David Frum (center-right pundit): 'They don't believe in building walls.' Even when he's not talking about immigration, Jeb Bush talks about immigration."

GOP Boulder Blogathon...........Round One (of 3): Where the Buffaloes Roam

Tonight at the University of Colorado in Boulder, Colo., one of our favorite places in America, the Republicans went at each other live on CNBC. The debate went up against Game Two of the World Series and American Pickers on History. But, even though we are not in Boulder and we didn't even watch the debate on tv, we did follow it closely on Twitter.

Left. Right. Center. Non-Partisan. Here are seven tweets about the debate and one about a college volleyball game as well as one about the weather forecast for Raleigh, NC:

1) Hillary Clinton: In the past two debates, no one said a word about equal pay. Maybe the third time's the charm.

2) Peter Sagal (NPR program host): These guys on CNBC are talking unaware that America is screaming at the them to shut up. They're living a nightmare.

3) Tom Tomorrow (liberal cartoonist): Most of the political cartoonists I know would have more interesting things than these chuckleheads.

4) Josh Kraushaar (National Journal): Rubio shakes Trump's hand, Jeb doesn't shake Rubio's hand.

5) Texas Volleyball: Early in the second set, TCU takes a 7-3 lead.

6) Chris Hohmann (TV weather person in Raleigh): Showers with heavy rain are moving into the Triangle and the Sandhills.

7) Patton Oswalt: Hey CNBC anchors, they're bringing the candidates out. CUT TO THEM. enough of your Fraggle Rock yapping.

8) Joan Walsh (The Nation): This commentary is stunningly conservative.

9) David S. Bernstein (Boston politico): Mork and Mindy was set in Boulder. CNBC could be showing some clips from it rather than this painfully bad routine.

http://www.colorado.edu

http://www.visitbouldercoloradousa.com

Chaos in DC: Tweets from the Republican Congress Mess

Greetings to our blog readers in Serbia, Finland, and Scotland.........


Yes, it has been a full two weeks since I last posted. In the mean time, actor James Woods has reverted back to being a progressive and Susan Sarandon has become a tea partier......well, of course, neither of those things has happened, but we are still here, and we still maintain a center-left point of view.

The images pictured here are of: 1) Cong. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), who is one of 46 Republicans trying to become House Speaker since Cong. Kevin McCarthy stunned the nation by dropping out of the race (in actuality, there are 10 candidates who might be speaker), 2) Bao Bao the National Zoo panda who doesn't get to vote for House Speaker, and 3) Turkish ambassador Serdar Kilic posing with President Barack Obama, the man who has replaced Thomas Jefferson on the two dollar bill. (I think we lost some conservatives in the audience with that quip).........we refer to Kilic because Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan was mentioned in a tweet (see below).......

Here are 11 tweets, one for each member of the D.C. United soccer team regarding the predicament over which Republican will prevail as House Speaker in the wake of Cong. John Boehner's (R-Ohio) stunning resignation.

1)  Donna Brazile: #TheSpeakerofTheHouse is second in line after the Vice President to accede to the Presidency. This is serious.

2) The Hill: Amid chaos, Dems catch GOP off guard with Planned Parenthood vote.

3) Roll Call: One member* stomped into an elevator away from reporters with an emphatic "no!" when asked if running for speaker (*-Cong. Trey Gowdy R-SC).

4) Slate: Ted Cruz ambushed the Sierra Club's president** on climate change (**-Aaron Nair). 

5) Gawker: Dr. Ben Carson just won't quit it with the Hitler talk.

6) Cong. Jared Polis (D-Colo.): "#chaosintheHouse who will be speaker?"

7) Politico: Leading Republicans to GOP conference: keep calm

8) Jonathan Chait: Biden seen ordering ice cream cone.

9) Ken Rudin: Newt Gingrich says he wouldn't rule being temp House Speaker.

10) New York Post: Belarusian writer Svetlana Alexievich won this year's Nobel Prize in literature.

11) The Economist: Turkey's Erdogan once visited Brussels begging for favours. The tables have turned.

Now, that we're done, we should head to the Turkish restaurant Meze http://www.mezedc.com though it is late and we don't actually live close to the nation's capital.