The endorsement is a product of Mr. Paul's platform of emphatically endorsing the rights of states, without which, Nevada (outside of Clark County) wouldn't have legalized prostitution. Mr. Paul's experience as a gynecologist was also a strong factor, citing this as an explicit understanding and inherent endorsement of womens' rights.

Furthermore, the women will be campaigning for Mr. Paul on the homefront:

“If a client comes into the Bunny Ranch and says, ‘I’m pimpin for Paul,’ they’re going to have a real good time,” owner Dennis Hof proclaimed. “Aren’t they, girls?”

“Yeah!” the women sitting next to Hof on a red velvet couch shouted.

Finally, in an unlikely victory, Mr. Paul has also received the endorsement of Gucci Parker, who was previously assumed to be registering an abstention. Gucci Parker's change-of-heart was the product of a concern for being cannibalized by the policies of President Barack Obama. Literally:

Ranch employees say they can’t back President Barack Obama because he signed a law that lifted a 5-year-old ban on horse meat inspections. “We’re animal lovers, and [my dog] Gucci is also supporting Ron Paul because he feels like if Obama will let us eat the horses, he could be next,” worker Cami Parker explained.

Whether or not the Romney campaign can emerge unscathed from this endorsement has yet to be seen. President Barack Obama has currently not commented on the matter of dog cannibalization. Finally, pharmaceutical painkiller addicts, polygamists, and child molesters of the world have yet to weigh in with their endorsements. Surely in time they will, resulting in another great headline like this one, and the funniest iteration of 'oppo' media placement basically ever. As the ever-quotable Omar Little once put it: 'It's all in the game.'

It certainly is. The Nevada primary takes place on February 4th.

fkamer@observer.com | @weareyourfek

• As they say in Vegas: This town wasn't built on winners.
• Hitting the jackpot: Wouldn't be the first time he made history in Queens.
• At least he's only gambling with his money.
• Many insiders are seeing his loss as yet another referendum by machines against those pulling on them.

And so on.

[Photo via jonathanlentz.]

fkamer@observer.com | @weareyourfek

Ever hilarious, those political reporters are. This year's Inner Circle charity dinner is taking place on March 21, 2012 at—where else?—the New York Hilton.

fkamer@observer.com | @weareyourfek

"An Israeli flag was on stage (next to American flag), but his campaign manager just pulled it off."

Six minutes later:

"Israeli flag back up on stage. Turner campaign manager says the Israeli flag needed to be same height as American flag."

Finally:

"Flag update from Turner hq. USA on left. Israel on right. They are the same height. #flagprotocol"

Only two more hours of this*.

Give or take**.

fkamer@observer.com

*This reminds Politicker of that quote from Mother Night about how one should concern themselves with what one pretends to be less they actually become it. Grace Ruah, we're talking to you.

**By which we mean, "If you think the last you're hearing of this is after the results come in, let us assure you, outside of our reportorial capacity and strictly in a speculative one, you are dreadfully, sadly mistaken."

In other news, the NY-09 Special Election just went from moderately crazy to completely insane.

The papers are reportedly challenging fraudulent absentee ballots. Meanwhile, the serious charge of phone-jamming has yet to be acted upon by the Weprin campaign, in case anyone's keeping score on that front.

[Photo of Weprin, Via.]

fkamer@observer.com

Bob Turner voting—for himself, one would think, or at least hope—in NY-09 this morning.

As voting wraps up for the NY-09 special election to replace Anthony Weiner's congressional seat, stories of less-than-admirable tricks by supporters of both candidates—Republican Bob Turner and Democrat David Weprin—are being reported. 

Hotline On Call reports that Bob Turner's campaign—according to the Weprin team—sent out a text late last night encouraging voters to call up the Weperin campaign headquarters and jam their phone lines, in order to get between last-minute calls and the voters the Democrat's team wants to reach. Another person on Twitter saw the request go out on Facebook:

He apparently didn't screengrab it, though.

Weprin spokesperson Elizabeth Kerr responded:

"Republicans participating in phone jamming in the past have landed in jail, and there must be a full investigation into the Republican phone jamming campaign."

Turner spokesperson Bill O'Reilly adamantly denied it:

It's a serious charge: a violation of Federal Communications Law that could result in jail time.

Meanwhile, the Weprin campaign has been accused of "flooding Twitter" with false anecdotes about switching sides at the last minute, apparently:

Some voters, however, actually do remain undecided...

...Though some people have their own theories as to why:

UPDATE: There's also now the claim—from Turner spokesman Bill O'Reilly, naturally—that Weprin supporters are calling up Jewish households on behalf of Jews for Jesus (for Turner) (the idea being, of course, that Jews would supposedly never vote for anyone endorsed by Jews for Jesus).

Elsewhere:

• Poll workers in Forest Hills have reported an unexpectedly high turnout.
• The unions are making a last minute push for Weprin.
• Weprin needs a cup of coffee, or a makeup guy, or something.
• Anthony Weiner's endorsement is so costly that he didn't explain so much as having "admitted" to voting for Weprin.

See anything we should know about? We'd love to hear it.

fkamer@observer.com | @weareyourfek

Highlights:

• The potential terrorist threat may be walking around as "operatives carrying around US documentation."
• There's concern that an attack centered around symbolic dates such as the tenth anniversary of September 11th—which they've been interested in since February 2010—is also now especially motivated by "the May 2011 death of Usama Bin Ladin (UBL)" as "a way to avenge UBL's death and reassert al-Qa'ida's relevance."
• This specific threat shows interest in utilizing a "vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices (VBIEDs)," better known as a car bomb. They cite the May 2010 attempt to car bomb Times Square as precedent.
• Other than Washington DC and New York City, there's no information about where an attack would be carried out, though they're particularly concerned about "aviation, mass transit systems, US Government and Military Sites."
• Also: "The attacks would be intended to cause panic within the public and disarray among first responders."

The first page of the memo, via The Daily:

It's worth noting that if there's anything legitimately confidential in the memo, it's hard to tell: it's more of a very extended 'if you see something, say something' pamphlet than anything else, and contains the kind of advice that's common sense worth reinforcing: "be aware of and report unattended vehicles," "stagger search times and patterns to impede surveillance," that kind of thing.

Still, it's an interesting insight into the kind of official language used to acknowledge and inform broadly within the FBI and Homeland Security on something they seem to be taking pretty seriously.

fkamer@observer.com | @weareyourfek

Hotline on Call reports:

According to buy information obtained by Hotline On Call, the DCCC has made a $483,500 TV ad buy in the district, starting tomorrow through Monday. The broadcast TV buy will not air on September 11, the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The Democratic super PAC House Majority PAC has also bought advertising time in the district as well.

Hopefully, they'll have rethought their current television advertising strategy by then.

Correction: This post incorrectly inferred that the ad buy was made after the polling numbers and most recent anti-Turner ads were released; it was in fact reported yesterday afternoon, and was not in response to either.

fkamer@observer.com | @weareyourfek

We're now hearing that it's still running on TV, and that it's been spotted on Fox 5, skyline intact and everything.  Of course. If you spot it, we'd love to see it; send it our way.

This isn't the first time the DC-9 election has invoked 9/11 imagery; Bob Turner's first ad against his Democratic opponent David Weprin also invoked the attacks, but it wasn't three days before a tenth anniversary that has—however you feel about it—attracted an enormous amount of attention and coverage onto itself.

A DCCC spokesperson who talked to Politico yesterday didn't sound too apologetic about the fiasco:

Jennifer Crider, a DCCC spokeswoman, explained the decision to re-cut the spot saying: “The independent expenditure made a small tweak to remove the brief image of the skyline to not distract from the message that Republican Bob Turner hasn’t met a corporate tax loophole he didn’t like while pushing drastic cuts to Social Security and Medicare.”

UPDATE: Photographic proof of the ad playing on Fox 5, right here:

fkamer@observer.com | @weareyourfek