• Hot Off The Presses - Politics, Schmolitics

    Teabagger @RepJoeWalsh Sluffing Obama’s Speech in Schaumburg UPDATE: 5 Media Vans!

    UPDATE: Maybe it’s a good thing I didn’t make a fuss about getting in – I was turned politely away by a nice lady who just kept repeating “It’s a Small. Businesss. Forum.” when I asked if it was open to the public. If I’d pressed the issue (could have claimed I’m a really, really SMALL business owner since I have a shop on Second Life’s Marketplace), I might have ended up like these people. When I got to the Prairie Center, there were FIVE media trucks, some guy with good hair smiling as he spoke on camera to the…

  • Hot Off The Presses - Politics, Schmolitics

    Norway Attacks: Targeting The Future of the Norwegian Labour Party?

    Daily Kos’ David Waldman points out that the horrific events in Norway were not just the acts of a right-wing terrorist – they were deliberately targeting the Norwegian Labour Party’s “Worker’s Youth League.” He likens it to sending a Terminator back in time to eliminate future Parliamentary opposition leaders. The truly stomach-turning aspect of the stunning terrorist attacks in Norway yesterday surely had to be the shooting spree that was initially reported—in English language outlets, anyway—to be at a “summer camp.” I had heard through the grapevine that the “camp” had a very distinct political affiliation, but it didn’t really…

  • Hot Off The Presses - Politics, Schmolitics

    The Tea Party Will Soon Be Over As Soon As The AstroTurf Funding Gets Pulled

    So sad. Another “national Tea Party convention” cancelled due to lack of interest… and funding, since it was billed as a true grassroots-organized event not supported by one of the AstroTurf groups that pay for the buses and the wall-to-wall FOX News coverage. Organizers of the Freedom Jamboree announced Wednesday that they have canceled the tea party convention planned for this fall, citing low registration. They had hoped the event would serve as a stage for Republican presidential candidates to court the conservative movement, and two — Rep. Michele Bachmann Minn. and former Sen. Rick Santorum Pa. — had already…

  • Hot Off The Presses - Politics, Schmolitics

    How Long Were News Hacks Hacking Phones?

    Something I missed before; the phone hack of murder victim Milly Dowler was back in 2002 according to this. I conflated it with the royal voicemail scandal, which is a different but likely related story. I’ll guess that journos and PIs have been figuring out how easy it is to navigate voicemails since the technology was invented. Maybe they found it more convenient and less risky than breaking in to homes and offices to listen to taped messages on the old first generation machines? Since many people never changed the default passwords on their analog and digital voicemails, it just…

  • Hot Off The Presses - Politics, Schmolitics

    How The Mighty Are Falling: Rupert Murdoch and the News of the World At The Tipping Point

    As a progressive who abhors the unprecedented and frighting hold Murdoch holds over Fox News, and by extension the radical Religious Right in the US, his fall from power as Britain’s “uncrowned king” can’t come soon enough. And with the latest news breaking that millions of emails pertinent to the scandal might have been deleted by a News International executive, it’s possible the scandal may jump the pond and take a few of Murdoch’s US institutions down AND even a family member or two. Oh, I hope so. I do hope so. And now, Andy Coulson has been arrested: he’s…

  • Hot Off The Presses - Politics, Schmolitics

    Another Company I Won’t Trade With: Target

    After some discussion tonight watching the feed from Netroots Nation, I realized that I don’t want to give my money to Target anymore. Too bad I already started wearing the underwear. I’ll just let it get really… ripe before I wash it, so there. Workers at a Long Island Target store have been attempting to form a union, an effort which comes to a vote on Friday. Target has been waging a pretty standard corporate anti-union campaign—which is to say, lots of intimidation. But now it’s taken a turn for the humorous. Gawker’s Hamilton Nolan, who has been doing stellar…

  • Hot Off The Presses - Politics, Schmolitics

    My Congressman @RepJoeWalsh Deserves Ignominious Defeat At The Polls In A Free and Fair Election

    That not-so-veiled threat the Chamber guy made was so dumb. It’s so much easier to just wish that Teabagger Joe doesn’t just get redistricted, he gets defeated handily in the upcoming election. Drat, that’s a Flash embed, won’t be visible on iPhone/iPad. Ah, fooey. From Think Progress, it looks like there’s a GOP civil war erupting after the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Tom Donahue made some not so veiled threats to Republican freshman House members who don’t want to raise the country’s debt ceiling. Illinois Representative and resident blowhard Joe Walsh and the Tea Party Patriots co-founder Mark Meckler appeared…

  • Good and Joyful Things - Politics, Schmolitics

    Chick-fil-A DO NOT WANT But They’re Coming Anyway

    This is not all that good and joyful: anti-gay corporate poultry product shills Chick-fil-A are building a restaurant near me, I’ll pass it every day. Ugh. Bet Chick-fil-A wishes this month would end. Over the past few weeks, the restaurant chain’s deep ties to the anti-gay movement have been exposed and uncovered by a number of activists, most notably Jeremy Hooper at Good As You. Whether it’s Focus on the Family, the National Organization for Marriage, the Pennsylvania Family Institute, or Exodus International, Chick-fil-A ties run deep. Of course, the President of Chick-fil-A wants gay people to share no hard…

  • Hot Off The Presses - Politics, Schmolitics - SABRE2th Tigress: Book 'em, Dano.

    Do Not Sass The Pilot Or Wear Droopy Drawers: It’s The Sky Law!

    Oh for CHRIST’S SAKE. Yes, security is important, but security theater is impotent. An entire US Airways flight was evacuated and the pilot placed a passenger under citizen’s arrest after he refused to pull up his baggy pants, reports NBC Bay Area.According to his mother, her son initially refused, saying that his hands were full. His mother says he then went to his seat where he pulled up his pants.The airline says the passenger refused to get off the plane and that’s when the pilot placed him under arrest. He was later charged by police with trespassing, battery and resisting…

  • Hot Off The Presses - Politics, Schmolitics

    A Year Of Spending Cuts and Tax Hikes Has Worsened The Recession… In Greece, Anyway

    For a second there, I thought she was talking about the US economy, which is in the terlet thanks to the Bush tax CUTS and the continuing War on Women and Children, reducing aid to poor families. Taxes. It seems whether you cut them or hike them, they cause problems for everybody. A year of spending cuts and tax hikes has worsened the recession, now in its third year. The unemployment rate among young people is around 40 percent. via Greek Economic Dilemma Evolves Into Political Crisis : NPR.