No Tears For AZ Shooting Victims From John Boehner–He’s Got A Cocktail Party Fundraiser To Host
January 13, 2011 No Comment
enlarge Credit: Think Progress Priorities, people. President Obama, the First Lady and several members of the House of Representatives boarded Air Force One en route to the memorial service for the victims of the Tucson shooting tonight. But Speaker of the House John Boehner isn’t one of them. He’s got a previous engagement: an RNC cocktail party fundraiser. No, I’m not kidding : Speaker John Boehner will host a cocktail party for the Republican National Committee at the same time that President Barack Obama will be addressing the nation at the memorial service for victims of the Tucson shooting. The Ohio Republican is holding a 7 p.m. cocktail reception Wednesday night for 168 RNC members, who are in the Washington area for an annual meeting. The event is sponsored by Boehner’s political action committee and will take place at Maryland’s National Harbor resort. The RNC party coincides with the 8 p.m. EST memorial ceremony at the University of Arizona in Tucson, where Obama will honor the victims of Saturday’s shooting rampage that left six dead and 14 wounded, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), who is in critical condition. A Boehner aide said the Speaker plans to leave the RNC party before Obama begins his remarks. Well, isn’t that sensitive of him? According to Ben Smith of the Republico. ..er, the Politico , Boehner is expected to use this time gathering money to tout lobbyist Maria Cino for RNC chair. You know, nothing says ‘bringing a change to Washington’ than promoting a lobbyist at a party. No, really, I’m serious. In the old days, the lobbyist would be bringing the congressperson to the party, to promote their cause. Congrats to Boehner for turning that old canard on its ear.
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International jet-set elite, your new phone is here! That’s right, Vertu and Ferrari have teamed up yet again to produce the phone that serves two important purposes: showing the world that you own a Ferrari, and showing the world that you don’t need a phone that does much besides receiving calls from your accountant. Essentially the recently announced Ascent refresh , this bad boy features a 2-inch QVGA sapphire crystal display and quadband 3G. The case itself is constructed from forged titanium with a matte black PVD finish and the same hand stitched leather as the interior of the car it’s inspired by. But you better be fast! Only 2,011 will be made. (Get it?) Hit the source link to order three or four for yourself. [Thanks, James] Vertu Ascent Ti Ferrari is a celebration of extreme self-indulgence originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 13 Jan 2011 11:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …NYT’s Nagourney Suggests Gov. Brewer, Opposition to Obama-Care and Illegals Led to Toxic Atmosphere in AZ
January 13, 2011 No Comment
Two days in a row, New York Times reporter Adam Nagourney has suggested that Arizona’s heated conservative rhetoric may have created a toxic atmosphere for gunman Jared Loughner to function in. Yesterday Nagourney commented on a speech by Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer the day before addressing the shootings in Tucson, in an article with the leading headline “Governor Strives to Restore Arizona’s Reputation.” As if Arizona bore some blame for anything one of its six million residents may have done. Her remarks, a downstate reprise of the official State of the State address she gave to lawmakers in Phoenix on Monday, illustrate the challenges Ms. Brewer faces. She is eagerly trying to defend a state whose reputation has been battered in recent years, particularly since the massacre here on Saturday. But fairly or not, Arizona’s image has been forged in part because of Ms. Brewer herself, who has been identified with the tough law aimed at illegal immigrants, budget cuts that include denying aid to people who need life-saving transplants and laws permitting people to take concealed guns into bars and banning the teaching of ethnic studies in public schools. read more
Continue reading …Sea Shepherd Prevents Japanese Whalers From Receiving Supplies, Refueling
January 13, 2011 No Comment
image: Animal Planet An update from the Southern Ocean and the activities of Sea Shepherd in harassing the Japanese whaling fleet: According to the latest reports Sea Shepherd’s scout ship Gojira has intercepted a Panamanian-registered ship, the Sun Laurel , apparently en route to refuel whalers, and has prevented that happening. The refueling ship was found at 62°43′ south and 178°33′ west. Refueling south of 60° latitude is illegal u… Read the full story on TreeHugger
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Russian icebreakers set out to aid a group of Russian seamen whose ship is trapped in ice. The two ice breakers had to leave a refrigeration vessel, in a safer part of the Okhotsk Sea and turn back to rescue the much larger fishing vessel. (Jan. 13)
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Things look to finally start to get interesting with hardware selection on MetroPCS’ LTE network — a network that still offers nothing more than the Samsung Craft dumbphone to tame those wild 4G speeds several months after the commercial launch. The latest leak here is for a device allegedly called the Forte — also from Samsung, naturally — that features a sliding landscape keyboard along with a 1GHz Hummingbird processor, 5 megapixel camera, and Android 2.2 at launch, all specs that would suggest this might be a Galaxy S -branded device. What we don’t know is whether the Forte is the same as the SCH-R910 that was leaked for MetroPCS a few days ago; Samsung Hub ‘s tipster claims there are two LTE devices in the pipeline here, so they could be different (perhaps one with a keyboard, one without) even though the tops are identical at a glance. Samsung Forte Android phone with LTE for MetroPCS leaked? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 13 Jan 2011 11:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Oprah Winfrey was not happy when her 1998 film Beloved got trounced at the box office by, of all things, Bride of Chucky . “I didn’t even know what ‘Chucky’ was,” she tells Piers Morgan in an outtake from their interview . “So, I asked my chef at the time to make…
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Image credit: Simon James , used under Creative Commons license. So you didn’t bring enough reusable grocery bags to the store? You are starting to feel that gnawing guilt that you are not doing enough? (Maybe a little rap about banning plastic bags is now going around in your head.) It’s time to rediscover that seemingly lost eco-art of cutting yourself some slack. … Read the full story on TreeHugger
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The Grammys’ reigning best new artist, the Zac Brown Band, are up for four more Grammys this year. They talk about why it’s an honor to be nominated and why big risks pay off for them. (Jan. 13)
Continue reading …Imus Rips ‘Angry,’ ‘Vile,’ ‘Psycho,’ ‘Spittle-spewing’ Chris Matthews for Attacking Mark Levin
January 13, 2011 No Comment
As NewsBusters previously reported , Chris Matthews on Tuesday blamed conservative talk radio hosts Mark Levin and Michael Savage for supposedly creating the climate of hate that led to Saturday's shootings in Tucson, Arizona. On Wednesday, FBN's Don Imus and his sidekick Bernard McGuirk responded to the “angry,” “vile,” “psycho,” “spittle-spewing” MSNBCer (video follows with transcript and commentary): read more
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