One of the Arizona shooting victims was arrested Saturday and then taken for a psychiatric evaluation after authorities said he took a picture of a tea party leader at a televised town hall meeting and yelled: “you’re dead.” (Jan. 15)
Continue reading …On the evening of the tragic shootings in Tucson, Fox News's Geraldo Rivera, like so many other liberal media members, went out of his way to connect the event to the Tea Party. Seven days later, the host of “Geraldo at Large” told his viewers, “There was a very public death threat today in Tucson that prompted police action. Ironically, it came from a hard-core liberal” (video follows with transcript and commentary): GERALDO RIVERA: This is a Fox News alert. Despite Mr. Obama’s appeal to our better angels, there was a very public death threat today in Tucson that prompted police action. Ironically, it came from a hard-core liberal. At a town hall meeting packed with eyewitnesses, concerned citizens and a member of Congress, Eric Fuller, a well-known left-wing activist, took a close-up photo of the local Tea Party spokesman Trent Humphries. Then Fuller said, “You're dead.” He was promptly arrested. Before I get to my exclusive interview with Jeb Bush, for more on what went down in Tucson today, Jason Ogan, a deputy for the Pima County sheriff's department, joins us live alongside a familiar face, or at least a familiar hairdo, Steven Caits, friend of the alleged mass murderer Jared Loughner. Steven was at today's town hall meeting. Tell us what happened. Tell us what was said and what you saw, Steven. STEVEN CAITS, FRIEND OF JARED LEE LOUGHNER: Well, when the representative from the Tea Party stood up to speak and he announced that he was from the Tea Party, Eric turned around with his camera. Eric was in the front row and the Tea Party spokesman was in the fourth row. Eric turned around with his camera, took the picture of the guy from the Tea Party, and said, “You're dead,” like you had said. RIVERA: And did he mean it? I mean, did it sound to you like a death threat, Steven? CAITS: It sounded, it sounded like “You're dead.” I mean, it didn't sound like a joke at all. Throughout the rest of the time that… RIVERA: Had he been a pain in the butt during this, during this town hall meeting? Had this guy, had he really interfered with what was going on? CAITS: People, people seemed pretty shocked at what he had said. There’s, there’s lots of whispers and there was someone next to me that had turned to Eric and said, “You know, now is not the time. This isn't appropriate. You need to sit down and be quiet. This isn't, this isn’t the time or place for this.” And he kept saying things like that whenever Eric would boo or, or make an interrupting noise at whatever the man from the Tea Party was saying. Ironically indeed, for this is what Rivera said almost exactly one week ago: One by one, all the dishonest points made by liberal media members to convince Americans this tragedy was caused by violent rhetoric from the Right are deliciously crumbling before their very eyes. It's almost like the final scene from “Murder on the Orient Express” when Hercule Poirot, with all the suspects in attendance, describes who killed Ratchet. Frankly, it's so entertaining, one can hardly wait for the next shoe to drop. Thankfully, as Scarlett O'Hara said at the end of “Gone With the Wind,” tomorrow is another day.
Continue reading …There she is, Miss America: Teresa Scanlan can’t legally vote, the AP notes, but the 17-year-old Nebraskan won enough to take the crown home to the Cornhusker state for the first time. “I want to be there making sure that I stand up for what’s right, stand up for integrity…
Continue reading …Google renewed a heated discussion when it said it was dropping H.264 support from Chrome’s HTML5 video tag last week, but it seems the company’s ready and willing to push its WebM alternative video format hard — not only is hardware decoder IP now available for the VP8 codec, but the project team is presently readying WebM plug-ins for Safari and Internet Explorer 9, neither of which include it themselves. As to the little matter of whether any of this is the right move for the web at large, we’ll paraphrase what Google had to say for itself: H.264 licenses cost money; Firefox and Opera don’t support H.264 either; and big companies like Google are helping the little guy by championing this open alternative. We have to say, the eternal optimist in us is cheering them on. Oh, and the linguist in us, too. Read Google’s own words at our source link, and decide for yourself. Google defends H.264 removal from Chrome, says WebM plug-ins coming to Safari and IE9 originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 16 Jan 2011 02:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Aaron Rodgers threw for 366 yards and three touchdowns, as Green Bay crushed Atlanta 48-21 Saturday night in the NFC playoffs. With the win, the Packers move on to the next weekend’s NFC title contest. (Jan. 16)
Continue reading …On NPR's On The Media on January 8, NPR's Bob Garfield assessed the tenure of White House spokesman Robert Gibbs with New York Times political reporter Mark Leibovich. Garfield's primary concern was Gibbs attacking the “professional left” for being unsatisfied. Garfield thought that was unnecessary, prodding Leibovich tout Team Obama's achievements: BOB GARFIELD: It seems to me that Gibbs may have observed that, but maybe deserves some of the blame? Was the dissatisfaction among that constituency partly the fault of Gibbs and the administration for not doing a better selling job? MARK LEIBOVICH: Look, there has been a widespread criticism of this White House, which is that it has a, quote, “communications problem,” that this is an administration that has legitimately accomplished a great deal, they've passed some historic legislation, and yet, has not, for whatever reason, been successful in promoting the good points of these accomplishments in a way that would make the American people truly understand what’s gone on. BOB GARFIELD: In fact, they've been on the defensive from the get-go, no? MARK LEIBOVICH: They have absolutely been on the defensive from the get-go. I think, to some degree, it’s unfair because, again, I don't think anyone has mastered the art of how to communicate in the environment that is today’s media. I think it’s telling that in the Press Secretary’s Office, in the closet, there is a flak jacket that has been passed down from every White House press secretary since Ron Nessen. BOB GARFIELD: Nessen, that’s Gerald Ford’s press secretary. MARK LEIBOVICH: Right, and only the acting press secretaries get to open the closet and see the flak jacket. And I think to some degree, you know, Robert Gibbs, in a very real sense, is on the front lines of the day-to-day battle of this media environment, in which there’s a lot of triviality and very, very short attention spans. And survival is probably the first job, and lack of embarrassment is probably the second job. And I think to some degree Robert Gibbs comes out of this with a career and future, and that’s probably, you know, at minimum, what you can hope for in a job that’s so fraught with peril. The odd concept in this discussion is that Team Obama was somehow embattled in the briefing room, as if they weren't surrounded by people that voted for them. The need for “flak jackets” differs widely depending on which party is holding the White House, and especially in the Era of Hope and Change.
Continue reading …In Case You Missed It of the Day: The fact that Miss Arkansas, AKA yodeling ventriloquist Alyse Eady, didn’t win the 2011 Miss America Pageant is the greatest travesty since the somewhat-terrifying Miss Nebraska, Teresa Scanlan, did. [ jmg .] Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : The Daily What Discovery Date : 16/01/2011 05:23 Number of articles : 6
Continue reading …The Pittsburgh Steelers and Green Bay Packers are moving on in the NFL playoffs: The Steelers beat the Baltimore Ravens 31-24 despite trailing 21-7 at halftime. As bad as Pittsburgh was in the first half, the Ravens were worse in the second. Pittsburgh scored three times on three Baltimore turnovers,…
Continue reading …Remember that hugely ambitious “virtual fence” that the US Homeland Security department was so keen on blowing a few billion dollars on? Well, following a bunch of setbacks and delays in its development, it’s now been determined to be too darn expensive and is being scrapped. That’s not without splashing some cash, however, as it’s estimated that a billion dollars has already been spent on installing sensor towers along a 53-mile stretch of the Arizona border with Mexico. The plan now is to redirect funds to more conventional (and commercially available) surveillance measures, such as thermal imaging and unmanned aerial drones, which is estimated to cost $750 million to cover the remaining 323 miles of Arizona’s border. Whatever happens, keeping illegal immigration and contraband smuggling to a minimum isn’t going to be a cheap task. Almost makes you wonder if this isn’t a problem better solved by non-technological means. US opts to derez virtual fence along Mexico border, replacing it with more affordable measures originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 15 Jan 2011 23:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …It looks like Dell isn’t quite sure what to do with Adamo . First, the MacBook Air competitor was bumped from Dell’s marketing roster, then it was reduced from $999 to $899, and now it’s got a price tag of $799. Unfortunately, the price isn’t all Dell is slashing: last October the Adamo was sporting a 2.1GHz Core 2 Duo SL9600 processor and 4GB of DDR3-800 memory, now we’re told it’s functioning on a 1.4GHz Core Duo 2 SU9400 and 2GB of DDR3-800 (with no upgrade option that we can find). Everything else is basically the same for the little guy, and Dell’s Adamo page still offers the suggestion, “Prepare to Fall in Love,” but we’re not entirely sure we’re the ones who need convincing. Dell Adamo now even cheaper, slightly less powerful originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 15 Jan 2011 23:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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