August, 2012 archive
“Don’t Get Sick. If You Do Get Sick, Die Quickly.” 0
In Wingnut World, health care, like car elevators and dancing horses, is a luxury for the rich.
Everybody Must Get Fracked 0
What you don’t know can’t hurt them: peeping through the screen of smoke.
Actually, Apache’s transparency was shot through with cracks. In Texas and Oklahoma, the company reported chemicals it used on only about half its fracked wells via FracFocus.org, a voluntary website that oil and gas companies helped design amid calls for mandatory disclosure.
Energy companies failed to list more than two out of every five fracked wells in eight U.S. states from April 11, 2011, when FracFocus began operating, through the end of last year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Failed to list two out of five wells–If you get a hit every two out five at bats in the Bigs, you end up in the Hall of Fame.
All the News that Fits 2
Some Guy with a Website finds campaign press coverage lacking.
He has a point, you know.
Major media does not call out the lies until and unless they have no choice.
The Republican War on Women 0
Gina Barreca poses a question to Romney and Ryan:
That is exactly what Republican candidate for vice-president Paul Ryan said in his speech this morning: he emphasized the need for America to take back its right to choose.
Americans, he implied, know what’s best for ourselves. We are a smart and responsible people. We want the government off our backs and out of our wallets, Paul Ryan’s message implied.
Isn’t it right to assume that, if we want the government out of off our backs and out of our wallets, we’d also want the government out our wombs, away from our cervices, and out of our vaginal area generally?
B-b-b-b-but, in Wingnut World, wimmens is different.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Another outbreak of politeness is in the news, this one in Texas:
News 3 is en-route to an officer involved shooting in College Station.
Reports via police scanner say it’s near Fidelity and Highland streets.
It appears that the shooter is shooting from a house with automatic weapons.
Scanner traffic indicates that at least two officers are down.
The budding Amy Vanderbilt is reported to be in custody.
Update: It looks like the wannabe Amy ain’t giving no more etiquette lessons.
Every city, Dodge City. Every hill, Boot Hill.
Via Balloon Juice.
Training Tails 0
Farewell to the quadrennial athletic marketing event.
Misty Watercolored Memories 0
Shaun Mullen, in a long and thoughtful post explaining Why Mitt Romney’s Assertion That He Can Fix The Economy Is Flapdoodle, lists three things Republicans hope you will forget:
- That the president has been handicapped at every turn by obdurate Republicans like Ryan who would rather see him suffer in the polls than pitch in to turn the economy around.
- That even in this era of truth twisting, Romney and his handlers have lied continuously and shamelessly on an epic scale about virtually everything, including his own private-sector record.
- That Romney’s tenure as a venture capitalist who destroyed jobs no more qualifies him as an able steward of the economy than it did Herbert Hoover.
Read the rest for the full flapdoodle.
And the Racism’s On! 0
The rightwing commentariat’s joy over Paul Ryan’s tremendous intellect’s winning the Republican veepstakes illustrates how deeply the Republican Party has wrapped itself in ideological bubble-wrap.
The Republican strategists who aren’t completely wrapped in bubbles know that economic ideology, especially sadistic economic ideology, doesn’t generally win American elections, but that bigotry can, has, and does, so expect a torrent of racist dogwhistles over the next three months.
(This is a slightly reworked version of a comment I made in this thread. It’s my comment; I can rescue it.)
Facebook Frolics, Take the Money and Run Dept. 0
Hollow hype comes back to haunt:
(snip)
Investors including Goldman Sachs, Microsoft and Accel Partners, which together control more than 200 million shares in the owner of the largest social network, can begin selling them on Aug. 16 for the first time since the May 17 initial public offering, according to a regulatory filing. It’s the first in a wave of lockup expirations in the coming months that will quadruple the number of shares that can be traded.
The story goes on to point out that Facebook’s stock plunge is the worst among all large IPOs on record.
Pivotal Events 1
Remember way back when, oh, maybe three or four months ago, the punditocracy was all over Mitt flipping back towards the center?
Well, as The Richmonder points out, it ain’t happening, folks.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Honor freedom of religion, courteously.
Police confiscated a “high-velocity air rifle” from the home of David Conrad, who lives just east of the mosque. He was charged with three counts of aggravated discharge of a firearm and one count of criminal damage to property, all felonies. He’s scheduled for a bond hearing on Monday.
Maybe penicillin will help.
Citizens Benighted, Chamber of Horrors Dept. 0
Donald Luzzatto, writing in my local rag, is fed up the the U. S. Chamber of Commerce’s ad campaign on behalf of George “Macaca” Allen:
When another political commercial interrupted running or diving or soccer, he had had enough: “How can they say that?” he asked, incredulous. “It’s just not true!”
This kid is no innocent. He knows how to consume media with skepticism and doubt. But he also knows there are rules about what people selling stuff can say. Because of that, he’s unaccustomed to straight-up lying from TV commercials. Let alone from guys who want to be president or a senator.