Last Call

Sick of your cable company and not having a real competitive options for lowering the price of your internet?  Help may be on the way:  Google Fiber's test marketing in Kansas City is going swimmingly.

Google Fiber appears to be connecting with residents of Kansas City. Just over a week after Google launched its ultra high-speed (1 gigabit) Internet service, at least 46 neighborhoods — or fiberhoods, as Google calls them — have signed-up to receive the service.

To put that number in context: That’s 22 percent of the 202 “fiberhoods” that Google has drawn up to cover households in Kansas City, Missouri and Kansas City, Kansas, two distinct cities that form one major metropolitan region on the border between Kansas state and Missouri.

Google declined to specify how many individual households had signed up to receive the service, but a spokesperson told TPM that: “Fiberhoods contain anywhere between 250 to 1500 households.”

Another firm, Macquarie Capital, estimates that Google has signed up 7,000 households, or 4 percent of the total region, as The Business Insider reported. 

A straight fiber connection?  Yeah, I'd jump on this in a second if it were available here in Cincy.  Not bad for just one week.  Certainly Google's competition is running scared, Time Warner in KC is giving away $50 gift cards to keep customers.

Here's hoping we can get real internet in the US like they do in other countries.

A New Era In Versus The Stupid

Bon and I have been working on putting together a short podcast for listeners where we talk about a number of things, current events, posts we've made, and whatever else tickles our fancy.  We're working with Blog Talk Radio and we hope to have something for you guys starting in the next week or so.  Hell, we might even have guests!  Maybe.  We'll see.

A preview of what to expect:



Be on the lookout for Podcast Versus The Stupid:  Coming soon!

Yo, Serena Coming!

Serena Williams:  14 Grand Slam singles titles, 15 Grand Slam doubles titles, 2 Olympic golds in doubles, and with a 6-1 6-0 piledriving of Maria Sharpova today in London, Olympics singles gold.  She's the first woman to earn at least one each of all 10 in a career "Golden Slam".

Also, this happened when she won.






















Winner. I'm gonna say best of all time at this point. 32 major wins, 31 years old. She still have half a dozen years left, I would think. Yes, Steffi and Martina have more singles titles, Serena has more overall counting her doubles wins with her sister Venus.  She can play both styles and dominates them both on any surface, period.

I'd say that qualifies her, yes?

Doh, A Deer

Police spent over four hours rescuing a baby deer Thursday that fell 20 feet into a manhole in Long Island, N.Y.

Landscapers working by a vacant lot under construction in Mount Sinai, N.Y., called Suffolk County Police just after 3:30 p.m. when they noticed the fawn had fallen into the manhole, police said.

The officers hoisted the deer to ground level at around 8 p.m. and then brought up Justincic back up.

The officers then released the deer and it ran into the woods, seemingly unscathed. 

That's a whole lot of work for a baby deer.  Acts of compassion make up for the other stuff we have to face every day.  By the way, go read the whole article for adorable baby deer pictures and one burly cop about to go in the ground.

 

Cop Uses Taser On 12-Year-Old girl

South St. Louis County (KSDK) - A police officer tased a 12-year-old girl inside a Victoria's Secret Wednesday afternoon at South County Center. 

Police say the officer came into the Victoria's Secret looking for the teenager's mom, who had warrants for her arrest. But it was the teen who got tased. 

"This one goes in my chest. It was stuck in there so she had to keep on pulling trying to pull it out," said Dejamon Baker, as she pointed to a small wound on her chest. 

Baker has a matching wound on her stomach. 

"I had fell on the floor and I couldn't control myself I just kept on shaking and stuff," said the girl. 

Baker said, "I was just crying. I guess he got mad because I was crying or something, then he just took it out and just tased me." 

A police spokesman says the officer stated the girl was physically getting involved and would not back away, but Dejamon and her mother deny that.  

Sorry, but if you can't gain control of a 12-year-old child, perhaps law enforcement isn't your thing.  Using that on a child is beyond insane.  I've never suffered from it personally, but I have seen tough people crumble and weep like... well, like little girls.

This guy should lose his badge and never be allowed to have authority again.  Jesus.

Happy Birthday, Mr. President!

Barack Obama turns 51 today, and he's taking the day off. 

President Barack Obama is playing a round of golf on his 51st birthday, kicking off a quiet birthday weekend away from re-election campaigning.

Obama was playing golf at Andrews Air Force Base on Saturday before heading to Camp David, the private presidential retreat in Maryland's Catoctin Mountains.

Obama got some early birthday wishes on Thursday during a campaign rally in Florida, where supporters sang "Happy Birthday" to the president.

Obama joked that his birthday wishes "probably would have to do with electoral votes. Winning Florida wouldn't be a bad birthday present."

No doubt the wingers will scream and call him lazy.  Even a birthday celebration drivers the haters insane.

Happy Birthday, Mr. President.

Beaten Down To The Truth

Our favorite "fact checker" Glenn Kessler can apparently discern the truth when it's right in front of him after all as he awards the latest Obama campaign assault on Romney's tax plan the coveted Gepetto Checkmark for being the truth. 

The ad talks about how Romney's tax plan will mean higher taxes for a lot of middle-class Americans, and given the fact that Romney refuses to release details of his own plan, the neutral Tax Policy Center last week released an analysis of the plan showing that in order to complete all its stated goals, Romney will have to eliminate tax breaks for the middle-class.  The Romney campaign is screaming foul, but Kessler actually does his job for once:

This ad is tough, but we cannot fault the accuracy of its key points. To some extent, the Romney campaign has been hoist with its own petard by refusing to provide sufficient detail that shows how the numbers add up in Romney’s tax and budget plans. So we are left with the judgment of a respected and independent third party.

We hold campaign ads to a high standard, particularly attack ads. If Romney releases the missing details, and a new analysis finds that Romney can meet the stated goals of his tax plan, then we can certainly revisit this analysis. But, until then, for the first time in this frequently nasty campaign, we award a rare Geppetto Checkmark for a campaign ad.

Do you think Kessler learned his lesson after this?  I hae to believe there's at least hope, which makes his earlier nonsense last month all the more shameful and obnoxious.  John Cole summed it up on Twitter last night when I asked him about it:

There is a lesson to be learned here. When we on the left beat down their bullshit with the ferocity...

...That they normally see from the right. They see the light. 

Amen to that, brother.

StupidiNews, Weekend Edition!

• The family of former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno want to appeal the school's unprecedented sanctions, but the NCAA is insisting that the sanctions are simply not subject to appeal.
• The Tennessee Democratic Party is disavowing its own Senate candidate due to ties to a hate group, and is asking Democrats in the state to write-in another candidate.
• The first Saudi woman to compete in the Olympics lasted all of 82 seconds in her judo match, but Wodjan Shaherkani still made history.
• The deal between mobile giant Verizon and cable giant Comcast to split spectrum is facing sharp criticism from regulators.
• Sen. Rand Paul wants to protect the internet from goverment snooping...but he also wants to kill regulations aimed at evening the playing field for net neutrality.