This reminds me of the old joke headline: “World to end tomorrow; Women and Minorities Hardest Hit”

“We found an unusually high number of reports that the Clinton campaign was insisting that 11:30 was the deadline,” said general counsel Bob Bauer, adding that at least 300 complaints had come in.

“We are not calling the results into question at all. We want to make sure this doesn’t happen again,” Bauer said.

“We are going to notify the Nevada Democratic party that we want a full review of this, and make sure we have in front of us a full picture to make sure this behavior is highlighted and discouraged in the future.”

Asked by reporters why an early close would have particularly affected Obama supporters, Bauer said “a campaign that departs from the rules and disenfranchises voters has to be held accountable for that.”

He added: “We care about all the voters who would have been affected by this rule.”

Yeah. Sure you do.

I didn’t see anyone worrying about how it gives people an unfair advantage to work in the casinos… I mean, that would make it much easier for a Casino worker to vote than anyone else in the state… Is it possible we’re “overenfranchising” instead of disenfranchising? Nah… Can’t be because those rules were expected to benefit Barack Obama in which case any positively influential actions are just removing the glass cieling and affirmative action.

The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey finds Mitt Romney with a slight lead in Florida’s Republican Presidential Primary. John McCain and Rudy Giuliani are close behind in what may develop into a three-man race. It’s Romney at 25%, McCain at 20%, and Giuliani at 19%. Romney has picked up seven points over the past week while McCain and Giuliani each inched up a point.

Source

Only an idiot (read: Only someone who writes at Metroblogging) could write something this utterly stupid:

In a phrase — not good
In a preview to Mayor Bloomberg’s “State of the City” address, ABC’s NJ Burkett said that Bloomberg will not raise property taxes. While that is good news for owners of homes, condos, and co-ops, it’s terrible news in other ways. First, it will mean budget cuts for the city payrolls, i.e. police officers, firefighters, teachers, and other city employees. Which leads to less disposable income, causing belt-tightening. Which eventually leads to less discretionary and luxury spending. Which either leads to less purchases, keeping things like cars and appliances longer rather than replacing them. Which eventually leads to layoffs in the retail sector. Which leads to……..etc,

And all this happens as NYers are looking at higher mass-transit fares, still-expensive gas, and higher tolls on NJ roads. OR, it COULD lead to more buying on credit, and bills they won’t be able to pay later. The ramifications for the NYC Metro area are endlessly scary!

What the fuck is this idiot smoking? And I have to wonder if deep down she isn’t just a little bit bitter. Judging by her views, I’d be willing to bet she rents (because God knows she wouldn’t dare “own”) and lives somewhere in Brooklyn where you can find hipsters on each corner (probably Williamsburg, Park Slope or some other section of the city). The idea that lowering property taxes is a bad thing because of the other “effects” it’ll have on the economy makes me laugh, but her attitude toward “those people” is very typical of the kind of shit you come across in a city where there are very few owners and the people who can’t afford to be them are petulant and vindictive children.

Update: Oh, and just for shits and giggles, I found an old conversation with a bunch of armchair revolutionary douchebags on flickr about egging people’s cars. Seems they demonstrate exactly what I was saying earlier: No respect for other people’s property because they themselves own none.

If you’re going to see Cloverfield this week, do yourself a favor. Sit on a sit and spin with your digital camera, scream a lot as you go around and around in circles, then zoom in really tight on a wall and keep yelling over and over again “Are you okay?” If you want to really enhance the effect, light some toy soldiers and model buildings on fire and put a gray sweater on your dog. When you’re done with that, pop the SD card into your computer, play it back in QuickTime Player, and enjoy. You just made Cloverfield.

After seeing the very first teaser trailer, the words “can’t miss” were emblazened into my brain. There was no way this movie could be bad. If everything else failed, the concept alone could salvage it. A monster movie shot from the first-person point of view couldn’t be bad. We’d feel the terror of the people involved. We’d feel fear. We’d mourn the loss of our city.

In the end?

Nothing.

Understand, it wasn’t that I didn’t get it. I knew what to expect. Handheld cam monster movie in NYC. Hell, it isn’t rocket science, so anyone who criticizes you for not liking the movie by telling you that you didn’t get it probably is so wrapped up in what the movie meant they didn’t catch how God awful it was and how horribly it failed. Spoilers to follow. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

1. The characters are awful. They’re not likeable, relatable, and so on. I didn’t care about them. Seeing most of them die within 20 minutes of the movie did nothing for me. I didn’t even feel bad for them.

2. The movie, overall, is stupid. In one scene, Rob, the guy who should’ve left for Japan one day earlier, makes his way into the cockeyed building his love interest lives in and fines her laying on the floor with a piece of rebar poking through her chest. He and the other two people left from the party (including Hud, the camera man) pull her off the rebar and she proceeds to walk out of the building and later runs from the monster on foot. RUNS. With a hole in her chest from a piece of rebar. Not even remotely believable.

And of course, after they run into the subway initially to avoid a monster attack (before the above scene), they decide that in the damn dark they’re going to trudge from Spring Street to 59th street (a walk of roughly 4 miles) through the tunnels of the subway during an alien attack. Hey. What could go wrong? Dark tunnels during an alien attack? Sounds perfectly safe to me!

Are they fucking retarded?

Yes.

3. The military begins evacuating the city and our party meets with the military airlift out of the city. For an inexplicable reason, Lilly makes it onto one chopper and is lifted out. Rob, Beth, and Hud don’t make it onto that helicopter and are put onto a second helicopter. The jackass flying the helicopter doesn’t fly high enough causing it to be within swatting range of the alien. Need I say what happens next? No. You already know.

4. So the helicopter hits the ground with lots of “are you okay?” shit. “Are you okay?” should’ve been the tagline of the movie because it’s all you hear for over an hour. “Are you okay? Are you okay? Are you okay?” Hud (the camera tool) drags Rob out with Beth’s help. The monster appears behind Hud, looks him dead in the eye, and chews him up and spits him out leaving him dead on the floor. Rob and Beth grab the camera and run to hide. Rob gives his final summation of what happened, Beth and him clutch, the bombing destruction of NYC begins and after an orange flash, a bit of footage from prior use of the camera with Rob and Beth during happier times at Coney Island. Then the credit roll.

5. The monster shots are okay, but not terribly interesting. Expected more. The military fighting the monster on the street was dumb but sounded great. The idea that the military would go after this creature that’s about 40-50 stories tall with ground troops had me scratching my head. That’s not even remotely believable.

In the end, Cloverfield is a movie stuck more on the concept than on the movie. We get it. Shaky cam average person footage. That’s the point. I just expected better. Blair Witch was much scarier and felt much more desperate and urgent and there never was one second worth of footage of any “Witch” in the entire movie. The terror was much more palpable, the fear more dense, and the movie itself was light years ahead. Oh yeah, and it probably cost exponentially less to produce. Imagine that.

There’s one easy thing they could’ve done to make Cloverfield infinitely better but they were so full of the concept, they probably never even thought of it…

They supposedly found Rob’s camera in the area formerly known as Central Park. What if they also found other cameras, or spliced in various footage from other “witnesses”? Surely an event like this would’ve been heavily covered by cell phone cameras, video cameras, still cameras… What if instead of presenting us with Rob’s camera, they presented us with a collage / collection of footage collected by the Department of Defense? More angles, more explanation, and more depth.

Instead, JJ Abrams is such a self-absorbed douche that he couldn’t see past the “concept” to make a good movie. Cloverfield was a massive disappointment. It’s the best example of a director and production team too caught up in their gimmick to make a good movie. The movie falls flat on its face in many respects. The characters are God-awful. The monster destruction stuff is unsatisfying, and the “stuff” that happens is implausible and ridiculous.

In other words, a “can’t miss” movie fails in epic fashion to deliver the goods.

Oversensitivity is the order of the day, lately. You can’t mention nooses now without arousing the anger of some crazy militant black person. In a recent discussion on the Golf Channel, a broadcaster made a joke (an admittedly tasteless one, but a joke nonetheless) about the only way to beat Tiger Woods involving a rope and a tree branch. Of course, this required immediate dsiciplinary action because black people (and in this case, out of convenience for offense, Tiger is black, not some bizarre mix) are to be protected and coddled like little children.

But that wasn’t the end of it. Golf Magazine ran a cover, and on the cover was a picture of a noose because, well hell, that’s what got the Golf Channel person fired.

What happened?

The editor of Golfweek magazine said he was overwhelmed by negative reaction to the photo of a noose on the cover of this week’s issue, illustrating a story about the suspension of a Golf Channel anchor for using the word “lynch” in an on-air discussion about how to beat Tiger Woods.

“We knew that image would grab attention, but I didn’t anticipate the enormity of it,” Dave Seanor, vice president and editor of the weekly magazine, said from the PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando, Fla.

“There’s been a huge, negative reaction,” he said. “I’ve gotten so many e-mails. It’s a little overwhelming.”

Among the critics was PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem, who said he found the imagery to be “outrageous and irresponsible.”

“It smacks of tabloid journalism,” Finchem said in a statement. “It was a naked attempt to inflame and keep alive an incident that was heading to an appropriate conclusion.”

An attempt to inflame? Where was all the worry about inflaming when the hairtriggers immediately suspended Kelly Tilghman in a complete overreaction to an off-the-cuff remark?

It’s amazing how all of a sudden even the mere mention of a noose can be considered appropriate. This is classic thought police material, folks.

• Dark Force - The Terrifying and Tragic Story of the Bean Family by William J. Bean Jr.
  Just saw this guy’s story on A Haunting on Discovery Channel. What an incredible story. Gonna buy this book. Definitely.
  (tags: bill bean haunting ghosts paranormal)

I’m sure Daddy is really proud…

A 2005 gender discrimination claim against East Hardin Middle School has been settled out of court. Melissa Barner, mother of Bobby Thorn, agreed to a settlement that included a $3,000 cash payment and requires East Hardin’s staff to undergo nondiscrimination training.

The principal, teachers and Jo Edwards, the former cheerleading coach who works as a school counselor, also must report to the commission any claims of discrimination made against the school in the next three years.

The discrimination claim Barner filed with the Kentucky Commission on Human Rights accused Edwards, the school’s former cheerleading coach, of not allowing a boy on the squad solely because of his gender.

“It wasn’t ever about money,” Barner said.

School officials denied any wrongdoing.

Her son, Bobby Thorn, now 13, has been cheering since he was 6½ and is an avid gymnast.

Barner said students and parents knew Bobby would try out for the squad, so it should have been no surprise for the school.

After three days of tryouts in the spring of 2005, Bobby, then 10, learned he had not been chosen.

“He cried for 45 minutes,” Barner said. “It broke his spirit.”

Honestly, good for the kid. I’m sure he’ll put that $3,000 toward charity since it wasn’t about the money to begin with *cough* and continue his meteoric rise to gymnastic and cheerleading fame and fortune.

But, “nondiscrimination training?” Honestly, has that ever been proven to actually do anything? Have these programs ever actually turned someone around? Or has it just taught them to be much more clever in how they discriminate.

My guess is that it’s much more of the latter.

So, yet again, another advance in Stem Cells has been made that doesn’t involve destroying an embryo. Why haven’t you heard about it? Well, chances are your news sources have a template for stem cell stories that’s only half the actual story.

The template usually consists of a few things.

1. They let you believe that the evil Christian lunatics in this country have made stem cell research illegal.

2. They let you believe that the only advancements being made in the field are with embryonic stem cells.

3. They let you believe that embryonic stem cells will cure everything from caivities to paralysis.

4. They let you believe that nothing can be done if the federal government doesn’t fund embryonic stem cell research.

As I’ve chronicled on numerous occasions right here on this very blog, there are lots of advancements being made and yet very few are getting the time of day with the alphabet networks, including this one that Reuters kinda posted…

A company that devised a way to make embryonic stem cells using a technique it said does not harm human embryos reported on Thursday it has grown five batches of cells using this method and urged President George W. Bush to endorse it.

Massachusetts-based Advanced Cell Technology has been working with a method sometimes used to test embryos for severe genetic diseases. Called preimplantation genetic diagnosis, it involves taking a single cell from an embryo when it contains only eight or so cells.

The method usually does not harm the embryo, which is frozen for possible future implantation into the mother’s womb. The ACT team also froze the embryos and used the single cell that was removed as a source of human embryonic stem cells.

Dr. Robert Lanza, ACT’s scientific director, said it provides a way to create mass quantities of embryonic stem cells without harming a human embryo. Current stem cell technologies require the embryo’s destruction.

“This is a working technology that exists here and now. It could be used to increase the number of stem cell lines available to federal researchers immediately,” Lanza said by e-mail. “We could send these cells out to researchers tomorrow.”

You would think this would be a glorious breakthrough, right? Embryonic stem cells without destroying the actual embryo! PARTY AT MY PLACE!

Nothing.

Zip.

Barely a murmur.

Why?

Because it’s an election year, and this kind of technology doesn’t play well for the media who have banked on people being uninformed about stem cell research and relying on them to drill the afforementioned template into their heads long enough for it to become “truth.”

John Kerry, 2004:

I can choose only one running mate, and this morning I have done so.

I have chosen a man who understands and defends the values of America; a man who has shown courage and conviction, as a champion for middle class Americans, and for those struggling to reach the middle class; a man who has shown guts and determination and political skill in his own race for the presidency of the United States; a man whose life has prepared him for leadership and whose character brings him to exercise it.

I am pleased to announce that, with your help, the next vice president of the United States of America will be Senator John Edwards from North Carolina.

[...]

This campaign for the presidency really began — this campaign — now, wait, we’ve got plenty of those. Don’t worry. We’ve got four months for you to get a hold of those things. We’re going to get them around.

This campaign for the presidency really began two years ago, and throughout those two years, as well as for four years before that, I have worked with John Edwards, side by side and sometimes head to head.

I’ve seen John Edwards think, argue, advocate, legislate and lead for six years now. I know his skill. I know his passion. I know his strength. I know his conscience. I know his faith.

He has honored the lessons of home and family that he learned in North Carolina. And he brings those values to shape a better America together with all of us.

John Edwards is ready for this job. He is ready for this job.

Oh wow. Gushy. He really liked John back then. He was really “ready.”

Either he was full of shit then (most likely) or John Edwards has completely gone off the reservation (not likely considering he’s still spouting off the same tired stories as he did in 2004, the only difference being he’s doing it now on top of the bodies of Katrina victims instead of on top of the bodies of dead girls he channels while suing doctors)…

Barack Obama is being endorsed by fellow Sen. John Kerry, the Democrats’ 2004 presidential nominee who lost to George W. Bush that year with John Edwards as his running mate and gave up his own plans for a 2008 run a year ago.

Kerry, a senator from Massachusetts, planned to announce his support Thursday at a rally with Obama at the College of Charleston, arguing that the Illinois senator can best unite the country, said a Democrat familiar with the decision. Kerry was timing his announcement before South Carolina’s Jan. 26 primary, a contest that has taken on extra importance for Obama after Hillary Rodham Clinton beat him in New Hampshire.

So you run with the guy in 2004, and in the announcement you say this:

As so many of you know, throughout this campaign, John talked about the great divide in America, the two Americas that exists between those who are doing very well and those who are struggling to make ends meet in our country.

That concern is at the center of this campaign. It is what it is all about. It is what the 35 years of my struggle have been about. And I am so proud that together John Edwards and I are now going to fight to build one America for all Americans.

And now in 2008 you tell us that someone else entirely is the best person to do that?

This brings two things to mind immediately…

1. John Edwards never really was that good a choice for Vice President.

2. John Kerry has no integrity and loyalty whatsoever and he’s just as slimy as I thought he was back in 2004.

It’ll be interesting to see, when his office gets around to releasing a press release, exactly what his rationale is and how it conflicts with his rationale for choosing Edwards in 2004.

I can’t wait.

• Obama’s paranoia factor
  Mr. completely open, honest and transparent? Not exactly.
  (tags: 2008 election journalism paranoia politics president Obama)
• Blog Oh Blog
  Nice WP Themes and stuff. Go check ‘em out!
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Boy, if this doesn’t reinforce what I’ve been saying for weeks, nothing does. Brian Williams, who I do actually trust somewhat compared to his colleagues on CBS and ABC, had this to say:

WILLIAMS: I interviewed Lee Cowan, our reporter who covers Obama, while we were out yesterday and posted the interview on the web. Lee says it’s hard to stay objective covering this guy. Courageous for Lee to say, to be honest. The e-mail flood started out we caught you guys, we never did trust you. That kind of thing. I think it is a very interesting dynamic. I saw middle-aged women just throw their arms around Barack Obama, kiss him hard on the cheek and say, you know, I’m with you, good luck. And i think he feels it, too.

It’s so hard, you don’t even bother trying, right Lee?

I should note that today, Williams tried to backpedal a bit…

Lee was talking about the swirl of excitement that has hit the Obama campaign after Iowa — the crowds, the hoopla — all of it. Today we learned that rival political efforts were spinning this as some kind of “bias” on the part of either Lee, or me, or this News Division, and that’s just ridiculous. My response is as it always is in these situations: look at it again, listen to what’s being said, and judge us by the quality and fairness of our journalism.

Oh really? Is it ridiculous?

The media is clearly on the side of Barack Obama and anyone claiming the contrary deserves a smack in the face. Barack Obama gets favorable coverage at a much higher clip than any other candidate in the race (Don’t believe me? Read here) and NBC is no different than ABC or CBS.

CNN didn’t even call the primary in favor of Hillary Clinton last night until almost 20 minutes after the AP did. Had Barack Obama not conceded, we’d probably still be waiting for CNN to declare a winner.

Any reporter who says it’s “hard to stay objective” when reporting for one of many news organizations whose objectivity is questionable is probably speaking more truth than they’re willing to admit. I don’t trust the media to give me the straight dope on Obama in the least.

Maybe they’re all just finding it really hard to be objective.

Barack Obama in a speech in New Hampshire actually said the following:

“I’ve had people, High School students, come up to me and say Mr. Obama, I’m voting for the first time! This is so exciting!”

The implication, of course, is that they’ve ignored their obligation to vote all those prior years they were in High School.

I don’t know about you, but I was 18 when I graduated High School. I reckon most people are.

My point? Most people who are High School students vote for the first time when they vote.

Just sayin’.

• End Of Ze World
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• Computer Stupidities: Operating Systems
  (tags: articles computer computers funny fun geek humor humour support tech)

I swear to God, I want to get right in his face and spit in it. He tramples on graves like no other ambulance chasing piece of garbage I’ve ever seen.

Tonight that piece of garbage took the stage and told the sad story of Nataline Sarkisyan. You’ll remember Nataline’s story. She had insurance and leukemia. Her doctors recommended a liver transplant, but Cigna refused, and then after massive protests relented and allowed the surgery, but it was too late, and Nataline died.

John Edwards spoke of her story as if it were emblematic of what was wrong with this country. While I’ve taken the position on numerous occasions right here on this blog that we need to deal with the problem of insured people not getting the care they need, this sensational case that everyone is latching onto isn’t necessarily the best outcome.

Why?

Because Cigna may have agreed with other doctors who believed that the surgery, given Nataline’s fragile health, may have been futile.

In a Dec. 11 letter to Cigna, four doctors had appealed to the insurer to reconsider. They said patients in similar situations who undergo transplants have a six-month survival rate of about 65%.

One of Nataline’s doctors, Robert Venick, declined to comment on her case. UCLA Medical Center staff refused to make her other doctors available for comment.

The case raised the question among at least one medical expert over whether a liver transplant is a viable option for a leukemia patient because of the immune-system-suppressing medication such patients must take to prevent organ rejection.

Such medication, while preserving the transplanted liver, could make the cancer worse.

Transplantation is not an option for leukemia patients because the immunosuppressant drugs “tend to increase the risk and growth of any tumors,” said Dr. Stuart Knechtle, who heads the liver transplant program at the University of Wisconsin at Madison and was not commenting specifically on Nataline’s case.

The procedure “would be futile,” he said.

Futile.

Like John Edwards’ attempts to drag dead bodies out onto the stage with him to win an election.

What a piece of trash. Anyone who votes for this guy needs their head checked.

Taylor Hicks might have won “American Idol,” but he doesn’t have his record deal anymore.
Hicks

Taylor Hicks was boosted by his “Soul Patrol” on “American Idol.”

The soul singer, who claimed the “Idol” title in 2006, has apparently been dropped by J Records, a label within Sony-BMG, which signs the show’s singers.

“Taylor is going to record on his own for the next album,” said J Records publicist Liz Morentin, who did not give further details regarding Hicks.

[...]

While it sold a respectable 699,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan data, it did not reach the 1 million mark, unlike all the other debuts from previous “Idol” champs. It also did not register a hit song, unlike other “Idol” winners.

Epic.

Fail.

via Dave

Link to the actual book.

I’m so jealous of these 14 year old kids that get to boff their cute teacher… I never was that lucky…

Beth Ann Chester, a teacher in the Moon Area School District, has admitted to having sexual intercourse with a 14-year-old student, Moon police said today.
Beth Ann Chester

Ms. Chester, 26, is scheduled to have a preliminary hearing tomorrow on nine charges that she sent lewd text messages and nude photos of herself to the boy.

Moon police Chief Leo McCarthy said today at least one additional charge of sexual assault will made against Ms. Chester when she appears for her preliminary hearing.

“She waived her Miranda rights and admitted to having sexual intercourse with the boy in her car,” Chief McCarthy said in an interview this morning.

He said the sexual encounter happened in a school parking lot after an activity. Moon detectives were trying to determine the date.

“At the absolute minimum, there will be one new charge against her,” Chief McCarthy said.

Ms. Chester, of Scott, submitted a letter of resignation to the Moon district on Dec. 27. But she remains on the public payroll because the school board has yet to meet on personnel changes, the district solicitor said.

*sigh*

Hillary Clinton is having none of Saint Barack and the love-fest that’s following him from city to city…

“You know, today Senator Obama used President John F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to criticize me. He basically compared himself to our greatest heroes because they gave great speeches.

“President Kennedy was in Congress for 14 years. He was a war hero. He was a man of great accomplishments and readiness to be president. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led a movement. He was gassed. He was beaten. He was jailed. And he gave a speech that was one of the most beautifully, profoundly important speeches ever written in America, the “I have a dream” speech.

“And then he worked with President Johnson to get the civil rights laws passed, because the dream couldn’t be realized until finally it was legally permissible for people of all colors and backgrounds and races and ethnicities to be accepted as citizens.

“I’m running for president because I believe that there is not a contradiction between experience and change.”

And just like that, she proves how empty Mr. Obama really is.

Well-put.

The boys over at Stop the ACLU had a great clip of Presidential candidate Duncan Hunter showing up unannounced for Morning Joe, and taking jabs at the media who have pretty much ignored his candidacy (yet another case of the media deciding who’s coverage worthy; see yesterday’s story about Fox News and Ron Paul).

Watch the clip… The whole thing is entertaining as Chris Matthews stews like dinner in a crockpot, but take a good listen because at around 1:06, Chris Matthews summarizes his agitation with Duncan Hunter brilliantly.

No matter what the subject is, the fairy tale story is the draw.

Chris Matthews just proved it.