Last Call

The NY Times gets this one right.  Go figure.

I've long said the notion that black voters' support for President Obama was somehow "wavering" was complete garbage.  Certainly the right is trying to sell that idiocy, most notably Dick Morris.  But now the NY Times has found that the president's support among the black community continues to be massive and overwhelming.

Outside Washington, however, the story is markedly different. Mr. Obama’s support among African-Americans appears strikingly strong, even among many who are out of work, who might be expected to complain the loudest.

In a recent Pew Research Center poll, black voters preferred Mr. Obama 95 percent to 3 percent over Mitt Romney, “which is at least the margin he got in 2008,” said Michael Dimock, associate director for research at Pew. “There’s no erosion at all.”

Even more noteworthy, less than 10 percent of black voters in a New York Times/CBS News survey taken last month said that Mr. Obama had failed to meet their expectations as president, while nearly 3 in 10 said he had exceeded expectations. Among nonblack voters, 4 in 10 said he performed worse than expected, while only 5 percent said he had done better.

For many African-Americans, the main reason to support Mr. Obama is easy to cite. They argue that the modern Republican Party protects the rich at the expense of the poor, is hostile to social programs and thinks the way to fix the economy is solely through a trickle-down approach.

“We already know what the Republican Party is offering,” said Mr. Bennett, 57, the former Cooper Industries employee, a plant supervisor before he lost his job. “And we don’t want that.”

Mr. Hart said, “Look at the choice we got with those Republicans.” 

Sometimes reality is so simple and easily explainable, it absolutely dumbfounds the pundits.  It's almost as if the approach by the GOP to assume black voters are "too stupid to know the Democrats are keeping them on the Plantation" is not only completely incorrect (and not to mention absolutely insulting) but that it's backfiring.  I'd say that it also meant that the GOP's rancorous stupidity is driving black voters back to the President, but the larger point is we never left him.

The GOP is completely invested in saying otherwise, of course.  Almost like they have a healthy fear of people exercising their right to vote.

Oil's Well That Ends Well, Epilogue

And we come full circle for BP's offshore drilling.

BP won approval from the Interior Department to drill its first exploratory oil well in the Gulf of Mexico since the blowout of its Macondo well a year and a half ago touched off the country's worst offshore environmental disaster.

The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement said that BP met more stringent safety requirements devised by the federal government in the aftermath of the disaster. The company also planned to follow even tougher voluntary standards that exceeded the government's rules.

"This permit was approved only after thorough well design, blowout preventer and containment capability reviews," said bureau director Michael R. Bromwich.

At more than 6,000 feet, the proposed well would be in deeper water than the Macondo well. It is part of the company's Kaskida prospect located in an area called the Keathley Canyon about 250 miles south of Lafayette, La. The company submitted the application to drill in January.

Everything's going to be fine, just fine.  Nothing to see here.  Please continue to drill baby drill, ignore climate change, trash green energy, and wreck the planet.  It'll heal itself, that's what complex systems and invisible sky deities do.

Besides, if you can't trust a company like BP, who can you trust, right?

Oops! We Did It Again!

An autistic girl was asked to leave a store in Canada, due to a misunderstanding regarding her service dog.  There was no misbehaving, it seems an employee made a mistake and was a little enthusiastic about keeping order in the store.  The little girl was cool, her mom was good about it, and the store sent her a $25 gift card and an apologetic letter.

Sounds okay, right?  It was, until she went back and was asked to leave the store again.

On Sunday, Emily, Levi and her mother visited the store to use the gift card when they were told by store staff that Levi, whose harness identifies him as a service dog, was not allowed into the store.

"We were asked to leave the store," she said. "My child's service dog was not permitted in their establishment anywhere. And if that's true, then that includes my child because there is no separation between the two of them."

Emily said leaving the store made her sad.

"I was disappointed that I didn't get anything from the store, even my dress that my mom picked out nicely for me," she said.

Ainsworth described the incidents as uneducated and unfounded bullying.

"It's demoralizing," she said. "It's demeaning."

Ainworth doubts the sincerity of the store's apology.

"Had they taken it with seriousness, then I think their staff would have become educated," said Ainsworth.

She's got a point. If the store had actually wanted to correct the problem, they should have taken steps to make sure that employees were made aware of the mistake so it did not happen again, least of all to the same child.

The parent company of Winners says allowing service animals in its stores is standard policy.

"We are looking into the particulars regarding this customer's experience and will reach out to her directly, as well as take whatever actions we believe are appropriate," said Doreen Thompson, TJX spokeswoman.

For those who do not speak corporate-ese, that's just a fancy way of saying, "Holy crap, you saw that, did you? Okay, okay. We'll do something this time."

Stupidity sale, 50% off! Though I don't think anyone's buying it this time.

StupidiParents

A new tag for an emerging problem.  It seems some people are confused about what it means to be responsible for their children, and who is responsible for the kids when they are out of sight (hint: it's still you, dummy).

Police have received multiple complaints from parents saying their children owe money after placing bets.

There have also been reports of money, DVDs and PlayStation games going missing from homes to pay off debts.

Police are taking action over growing fears that children could be pushed into shoplifting or fights.

Letters warning about the dangers of gambling have been sent to parents through Mayflower Primary School.

He said on dry evenings groups of up to 40 people aged from five to teenagers have been gathering around drains to play Pits.

The game involves lifting the covers on water meters outside properties and flicking marbles into the hole.

"Over recent weeks we have been approached by parents telling us that their kids are asking for money to pay back debts owed to other children," PCSO Amador continued. "I have also heard that money has been taken out of purses and things round the house have gone missing like DVDs and Playstation games."

He said officers have been told of several children, as young as seven, owing £20 or £30 to other children.

Blink. Think. Read it again. That's right, kids as young as five years old are racking up gambling debts.  Parents are worried?  How about not letting your kindergarten aged child wander the streets and be taken in by this type of scam?  I cannot imagine my little nephew being out of sight for more than five minutes at that age, let alone enough time to fall prey to other kids trying to scam his money.  The blame doesn't belong to the kids, it belongs to the idiotic parents of all kids involved.

He also asked parents to visit the following websites: www.gamblersanonymous.org and www.youthgambling.com

Great idea.  While they do that, I'm going to recommend they go to http://www.watchyourgoddamnkidsandstopblamingothers.com/ and see if the results are helpful.

Idiots.

Breaking Stupidity: Michael Lohan Jumps From 3rd Floor To Escape Cops

Michael Lohan was just arrested AGAIN in Florida after allegedly contacting his GF Kate Major -- and law enforcement tells TMZ, he tried to escape by jumping off a 3rd-story balcony ... and plummeting 34 feet to the ground.

According to law enforcement sources, Tampa police responded to a call early this morning from Kate, who claimed Michael had been trying to contact her by phone and wouldn't leave her alone.

We're told officers interviewed Kate at her apartment after she made the call -- the same apartment where Michael allegedly bruised her up earlier this week -- and while they were there, Michael allegedly called again.

According to law enforcement, officers believed Michael was a "threat" -- so they rolled up to his hotel to arrest him.

Uh, guys... I think you can take the quotes off the word threat. It's no longer theoretical. He's what my grandma would call batshit crazy, and the only person not in danger is his coke dealer. Seriously, if he can't recognize this is rock bottom then Darwinism is about to prevail.

On a final note, I would very much like to take TMZ's web authors to punctuation school. Thank you, that is all.

Brilliant Solution For Prosthetics

Fifty-year-old Brit Trevor Prideaux is an ordinary man with an extraordinary idea that could make it easier for others who are missing limbs to use smartphones--embed a phone dock right into your prosthetic.

It's worked for him.

The catering manager from Somerset, England, who was born without a left forearm, came up with the idea to integrate a smartphone into his prosthetic after using an iPhone.

In an interview with The Telegraph, Prideaux admits "...it became clear that this piece of technology was not ideally suited to be used with only one hand. When testing an iPhone, with the thoughts of purchase, I had to balance it on my prosthetic limb to text."

All I'm going to say is, with all the brilliant minds in today's world, how did this take so long to emerge?  I'm impressed and disappointed at the same time.

Hell Is Oakland

And Oakland is Hell.

Meanwhile, Oakland Police spokeswoman Cynthia Perkins told CNN that the department is investigating how protester Scott Olsen, a former Marine and two-time Iraq war veteran, suffered a skull fracture in Tuesday evening's clashes.

A vigil was scheduled Wednesday for Olsen, 24, outside Oakland City Hall, organizers said.
Olsen, a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War, was in serious but stable condition Wednesday afternoon at Highland General Hospital in Oakland, said Dottie Guy, a member of the veterans group who told CNN by phone that she was visiting Olsen at the hospital.

He sustained a skull fracture after allegedly being shot in the head with a police projectile, according to the veterans group. Among a growing number of war vets participating in the Occupy movement, Olsen was marching from a downtown library toward City Hall in an effort to reclaim an encampment that had been cleared out by police, the veterans group said.

The violence between police and protesters escalated after demonstrators allegedly pelted officers with bottles, rocks and paint, authorities said. Police then fired tear gas into the downtown streets to disperse the crowd.

The violence I was afraid of in NYC in Zucotti Park about three weeks ago has finally happened in Oakland.  Enter a new and very serious stage for the Occupy Together movement.  The class war is now under way.  Much more on Scott Olsen here at the Oakland Tribune.  He survived two tours in Iraq only to get his skull cracked like a ripe melon by a tear gas canister to the side of the head...but Oakland PD.  There isn't a god above or below capable of that level of abject hatred, only humanity could ever accomplish that particular feat of irony.

Super Committee Super Collider

Here's everything you need to know about the latest proposal by Democrats to reduce the national debt by $3 trillion, half of it cuts (including Medicare), half of it revenue increases, and it's the second paragraph of the Reuters story:

Republicans rejected the Democratic initiative.

Any questions? 

Poll after poll shows Americans want a combination of tax increases and spending cuts to rein in the national debt.  Republicans refuse.  Maybe that's why Congress has a 9% approval rating.  Go figure.

StupidiNews!

• European leaders announced a late night $1.2 trillion debt fix deal that includes a 50% haircut for Greece's bond creditors.
• The US Supreme Court will decide whether or not to take up the question of health care reform's individual mandate on November 10.
• The Obama administration is moving to block new uranium mining permits near Grand Canyon National Park.
• Gaming giant Nintendo will announce their first yearly loss in three decades as the yen and weaker sales of its 3DS portable disappointed analysts.
• The FCC has hit pirate radio jockey Dan "Monkey Man" Roberts with a $10,000 fine for operating his "Pirate Cat" radio station.