Twitter is sometimes too surreal:
That just flashed by on my screen. This is what’s happened, apparently (from Bleeding Cool, more at link):
Details are sketchy, but it appears that one person wearing a Harry Potter shirt was stabbed in the face with a pen because they refused to swap seats, during a Marvel Studios presentation. A stretcher was needed and blood was spilled.
Wasn’t I just grumbling to myself that I wish I’d gone to SDCC this year again? Too much nerdrage for my blood.
Something to think about: BP clean up costs up to $100M per DAY.
They’re already at $2.65 billion as of yesterday, June 27th. If the rate doesn’t change it will put them at $5.95 billion by July 31 and $9.05 billion by August 31, and $12.05 billion by September 30. That’s assuming a lot: relief wells work, no more underwater screw ups, and NO storms interrupting them. It also assumes that the deep sea plumes of oil just… don’t do anything. Land, for example. Remember we’re still only seeing a fraction of the oil on the beaches.
$12.05B between now and end of September. BP’s net income in all 2009 was $16.58 billion.
Dead porpoise, Lousiana. The rest of the Gulf will follow.
Who exactly didn’t see this one coming?
Just as dealings with the Obama administration and congressional Democrats soured last summer, six of the nation’s biggest health insurers began quietly pumping big money into third-party television ads aimed at killing or significantly modifying the major health reform bills moving through Congress.
That money, between $10 million and $20 million, came from Aetna, Cigna, Humana, Kaiser Foundation Health Plans, UnitedHealth Group and Wellpoint, according to two health care lobbyists familiar with the transactions. The companies are all members of the powerful trade group America’s Health Insurance Plans.
The funds were solicited by AHIP and funneled to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to help underwrite tens of millions of dollars of television ads by two business coalitions set up and subsidized by the chamber. Each insurer kicked in at least $1 million and some gave multimillion-dollar donations.
No, seriously, who didn’t see this happening? This is exactly why there needs to be clear legal requirements with criminal penalties–not just financial, CRIMINAL–that such paid-for shilling political speech be attributed back to whomever is paying for it. This is shameless deception, where they tried to make it look to the public like they themselves weren’t paying for advertisements full of misstatements designed solely to upset uninformed people (see: Tea Party) and enhance the success of their businesses interests. It would be a tragic waste if the Justice Department didn’t investigate them fully because of this, to prosecute any and all laws that may have been potentially violated here.
Total class, yessir. Obama’s grandmother Madelyn Dunham, that raised him, died last night. I’m actually reading Dreams From My Father, his book, right now. The book talks about her, in great detail, and often. They were incredibly close, and she was a second mother to him. Reading about this (final?) Republican attack during the campaign made me angry. I mean, really? Honestly?
Leaving no potential avenue of attack unexplored, the Republican National Committee has decided to bash Barack Obama over his October visit to see his ailing grandmother in Hawaii.
Of course the visit itself is not being criticized, but rather the way the campaign paid for the nominee’s unscheduled detour. On Monday afternoon, the RNC blasted out a complaint from the California Republican Party charging that “Obama for America violated federal law by converting its campaign funds to Senator Obama’s personal use” for the trip. That proposed issue for the FEC to investigate is one of five violations alleged by California Republicans in their complaint (which you can read in its entirety here).
McCain should tell the RNC to shut the fuck up. If they had an ounce of class or dignity they would simply have said, oh, I don’t know–”Would you mind just repaying the campaign the expenses?”–if they wanted to try to honestly make an issue of this. What next–if a close family member of his dies if he wins the election will they complain if he flies home on Air Force One? Where were the complaints when the Secret Service had to pay to protect and supervise the wedding of George W. Bush’s daughter in Texas? Hypocrites.
Well, the law of intended consequences from stupid people has escalated things here way, way beyond what is required. Like I only just mentioned yesterday, The Stranger, a local newspaper in Seattle, published some photos of houses with excessive Republican political advertising on them, and put up the addresses so that you could go look at them as well. Matt Drudge got wind of it, and pretty soon half the conservative blogtrollosphere went nuts, to the point where they were publishing the home street addresses of all of The Stranger’s business staff, and the employees began receiving death threats:
After the piece came out on Wednesday morning, there was no violence, no vandalism. There was some debate on The Stranger’s website on Thursday and Friday about the piece’s inclusion of addresses—about the homeowners’ and The Stranger’s right to free speech, and about yards signs as public discourse—and some readers posted addresses of Stranger staffers in comments, because turnabout is fair play. We did not remove those comments and left our own addresses up on our website.
On Saturday morning the piece exploded on right-wing blogs, and death threats were made on our staff.
Since that final post, The Stranger staff hasn’t updated their blog–which is very, very unusual for them as they put out a frighteningly frequent stream of content there. The entire situation sucks, due to the fact that some people (the people that made the calls) have now indeed won in at least a short term via political intimidation to shut down one of the most vocal left-of-center news sources in the United States.
I’m not really that cynical–I’m more sarcastic than anything–but part of me honestly keeps wondering if this is the tip of the iceberg of what could happen in the next four to eight years, if things line up a certain way. What happens if we get Obama in the White House, control of the House and Senate, and try to push through something like the Fairness Doctrine again to balance out the hatemongering out there? Will we see more things like this happening to people that try to stand up to big business and it’s supporters, and the religious right?
Want to see the depths Republicans are stooping to, in order to defeat Democrats this year and hold on to their failing and dwindling power? Read this. Republican operatives in Minnesota have sent a short comic book to children, all but accusing Al Franken of endorsing the rape of women.
Absolutely disgusting, vile, and reprehensible. This is why these people political creatures need to be driven out and kept out. They’re a danger to our children for sending out inappropriate mailings like this and unfit for any kind of office, let alone national ones. A bit more here.
If you aren’t annoyed by this story and it’s implications for the freedoms of your fellow American citizens, your patriotism, loyalty to America, and your understanding of why hundreds of thousands of Americans have died defending our constitution is sorely lacking. Read how much trouble we’re in here, thanks to the machinations of the Republican elite that seek to dominate America.
read more | digg story
Sorry I haven’t posted about the elections at all (or a whole lot of anything). I’ve been trying to avoid going on in public too much about the elections, since I’ve harbored a secret mancrush on McCain for some time–he’s one of the few Republicans that doesn’t make me throw up in my mouth a little bit when I think of him.
But this, right here, is freaking rich. All that McCain chatter about Obama selling out to Iran by sitting down for talks without pre-conditions? McCain hasn’t just crashed the Straight Talk Express, he’s driven it off a cliff into a fireball followed up by a Benny Hill Yakety Sax chase scene with Karl Rove in a thong, at this point. I mean, seriously, McCain, what happened to you? Are you THAT desperate to get the crown now that you’ll sell out who you’ve been your entire career?
Via Huffington Post: In 1987, John McCain cast several votes in an attempt to force the Reagan administration to meet with RENAMO1, a guerrilla organization in Mozambique that State Department officials at the time described as a “terrorist group,” 2 without requiring that the group meet any preconditions.
read more | digg story
Russert was one of the good ones, and one of the very, very, very, very few political correspondents I actually paid attention to.
Apologies for ranting.
Ayn Rand was a social troll of the highest magnitude and order, and did more harm on the side of American sociology than anyone else has in quite a very long time. The idea that selfishness is the most important human trait to nurture is preposterous. The fact that a lot “Christians” endorse that ideal makes me nauseous and ashamed of other Christians. Yes, I’m very Christian, and very Catholic. What was it that Jesus said about heads of needles, and giving unto others, and all that…? Oh yeah. Let’s try it this way. WWJD? Not say, “The Fountainhead is A++++”, of course. He’d say, “The Fountainhead?! WTF!”
Christians that support, endorse, or dig objectivism and other Rand nonsense and brainwashing are flat out fake Christians.
Socialized medicine won’t fly in the United States simply because of the fact that American corporate interests would find it to be a loss, and barring Hillary Clinton trying again if she gets elected in 2008, no other Democratic candidate would be willing to press for it. The devastation to campaign financing for anyone working to enable this would be crippling; you would lose a substantial amount of money, and your opponents would gain tremendously.
Of course, it is of no concern that millions in our country without ample financial means (i.e., poor people and nearly everyone that works retail for a living) are without even the barest of medical coverage, unless they get critically wounded or ill and go to the emergency room: in which case, you’ll be alive, but in debt for a significant length of time. Given that those same people are the ones who due to circumstances have to live paycheck to paycheck, they’re the ones least likely to be able to escape debt. Vicious cycle, eh?
Basic human fucking decency says everyone should get equal health care.
From Digg. Why are we in Iraq, again? Oh, that’s right: Because Saddam wanted to take a potshot at Georgie’s dad when H.W. was President. Let’s get ‘im, he tried to whack my pappy. Meanwhile… we’re in the wrong country ‘fighting back’: “Thousands of protesters are dead and the bodies of hundreds of executed monks have been dumped in the jungle, a former intelligence officer for Burma’s ruling junta has revealed. The most senior official to defect so far, Hla Win, said: “Many more people have been killed in recent days than you’ve heard about.”
read more | digg story
If anyone got spammed allegedly with invitations from me to Spock.com, it wasn’t me. Apparently Spock blew it’s gasket and mailed everyone that was even vaguely connected to any associated profile. Stupid, moronic design. Sorry, if anyone got tagged.
Tonight, our friend Jakob flies into town, and tomorrow, Rebo does, for the Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle. That means in two days I’ll be making two trips down I-5 to SeaTac airport and then two more as they fly out on Sunday and Monday. People from work have been staying home and and working remotely because of the massive I-5 construction. This’ll be my first foray into it. Wish me luck…
Two of the coolest guys in the world, Sir Richard Branson and Stephen Colbert, apparently poured water on each other’s heads in an unfriendly manner during a television segment taping that will likely never air.
read more | digg story
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