August 17, 2015

National Journal: Republicans hold 8 out 10 senate seats most likely to flip in 2016.

1. Illinois (Sen. Mark Kirk (R) running for reelection)

2. Wisconsin (Sen. Ron Johnson (R) running for reelection)

3. New Hampshire (Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R) running for reelection)

4. Pennsylvania (Sen. Pat Toomey (R) running for reelection)

5. Nevada (Sen. Harry Reid (D) retiring)

6. Ohio (Sen. Rob Portman (R) running for reelection)

7. Florida (Sen. Marco Rubio (R) retiring to run for president)

8. North Carolina (Sen. Richard Burr (R) running for reelection)

9. Colorado (Sen. Michael Bennet (D) running for reelection)

10. Indiana (Sen. Dan Coats (R) retiring)


http://www.nationaljournal.com/pictures-video/hotline-s-senate-rankings-the-senate-seats-most-likely-to-flip-in-2016-20150813

August 15, 2015

Captain America: Civil War’ Footage Debuts at D23 with Avengers Doing Battle

“Captain America: Civil War” stars Chris Evans and Anthony Mackie were on hand at Disney’s D23 Expo in Anaheim to debut the first footage from the hotly anticipated Marvel movie.

The action-packed reel positioned Evans’ Steve Rogers/Captain America and his team of Avengers (including Black Widow/Natasha Romanoff, Falcon/Sam Wilson and Scarlet Witch/Wanda Maximoff) against Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man and Don Cheadle’s War Machine, with Avenger pitted against Avenger in a brutal battle near the end of the trailer. “Are we still friends?” Scarlett Johansson’s Natasha Romanoff asks Renner’s Clint Barton at one point during the brawl. “Depends how hard you hit me,” Clint quips.

The disagreement between the former allies seems to stem from a speech delivered by William Hurt’s General “Thunderbolt” Ross, who tells Steve, “The world owes you an unpayable debt — a great many people see you as a hero, but there are some who prefer the word vigilante. People are afraid.”

In one scene, Downey’s Tony Stark tells Evans’ Steve, “Sometimes I wanna punch you in your perfect teeth.” In a turnaround from “Age of Ultron,” Tony seems to be arguing for more accountability from the superheroes.

The footage also showed Frank Grillo in costume as the villainous Crossbones during a brutal fight with Cap, with Crossbones tossing Cap against cars and gloating about Steve’s former friend Bucky (Sebastian Stan). “He remembered you, you know — your pal, your buddy, your Bucky.” The trailer delivered on the promise of “Captain America: Winter Soldier” and the stinger at the end of “Ant-Man,” showing Bucky shedding his Winter Solider programming to join forces with Cap in the fight against Iron Man.


http://variety.com/2015/film/news/captain-america-civil-war-trailer-ant-man-avengers-d23-1201571004/

August 15, 2015

Joe Biden is someone who could cause me to switch.

I liked Joe Biden immensely over the last 30 years I've know of him. I even thought the whole plagiarism scandal in 1987 was overblown. If Biden gets serious about it, I'll have a lot to think about.

August 14, 2015

‘Sesame Street’ to Air First on HBO for Next 5 Seasons

The letters of the day on “Sesame Street” are H, B and O.

Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit group behind the children’s television program, has struck a five-year deal with HBO, the premium cable network, that will bring first-run episodes of “Sesame Street” exclusively to HBO and its streaming outlets starting in the fall.

The partnership, announced Thursday, will allow the financially challenged Sesame Workshop to significantly increase its production of “Sesame Street” episodes and other new programming. The group will produce 35 new “Sesame Street” episodes a year, up from the 18 it now produces. It will also create a spinoff series based on the “Sesame Street” Muppets along with another new educational series for children.

After nine months of appearing only on HBO, the shows will be available free on PBS, home to “Sesame Street” for the last 45 years.

It is an unexpected union: the nonprofit behind a TV show created to teach children in underserved communities matched with the premium cable network that targets affluent adults with innovative programming. But the deal speaks to the digital transformation upending the television business, primarily the explosion of streaming video creating a generation of children who watch shows on demand, often on a mobile phone or tablet, instead of flipping on a TV.


http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/14/business/media/sesame-street-heading-to-hbo-in-fall.html?smid=tw-share&_r=0

August 14, 2015

History Lesson: #BlackLivesMatter are simply taking a page of the ACT UP playbook

Faced with what was literally a life and death issue, and faced also with political and medical establishments that seemed unwilling (in the first case) and unable (in the second case) to cope with a massive epidemic, ACT UP raucously–and occasionally, brutally–changed the whole debate in this country over AIDS. In doing so, they saved countless lives.

Once it started in earnest, ACT UP was everywhere. Its targets were huge, its activists unfathomably brave. They invaded the New York Stock Exchange and chained themselves to the VIP balcony. They organized a massive demonstration that shut down the FDA for a day. One year, they shrewdly scheduled an action at the Post Office in New York for April 15 so as to take advantage of the annual media frenzy over people fighting to make the income tax deadline. They were loud. They were uncivil. Larry Kramer and the rest of them were the modern embodiment of William Lloyd Garrison's statement of purpose, which is something of an avatar for this very shebeen, now that I think about it:

"Tell a man whose house is on fire to give a moderate alarm; tell him to moderately rescue his wife from the hands of the ravisher; tell the mother to gradually extricate her babe from the fire into which it has fallen; — but urge me not to use moderation in a cause like the present. I am in earnest — I will not equivocate — I will not excuse — I will not retreat a single inch — AND I WILL BE HEARD."



http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a37118/act-up-disruption-aids/

August 14, 2015

Tea Party leader rants about #BlackLivesMatter: ‘Soros-funded anarchists and socialists’

Innis went on to say that the discrimination that BLM and its adherents see in the U.S. is “the difference between perception and reality.”

The difference between BLM and radical groups like Outside Agitators 206, Innis said, is virtually nonexistent.

“There’s two kinds of anarchists,” he said. “Some anarchists want to create chaos and confusion within the law. Others do not, but they’re all a part of the same package. And they do not represent the interests of the community of Ferguson or black communities generally.”

“What we need is a president that it does not care about political correctness,” Innis said, “that is not intimidated by little thugs like the #BlackLivesMatter campaign that has intimidated O’Malley and Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton. He’s got to be willing to stand up to the American people and say ‘These are the facts of life.'”



http://www.rawstory.com/2015/08/tea-party-leader-rants-about-blacklivesmatter-soros-funded-anarchists-and-socialists/

August 14, 2015

If you don't know why Hillary isn't going to Liberty University, then you forgot the 90's.

Falwell's newspaper, National Liberty Journal, is mailed to just about every church in the nation, free of charge. The paper overflows with praise for President Bush and allies, while claiming a national conspiracy exists against true conservatives.

A typical issue is represented by the one with a full-page ad promoting the book by Michael Kellet claiming to uncover the truth about the death of Vince Foster. The ad asks the question to be dealt with in the book, "Was Hillary involved?"

Another issue of the Journal has editor J. M. Smith's book review of the book Red Dragon Rising. The book claims to document the relationship between Bill Clinton and communists. The article states that the legacy of Billy Clinton will be his betrayal of the sacred trust of the American people by harming the national security of the nation.

Another issue offers several other options on the Clinton presidency. The Secret Life of Bill Clinton is supposed to expose his crimes, while book Boy Clinton has "facts uncovered never revealed before."


http://www.ethicsdaily.com/the-clinton-family-according-to-jerry-falwell-cms-9389

August 11, 2015

SeaWorld sees profits plunge 84% as customers desert controversial park

SeaWorld has suffered a 84% collapse in profits as customers have deserted the controversial aquatic theme park company following claims it mistreated orca whales.

The company, which trains dolphins and killer whales to perform tricks in front of stadiums full of spectators, on Thursday reported declines in attendance, sales and profits because of “continued brand challenges”.

SeaWorld has been in the headlines since the 2013 documentary Blackfish detailed claims that its treatment of orca whales provoked violent behaviour contributing to the deaths of three people. Following the release of the documentary, attendance collapsed and the company lost more than half of its market value on Wall Street and its former CEO was forced out.

The company has since launched a nationwide marketing campaign to combat animal rights activist claims that, among other things, captive orcas die at younger age than their wild counterparts.

Despite cutting ticket prices and spending $10m on the marketing blitz, which features its veterinarians caring for whales, SeaWorld CEO Joel Manby was forced to admit that the company is still struggling to convince the public that it treats its whales well.


http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/aug/06/seaworld-profits-plunge-customers

August 10, 2015

Let's Not Get Carried Away With The Megyn Kelly Lovefest

Even better was the question Kelly asked Walker about his abortion policies. You might expect Fox News moderators to allow Republican candidates to sidestep their least popular views on the subject. To her credit, Kelly asked Walker to defend his position that bans on abortion should not even contain exemptions for the life of the mother—making the laws even more restrictive than they were in most states before Roe v. Wade—observing that Walker’s position was opposed by 83 percent of the public.

Given that the abortion debate is so often conducted on terrain Republicans would prefer, and not just on Fox News, this question was a welcome surprise and yielded important information about one of the Republican frontrunners, who confirmed his radical views.

But before we get carried away praising Kelly and the other moderators, we should keep a couple of things in mind. First of all, even if Kelly is a good journalist and asked some good questions last night, she has some views that are nutty enough that Trump would sign for them. In particular, she has expressed consistently bizarre and retrograde views on race: obsessing over the utterly irrelevant New Black Panthers as if Richard Nixon was still in the White House, defending the racist emails sent by police officers in Ferguson as normal, and insisting that the fictional Santa Claus “just is” white. Not to mention her willfully misleading attacks on Black Lives Matter.


http://talkingpointsmemo.com/cafe/megyn-kelly-moderators-fox-news-debate

August 7, 2015

I don't who make me want to vomit the most

The Republican candidates or the audience. Disgusting.