Last Call

Newark Mayor Cory Booker.  Full-time Mayor, part time superhero.

Newark, New Jersey, Mayor Cory Booker ran into a burning building Thursday night to help rescue a trapped woman, an act of heroism that sent him to the hospital.

Booker talked about the incident on Twitter.

"Thanks 2 all who are concerned. Just suffering smoke inhalation," Booker tweeted. "We got the woman out of the house. We are both off to hospital. I will b ok."

Video from the aftermath of the scene showed Booker hugging the woman, his right hand wrapped in gauze. "Just some second-degree burns," he told reporters.

Booker was released from a New Jersey-area hospital at about 11:30 p.m., according to the mayor's spokeswoman, Anne Torres.

The incident occurred at a building next to Booker's home, the mayor told CNN Friday.

The mayor had returned home to see flames shooting out of a second- floor kitchen window. Flanked by two members of his security detail, Booker rushed toward the building, he said.

"Something exploded and sent a lot of flames over the steps, and my detail just grabbed me and started trying to drag me out of there," Booker said.

There was a "bit of an altercation," but he convinced the security personnel to let him go.

Also, more proof that capes just get in the way.  Important lesson, folks.  And good job.

Users Are Losers, And Losers Are Users

Whenever the Dems get ahead on something, they disarm themselves because apparently winning isn't fair to the GOP.

On Thursday, as the Rosen saga unfolded, DNC communications director Brad Woodhouse echoed her plea for peace. “I’m not a fan of the term,” he said in an interview. “I mean, I’m sure I’ve probably used it. We all fall into these easy vernaculars … but we in the DNC have not been running a campaign based on the term ‘war on Women.’ That’s a myth cooked up by Republicans.”

OK no, see, you were, and you should be pounding these misogynist Republican assholes with a winning issue that is putting POTUS up 20 points with women and 10 points overall EVERY DAY UNTIL ELECTION DAY.

But, no, we're going to give up to make it a close race so...people...donate more, or something.  Maybe.  I dunno.  Somebody should maybe ask DNC head Debbie Wasserman Schultz about this, maybe?

Knuckleheads.  You knock them down and then you keep kicking.  Also, fire the communications director.  Now.

Jesus engage the warp drive.

Rick Rolling The Country, Part 5

So this nonsense about Rick Santorum quitting for noble reasons about his daughter and family?  Naah, he was out of money.

Rick Santorum said Thursday that he ended his presidential bid because he ran out of money, his campaign was in debt and he would have been unable to air any advertising in Pennsylvania.

"Money isn't everything in politics, but you do have to have enough to be successful, and we were reaching a point where we were frankly not in the position," Santorum said in his first interview since suspending his campaign Tuesday, on the "Today's Issues" show on the American Family Radio Network. "We simply didn't have the resources to compete going forward."

The remarks were the most direct Santorum has made about why he dropped out of the race two weeks before a critical primary in his home state, Pennsylvania. Previously, he alluded to his seriously ill youngest child who was recently hospitalized, as well as the allocation of delegates in upcoming contests.

In the interview with Family Research Council President Tony Perkins, Santorum said his campaign organization had grown and had been "just burning through cash" in recent contests, while donations slowed to a "trickle," leaving the campaign in debt for the first time and for an amount that Santorum said he was not comfortable with.

"I'll be honest with you, Tony - in the last week after Wisconsin, we basically raised almost no money," Santorum said. "We had solicitations going out and people were just emailing back saying the race was over."

Nice of him to admit the truth two days later.  What a hero.

Look, Santorum was basically told he was getting out when his backers were told THEY were getting behind Romney.  It's a Citizens United world, and it goes both ways.  Whoever controls the big fish, controls the race, and Ricky here lost control some time ago.  He was never a serious candidate, just a bargaining chip to make sure Mitt Romney was going to go the full Tea Party route.  The wingers with all the money are satisfied now, so Santorum got cut off along with Newt.  Game ends.

Now the real battle begins.

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/04/12/145038/santorum-says-he-quit-campaign.html#storylink=cpy

Tornado Alley Grows

Tornado alley is wider now, officially.  I had already assumed those boundaries, but that is because I watch the weather regularly and watch the storms roll through.

It now reaches well into Georgia, and Florida gets an honorary alley of its own (which is totally fair, I lived in that swath of Florida as well).  Though I don't know what it really means, except a likely spike in insurance, because tornadoes are on the rise all around the country.

Still, take a peek at the map here, and if you are in the yellow you may want to keep an eye on the Weather Channel.  I hear we're gearing up for another bad season.

Hey, I Know This Guy

Not literally, but in literature.  See, I have a character I'm working on who could be this guy's soul twin.  Those who read Dead Shuffle, meet the real Rev:

Authorities in California said they have uncovered a case of incredible cruelty involving a pastor and two members of his church. The three men are allegedly responsible for the physical and psychological abuse of a young boy who prosecutors say was forced to dig his own grave.

The Rev. Lonny Lee Remmers, the 54-year-old officiating pastor of the Heart of Worship church in Corona, Calif., has been charged with assault with a deadly weapon and child abuse. Two members of the church, Remmers' stepson, Nicholas James Craig, 22, and Darryl Duane Jeter Jr., 28, have each been charged with nine felonies related to the incident.

The boy survived, but the full article tells you everything he endured, from being tied up and maced in the face to beaten with belts and pelted with dirt while believing he was standing in his own grave.  There is a chance his mother was in on it, a betrayal I can't even imagine.

Ever since the creepy preacher guy from Poltergeist, I have been freaked out when the right mix of religion and WTF come together.  This poor child.

But Is The Kroog A Boss Fight?

The Invisible Hand of the Free Market has a joystick, yo.

For Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), 76, the 2012 Republican primaries are probably his last tango with presidential politics. But the aging libertarian will still achieve his life-long dream of crushing the nation’s Federal Reserve banking system… If a Houston-based video game developer is successful, that is.

Daniel Williams, 27, recently published a fundraising appeal for a forthcoming video game based on the candidate’s exploits. With the help of crowd-funding website Kickstarter, he hit the goal of $5,000 within a matter of days, based upon the commitments of just 40 backers as of this story’s publication.

Speaking to Raw Story on Wednesday, Williams said his main inspiration for the game was the 1992 8-bit classic “Krusty’s Fun House,” where Krusty the Clown from “The Simpsons” has to set traps for mice and capture them.

For the Ron Paul game, instead of mice it’s delegates. And he collects gold coins — lots and lots of gold coins — naturally. And who could forget the most epic political video game cover art of all time, featuring candidate Paul and his wife Carol in a “Star Wars”-like pose in front of a giant screeching eagle, the Statue of Liberty and exploding red fireworks?

"Faux hipster retro crap-ass crowd-source funded schlock based on one of the worst NES games ever made" so perfectly encapsulates the entire Ron Paul experience on so many different levels that it really is hard for me to imagine that it wasn't tried before. Blimp versus Helicopter Ben writes itself. Kinda sad I didn't think of it first.

No, seriously. It's this awesome.



Behold insanity.

It's Elementary, My Dear

Via Gizmodo, 3-year old Rose knows more about chemistry than most kids.  Because cute kids are awesome.  And chemistry is awesome.  And songs are awesome.  And we've got all three.

Remember Rose, the cute little 2-year-old whose favorite toy last year was a set of periodic table of elements flashcards? Well, now she's three, she's learned to sing, and she's still all about the elements.

Does she pronounce all the elements perfectly? Of course not. She's only three; she's still barely able to support her head with her neck. But with all the toddlers-in-tiaras running around, it sure is nice to know that there are people out there like Rose's dad, who seems to be her vocal coach/elements instructor, invested in teaching their daughters science.

She's singing Tom Lehrer's Elements song, which is damn awesome in and of itself.   Science, people.  It works.

StupidiNews!

• Newark, NJ Mayor Cory Booker has suffered minor injuries to his right hand after helping to save a neighbor from a flaming building.
• A US District Judge in Boston has sentenced Tarek Mehenna to 17.5 years in prison for terrorism and conspiracy charges.
• The small nation of Guinea-Bassau is the latest West African nation to face a military coup as the capital, Bassau, is now under junta control.
• Angry Birds maker Rovio is in talks with Chinese search giant Baidu for access to the world's largest market.
• A Duke law school study shows that the most popular files on file-sharing service Hotfile are open-source apps, not copyrighted material as alleged by the movie industry's case.