StupidiNews!

• The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral early this morning as the era of America's private space industry begins in earnest.
• One year after tornadoes nearly decimated Joplin, Missouri, President Obama gave the high school commencement address for students at Joplin High.
• Seattle's new Chihuly glass sculpture garden opens in sight of the city's famous Space Needle this week and is expected to draw hundreds of thousands.
• Facebook quickly dropped to $34 a share, $4 under its opening price in just its second day of trading on concerns of sales and advertising. 
• More video game makers are moving their biggest titles away from the crowded holiday market this year and into 2013 rather than face a glut of major releases.

Last Call

Republicans are sociopaths, frankly.  Take Reince Priebus for example, on the resurgence of the Jeremiah Wright nonsense by a GOP SuperPAC:

I know how it works. It’s the Democrats and Barack Obama that want the story out there. He wants the story to play out in the media, because for every day that [Obama adviser] David Axelrod and this President don’t have to talk about their broken promises when it comes to jobs, the debt, and the deficit — the more time they can talk about hypotheticals that may or may not come true — is a day they want to win on. So, look, this president’s got a bigger problem and his problem is no matter what he puts out there, no matter what distractions he puts out there, he can’t change the truth and escape the reality of where we are in this American economy. And it’s no good.

Note how he operates here, he's disavowing the Wright attacks, blaming President Obama for them, and then scolding the media for buying into President Obama's narrative that Republicans are the ones bringing this up.

Of course, Republicans are the ones bringing this up.  In fact, they brought it up multiple times last week. But as with everything with Priebus, it's all Obama's doing as he has manipulated the press into covering it as news.  And he'll say it every time it happens until November, because he's a sociopath and a liar.

And he'll get away with it.  The media can't complain, if they do they're in on the conspiracy.  And six more months of this is guaranteed:

1. GOP Super PAC says something awful about the President.
2. RNC says it's a distraction.
3. RNC accuses the President and the media of orchestrating it and dares them to prove otherwise.
4. Pushback on awful thing is muted.
5. Media bemoans that both sides do it.
6. Repeat.

Priebus knows exactly what he's doing and is going to get away with it scot-free because otherwise the Village proves him correct in taking sides with Obama.  And they will do everything they can to avoid that, including selling the GOP lies wholesale.  Watch.

Diet Slurpee? Don't Mind If I Do!

It probably says something more about America than it does about 7-Eleven, but starting this month the retailer is rolling out a product that seems right for its time: a sugar-free Slurpee.

Fanta Sugar-Free Mango is this month’s diet flavor. 7-Eleven said it has spent two years coming up with the formula for a simple reason: customer demand.

“For years we’ve gotten calls through our guest relations hot line, ‘When are you going to have a diet Slurpee?’” company spokeswoman Margaret Chabris said. The calls have come not only from the weight-conscious but from diabetics and those with other nutritional issues, she said.

As the number of diabetics increases every year, more sugar-free options are needed.  Those not affected often scoff, I've had to listen to many lectures on how diabetics should just not have any sugar.  I've been told this while the know-it-all was scarfing a doughnut, and another time while eating cookies.  Do as I say, or lose your feet and go blind.  Or something like that.

There has also been great improvement in mixed-sugar products where some sugar remains but every possible calorie is shaved until it affects flavor.  That's also helpful for those who just want a treat now and then, and are willing to hit the treadmill to pay for their indulgence.  Zero sugar and zero calories isn't a requirement but it's handy.

Fanta Mango is a great place to start, and new flavors are coming.  I hope they are here before the Missouri summer hits full swing.  A Slurpee is a treat I gave up years ago, I can't wait to have one again.

Study Suggests Gaydar May Be Real

(CBS News) Can you judge someone's sexual orientation just by looking at their face? According to a new scientific study, both men and women may have this inherent "gaydar" ability.

The research, published in the May 16 issue of PLoS One, showed that both men and women correctly judged a person's sexual orientation by simply looking at the person's picture more frequently than they would by chance. Participants were able to pick a woman's sexual orientation in over two-thirds of the cases, the study showed.

It's interesting but the numbers are far from conclusive.  However, there is enough to suggest that in some cases we can read beyond skin deep to learn about people.  We process so much information behind the scenes that it is plausible that we are able in some cases to identify sexual preference from subtle data.

A recent article suggests babies develop racist behaviors as early as nine months old, which demonstrates how much children pick up mom and dad's social cues.  Couple this knowledge with how we process faces, and we may finally make some real progress in identifying race and other traits, and how we perceive them.  Unlocking that may lead us to a better understanding of ourselves and of sexual orientation.  Considering the tensions on all sides of the issue, understanding and scientific advancement can only be a good thing.

A Fair Call

A bipartisan group of prison reformers is calling on the Federal Communications Commission to stop phone companies from charging inmates what they call unreasonable and predatory rates to make phone calls.

Why such astronomical fees? Phone companies often pay commissions to the state after they've won an exclusive contract to provide phone service at a state's prisons. (All but eight states allow these exclusive contracts.) The phone companies then pass on the cost of paying the state to inmates and their families, who have to shell out as much as $17 for a 15-minute call, the group says. That can add up to $250 a month to call home for an hour each week—a cost that the often-poor families of inmates can hardly afford.

Prison is punishment enough, most would agree.  The reality is, while a family member is locked up, there is still the need to address family issues, and an hour a week to speak to loved ones is not an obscenely generous amount of time.  A single hour to participate in the lives of spouses, kids and extended family is fair.  It would seem reasonable for the FCC to set limits to protect the innocent from paying fees without justification.

In the great scheme of things, this is much more important than a nip slip or an F-bomb on television.

Strange Day In Ohio

CLEVELAND (AP) — A Cleveland woman was charged with murder Saturday in the stabbing death of her best friend, who tried to drive away afterward and fatally struck the accused woman's 2-year-old daughter, police said.

The two women were sitting in a running parked car Thursday when they got into an argument, police said. Kimberly Black left the vehicle, went into her house, returned with a knife and stabbed Sharice Swain in the face and neck, said Sgt. Sammy Morris, apolice spokesman.

The wounded Swain then stepped on the gas pedal and hit Black's two young children, who were standing near the car. Two-year-old Kimshia Ruffin was killed, and her 1-year-old sister, Taraji Ruffin, was struck, but her injuries were not considering life-threatening, police said.

They still have no idea what caused the fight, but a woman and a child are dead.   There is an idea that Swain was trying to hit Black with the car, and that hitting the child was a mistake.  Let us hope so.  It won't bring the child back but will keep an already sad story from becoming any worse.

When details come out, we'll surely update you.  I truly am curious to hear what could have made such an enduring friendship turn to murder.

Austerity Hysteria, Again

It's gotten to the point now that austerity can never fail, it can only be failed.

House Budget Commitee chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) says that his plan to slash government spending on programs for the poor while increasing defense spending and giving tax cuts to the wealthy would actually “prevent austerity.”

NBC’s David Gregory on Sunday pointed out that the debate over whether slashing budgets would grow the economy was not just happening in Europe, but in the U.S. as well.

“This question of austerity in Europe, they had failing economies, nearly depressed economies,” Gregory told Ryan. “The answer throughout the region was to slash their budgets. Has it failed?”

“No, David,” Ryan replied. “I would say they’ve also raised taxes. This is a cautionary tale of what happens when politicians who make a lot of empty promises end up running out of the ability to borrow money at cheap rates and now they are broken promises. It’s a cautionary tale of what will happen to us if we stay on the path we are on.”

“What we’re saying is let’s get on growth and prevent austerity,” he continued. “The whole premise of our budget is to preempt austerity by getting our borrowing under control, having tax reform for economic growth and preventing Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid from going bankrupt. That preempts austerity.”

See, austerity isn't massive cuts in government spending, austerity is the end of government spending.  Massive cuts that will hurt hundreds of millions of Americans so that people like Paul Ryan can get tax cuts is "necessary sacrifice", not "austerity".

It is the duty of the serf to sacrifice for their lords.  That's what America was founded on, after all.

Another Milepost On The Road To Oblivion

The Republicans have truly lost control of their rough beast, slouching towards Washington DC.  Here's GOP Rep. Joe Walsh of Illinois at a town hall meeting:

“Obama wants everybody on government run health care,” he said. “That is a legitimate opinion, I wish he were honest and he would tell us that.”

“Let them go to Europe,” a constituent at the town hall replied. “We are the only country on this planet that is still semi-free — until the 1900s.”

“We’re losing it,” Walsh interrupted.

“I know we are, that is the problem,” she continued. “But we fought for this, we need to keep our freedom and we aren’t because of the seditious behavior of people who lie about who they are and get into all of our public offices, and then we can’t get them out in time before they do the damage and we have been sleeping for one hundred years. It is sedition. I mean, they did it underground. If they are honest brokers and they believe in what they’re saying and where they want this country to go — like Obama — then you’re right he should have said it before he was elected, and said I’m a socialist, I believe in socialism, in communism, Nazism, whatever, and say this is where I want to lead the country — not do it underhandedly.”

OK, so we've got a woman who point blank calls the President and his supporters "seditious" and believes that the President believes in socialism, communism, Nazism, whatever".  What does Joe Walsh respond with?

“However you want to label or define it, don’t you think after three and a half years as a country now we have a really good idea where this President wants to go?” he said.

Profile in courage right there.  Because charges of sedition and going full swastika is "just a label" when applied to Democrats or the President.  You do understand that to millions of these folks, you don't count as American, or even human.  You don't belong in their country.  They would have you deported or strung up as a traitor or worse if it were up to them.

And you know what?  If we sit on our asses and don't vote and don't get the word out and don't oppose this idiocy, it will be up to them.  Because this ignorant, hateful woman?  Her vote counts precisely the same as your vote or mine, and she's going to vote.

Will you?

Don't think they believe there's a civil war going on in the US already?  They believe it.  Enough to say that in front of their congressman.  And if we do nothing, this country will be run by the people elected by women like this.  Period.

We're just 3 Senate seat losses and a White House loss from these folks controlling the whole ball of wax. 

Mull that over for a while. 

StupidiNews!

• A rare solar eclipse dazzled from central Asia to the US Midwest late yesterday as the moon and sun formed a "ring of fire".
• Virginia will become the first state with voter ID laws to issue identification to every voter, as well as to educate all voters on how to get the free IDs.
• Newly-minted billionaire and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerburg married his long-time girlfriend and med school graduate Priscilla Chan over the weekend.
• Kentucky's king of pork, GOP Rep. Hal Rogers, is apparently behind the Army spending $17,000 a piece for helicopter drip pans at a manufacturer in his district.
• Internet romance scams burn on average 15 Americans a day at a cost of nearly $9,000 a piece, according to new FBI figures.

Last Call

My twitter timeline blew up this morning when news that Newark Mayor Cory Booker said this on Meet The Press this morning (About the 6:30 mark):

Appearing on NBC’s “Meet The Press” on Sunday, Newark, New Jersey Mayor and Obama surrogate Cory Booker said he was “uncomfortable” with the Obama campaign’s attacks on Mitt Romney’s career with Bain Capital.

“It’s a distraction from the real issues,” Booker said, of both attacks on Bain and Rev. Jeremiah Wright. “It’s either gonna be a small campaign about this crap, or it’s gonna be a big campaign about the issues the American public cares about.”

“I’m not about to sit here and indict private equity,” Booker added. “If you look at the totality of Bain Capital’s record, they’ve done a lot to support businesses — to grow businesses. And this to me, I’m very uncomfortable.”

Cory? Bro? I love you, man, but equating the Obama campaign's attacks on Bain Capital to the attacks this week on the President about Rev. Wright is, how shall I say this gently? Complete bullshit?

If you're a surrogate for the Obama campaign and the RNC is happily quoting you, You're Doing It Wrong(tm).

Later on in the discussion, Jim Cramer comes out to the left of Booker on this and reminds us that, you know, Bain got rich by job un-creating a lot of people's jobs. Jim effing Cramer is the voice of reason? C'mon Cory, you're better than this.

And yes, I understand asking the Mayor of Newark to attack Wall Street is like asking a Kentucky or West Virginia Democratic Mayor to attack Big Coal. It's just not going to happen. But equating the Obama campaign's attacks on Bain to the Jeremiah Wright nonsense is way the hell over the line and I'm calling him out on it. Period, full stop.

Mayor Booker then followed up this afternoon with this mea culpa:



And he does admit that what he said wasn't exactly kosher. Good for him.

Evolution Revolution

NY Times reporter Michael Barbaro seems less than enthused about the NAACP publicly backing same-sex marriage as a civil right.

The largely symbolic move, made at the group’s meeting in Miami, puts the N.A.A.C.P. in line with President Obama, who endorsed gay marriage a little over a week ago. Given the timing, it is likely to be viewed as both a statement of principle as well as support for the president’s position in the middle of a closely contested presidential campaign. 

All but two of the organization’s board members, who include many religious leaders, backed a resolution supporting same-sex marriage, according to people told of the decision. 

Borrowing a term used by gay rights advocates, the resolution stated, “We support marriage equality consistent with equal protection under the law provided under the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution.” 

In a statement, Roslyn M. Brock, chairwoman of the 64-member board, said, “We have and will oppose efforts to codify discrimination into law.” 

A spokesman for the group declined to discuss a breakdown of how the board members voted. 

Yawn, ho-hum, NAACP backs same-sex marriage, "largely symbolic", doesn't matter, etc.   Melissa Harris-Perry and guest Aisha Moodie-Mills put the decision in perspective:



Seems to me that there's a lot more to this decision.  Most notably, as Melissa asked here, will gay rights organizations like GLAAD and HRC now return the favor and back the NAACP's stance on stopping GOP vote suppression?

I wouldn't hold my breath.

Employers Aren't Taking Advantage Of The Situation... Really

More and more attention is being paid to how businesses treat their workers.  Because there are so many seeking work, long-time employees who have earned enhanced benefits such as extra vacation through hard work and loyalty are being tossed for workers who would settle for less just to have work.

Now we have a woman who is suing because she was fired after sixteen years of work, because she was two minutes late to go to lunch.  Three times in eighteen months, she committed this royal offense.

But nooooo, we don't have a problem with workforce regulation.  Pay no attention to the facts, Target has no issues with employee expectations.

Margarita Arriaga alleged in a civil rights lawsuit in Sacramento federal court that she was fired because she was late going on lunch breaks after working at the Bronze Star Drive store more than 16 years.

Now 40, Arriaga worked as a cashier, shelf stocker and saleswoman. By the company's own account in court papers she was "well-liked by her managers and peers, and she received generally satisfactory performance evaluations."

She was fired, Target said in the papers, because she was late taking a meal break three times in 18 months – "an automatic ground for termination of any Target employee."

On one of those occasions, Arriaga was two minutes tardy. Target "makes no exception for 'two-minute violations,' " the company declared in court papers.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/05/19/4501130/target-settles-case-of-woodland.html#storylink=cpy

The Great Fall Of Chyna

Former wrestler Chyna passed out at a porn convention.  She is promoting her new flick, which is a chikka-chikka-pow-wow take on Wrestlemania.  She "dropped to the floor suddenly" as TMZ reports.    Sources quoted exhaustion as the reason, but it turns out she had been kicked out of a party the night before.  She had irritated other guests at the party and the final straw was when she jumped naked into the pool with a girlfriend, and then passed out in the pool.  She was returned to her room.

She managed to annoy guests at a porn convention kick-off party.  That took some effort.

She has known addiction issues, and some pretty hefty personal problems as well.  I actually think she's a pretty cool person who is being crushed by her personal demons.  When she is sober and having a sane moment, a really incredible woman is there.  It's beyond sad that woman gets such little chance to reach the surface.  Just about everyone knows an addict who can't quite break free, and that seems to be where she is stuck.

Just added by a TMZ update:

Former WWE superster Chyna collapsed at a porn convention in Miami today and taken to a nearby hospital ... TMZ has learned ... her third such episode in as many days. 

Chyna was appearing at the 2012 Exxxotica Expo to help promote Vivid Entertainment's porn parody of "Avengers" -- she plays She-Hulk (yes, really). A rep for Vivid tells TMZ the company was worried about her after yesterday's medical scare ... but Chyna insisted she was ok. 

That cites a different type of movie (even in a legit one, she'd be perfect as She-Hulk now that they mention it), but something is going on.  She is clearly not well.

The Dark Side

And if there's any doubt that Taylor Marsh is now very much not one of the good guys, she gives us our plan for Hillary 2016: Liz Cheney.

Why aren’t women on the right being more aggressive for a woman vice presidential nominee? 

Are they really going to settle for two men on the ticket? It’s so 20th century.

Is Sarah Palin’s disastrous candidacy actually going to make them miss this moment? A moment ripe to beat Pres. Obama, but which comes with a Republican nominee who’s a horrific political candidate that desperately needs a lift, someone who could appeal to the majority voting block, women.

When Mrs. Cheney was asked about her political ambitions on Fox News Channel, she demurred: “I’m really focused on defeating Barack Obama. We don’t have the luxury, frankly, of looking beyond this election.”

What better way to take on Obama than next to Mitt Romney?

So Romney wins with Liz Cheney as his veep, but don't worry, there's a greater good at work here other than the fact Romney would get to pick 2-4 SCOTUS justices and put a permanent end to liberalism in America.

Who wouldn’t pay to see Liz Cheney debate Joe Biden?

Marco versus Joe? That’s just funny, but the vetting sweepstakes would be a ball.

Oh, and what a vice presidential pit bull Liz would be, complete with lipstick.

If someone isn’t whispering in Mitt Romney’s ear about Elizabeth Cheney, I’d like to know why not.

This is my answer to Bill Kristol’s nauseating article for the Weekly Standard that once again trots out the ridiculous Obama-Hillary for 2012, because what he should be writing about is Elizabeth Cheney. He’s just distracted, because his main goal is to get Hillary Clinton tarred with the whole Obama – Romney 2012 disaster, which it will be no matter who is elected. Because if Bill Kristol and his back room boys aren’t worried about Hillary for 2016 they’re certifiable. They know she’s not sure if she’ll run, but they also realize if she does she’ll be a political bullet train.

She's so far gone that she'd now rather see Romney/Cheney in the White House than Obama/Clinton.  The woman is insane.  Her hatred for Barack Obama is so massive she's willing to give the country to the GOP just to create a disaster large enough that we'll all "demand" Hillary Clinton for President four years from now.

Complete.  Insanity.

Last Call

Want to know why Democrats are winning the battle for the White House and losing the war for Congress?  Here's your answer, plain and simple.

Conservative interest groups have dumped well over $20 million into congressional races so far this year, outspending their liberal opponents 4 to 1 and setting off a growing panic among Democrats struggling to regain the House and hold on to their slim majority in the Senate.

The surge suggests that big-spending super PACs and nonprofit groups, which have become dominant players in the presidential race, will also play a pivotal role in House and Senate contests that will determine the balance of power in Washington in 2013.

The money could be particularly crucial in races below the national radar that can be easily influenced by infusions of outside spending. One example came this week in Nebraska, where a dark-horse Republican Senate candidate upset two better-funded rivals in the GOP primary thanks in part to a last-minute, $250,000 ad buy by a billionaire-backed super PAC.

And in Indiana this month, veteran Sen. Richard G. Lugar was ousted in the GOP primary by challenger Richard Mourdock with the help of millions of dollars in spending by conservative groups. The Club for Growth, which backed a losing candidate in Nebraska, spent more than $2 million to help Mourdock in Indiana.

“We’re just getting started,” said Club for Growth spokesman Barney Keller, who said the group will soon begin training its fire on Democrats. “Our group has already had an impact on what the composition of Congress is going to look like next year. That’s our whole goal is to have an impact, to improve the gene pool in Congress.”

Once again we're now seeing the true aftermath of the January 2010 Citizens United decision.  It cost Democrats 60+ seats in the House.  It may very well cost them the Senate in 2012.  Unlimited money is pouring in to House and Senate races across the country as the one percent move to buy our government, one seat at a time.  It's even worse at the state level.

Not much we can do about it.  Other than VOTE, of course.

While we still can, that is.