The media and ACORN

Rachel Maddow doesn’t try to account for the stupidity of the employees caught on camera.  But she does put some things into context.

Addendum: How ACORN helped it’s Enemies, by Clarence Page.

What is “white culture?”

Glenn Beck, having said that Obama has a “deep seated hatred for white culture” accuses Katie Couric of trying to trap him.  All she asked was for him to define his terms.  He refused.  About three minutes of squirming, and he wants to avoid the soundbites.  Did you know that George Bush has an African American grandmother?

And you know, what’s funny is that Couric is really a softball pitcher.  That’s why the right wingers are willing to be interviewed by her.  Yet, they keep tripping themselves up.  Maybe Couric has insidious mind control powers, because it’s definitely not her tough questioning.  Hell, it’s not even her question!

Dot those i’s and cross those t’s

A Florida judge took on the role of a high school English teacher grading a rush job term paper, slamming what was obviously a rushed brief complete with red marks.  I’m surprised there isn’t a red frowny face at the top.

It’s a sloppy brief, obviously a rush job probably done late at night.  But as amusing as the story is, I think the judge is acting over the top, unless maybe briefs like this are a pattern with this attorney.  Some of the corrections are even debatable as there are plenty of attorneys who don’t capitalize “plaintiff” or “defendant.”  Many writers make the mistake of failing to put the quotation mark on the outside of the sentence ending punctuation.  And while the typos are numerous, annoying, and distracting, I can in fact make sense of the motion.  If this is a one-time thing, I think the judge is out of line.  I’ve had judges grumpy with me on occasion over the years; because I filed the wrong form, or because the case wasn’t moving along fast enough.  I’ve seen judges yell at attorneys because they were acting like four-year-olds bickering.  Sometimes the tone goes a little dark when it appears that the attorney has done nothing between case management conferences, and tries to substitute the work he or she should have done with a lot of time wasting words at the conference itself.  I’ve seen attorneys sanctioned and fined.  I’ve never seen anything like this.

But than, maybe i just don’t want to     throw stones.  Karmas a “bitch”.

Health care reform roundup

Max Baucus has delayed the discussion and votes on the public option amendments until next week, so the expected fireworks will have to wait.  There is a bunch of news out today, including compilations of poll results which show that support for the public option has increased since August, and that it’s popular in most Blue Dog districts – results which have shifted expectations so that Blue Dogs have decided that opposition to the public option isn’t necessarily their highest priority.  Kind of like Obama’s stance in reverse.  Everything’s in flux, and nobody facing a rough reelection bid wants to stick his/her neck out.  Meanwhile, for once the progressives sense blood and they’ve been relentless all week.  The polls also show that the Republicans remain extremely unpopular, though the Democrats also aren’t coming across well, with only Obama remaining above the 50 percent threshhold in national approval.  Later tonight I’ll post links to all of this, but right now I’m signing off with an amusing exchange this morning between Senators Kyl and Stabenow:

Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) argued that insurers must be required to cover basic maternity care. (In several states there are no such requirements.)

“I don’t need maternity care,” Kyl said. “So requiring that on my insurance policy is something that I don’t need and will make the policy more expensive.”

Stabenow interrupted: “I think your mom probably did.”

It’s already on video.

Oh, and it looks like the interim placement of Paul Kirk into Ted Kennedy’s seat is final, as a judge rejected the GOP court challenge.  I doubt an appellate court will issue an injunction before this afternoon when Kirk is scheduled to be sworn in.  This means that Democrats do have 60 votes.  The question is whether the Lieberman/Nelson types will join the Republicans to filibuster.

Addendum: If you’re a woman and you wake up with your breast bleeding and your shirt’s saturated in blood, don’t be wasting the ER doctor’s time.  Blue Shield says it’s not an emergency.

A run on Redway gasoline?

My “empty” light has been on for a few of days, and I kept forgetting to stop and fill up, after a couple of trips out to Beginnings.  I think it comes on when I have two gallons left, but you’re not supposed to get to the bottom where all the junk settled at the bottom of your tank gets drawn into the pipes, at least that’s what my mother always told me.  So last night on my way home I intended to stop into the Redway Shell station and every single pump was taken with a couple of cars waiting.

No problem.  I’d never seen that before in Redway, so I figured I’d wait until this morning.  No go.  Every single pump was still taken, with a couple of cars waiting.

But when I got to Garberville, there were no cars in the Chevron station and only one in the Shell station.  I’d expect those stations to be busier than Redway, given the proximity of the freeway and all.  The price was the same, 345 9/10 (if any station owner ever decides to ditch the 9/10 of a cent crap, I’ll give him/her all of my business on principle!).  But for some reason there’s an immense demand for the Redway gas, while the Garberville stations languish.

Somebody told me that Mario Andretti owns the Redway station.  Maybe that’s it.  Looks like a slow day for news.  Other than the Trinidate Museum story, all of the front page articles at the Times Standard site are crime stories.  Is a Cutten burglary really front page news?