November 2008
42 posts
Staff emerge as heroes in Mumbai hotel sieges
From Reuters:
MUMBAI (Reuters) - Prashant Mangeshikar could be dead, one of more than a hundred victims of militant attacks across Mumbai landmarks, if it had not been for an employee at the Taj Mahal Hotel… Recovering from the initial shock and chaos, hotel staff shepherded the guests, including the Mangeshikar family, through the service section upstairs — only suddenly to come...
Visit inspires, adds perspective: The Oregonian
Blazers Rewind from The Oregonian:
The Trail Blazers received a sobering dose of reality during Tuesday’s practice that put basketball, and the expectations of this promising season, in relative perspective. And it came, surprisingly, in the form of a 6-year-old boy from Fallujah, Iraq — Mustafa Ahmed Abed — who lost one of his legs four years ago in the war.
Abed, in town...
Sampling confirms accuracy of OR vote count →
PDX: The nation's best airport
Any person who has ever been to Portland International Airport knows how PDX is a step above the average airport. Free wi-fi, quick security lines, ample natural light, great recycling throughout the terminal, and easy light rail connections to downtown. Well, for the third year in a row, PDX has been rated the nation’s best airport. Cool.
Noise violators in Fort Lupton sentenced to listen...
FORT LUPTON — Barry Manilow’s “I Write the Songs” may begin with the line, “I’ve been alive forever,’” but for noise ordinance violators, listening to Manilow may feel like forever.
Read the story.
2008 LA Auto Show: Top 7 Hybrids
The L.A. Auto Show begins this Friday and there will be a ton of new hybrids introduced (about time!). Many of you know that I’m a huge fan of the Prius — a car that gets fantastic gas mileage (45+mpg) and makes no compromises for the average driver. But I’m glad to see that many carmakers — including the domestic ones — are finally producing several models of...
Obama's Use of Complete Sentences Stirs... →
In the first two weeks since the election, President-elect Barack Obama has broken with a tradition established over the past eight years through his controversial use of complete sentences, political observers say. Millions of Americans who watched Mr. Obama’s appearance on CBS’s 60 Minutes on Sunday witnessed the president-elect’s unorthodox verbal tick, which had Mr. Obama...
Big Three CEOs Flew Private Jets to Plead for...
From ABC News:
The CEOs of the big three automakers flew to the nation’s capital yesterday in private luxurious jets to make their case to Washington that the auto industry is running out of cash and needs $25 billion in taxpayer money to avoid bankruptcy.
I’d like to add this to my list of reasons why Rick Wagoner (CEO of GM) is a total dipshit.
Team of Frenemies →
From Maureen Dowd: If Barry chooses Hillary as secretary of state, a woman who clearly intimidated him and taught him to be a better pol in the primaries, it doesn’t signal the return of the Clinton era. It says the opposite: If you have a president who’s willing to open up his universe to other smart, strong people, if you have a big dog who shares his food dish, the Bill Clinton era is truly...
Mexico City to give out Viagra to men 70 and older
Well, I’m in Mexico City this weekend. Now I know why so many of the older guys are smiling:
MEXICO CITY (AP) - Mexico City is giving out free Viagra and other impotence drugs to men 70 and older.
Mayor Marcelo Ebrard says the city is implementing the plan because sexuality “has a lot to do with quality of life and our happiness.”
Briliant. Read the full story.
Pink Martini bandleader Thomas Lauderdale teams up...
Thomas Lauderdale is scared.
In 36 hours, he’ll walk into the glare of the enormous stage inside Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall and take a seat at a Steinway concert grand piano in front of the Oregon Symphony. The crowd will cheer their hometown boy, expecting a show, because that’s what his band Pink Martini has always delivered.
Only this time, he’s not with the band.
...
Lars Larson Mocks Barney "Fag" Frank
I’m not sure how I missed this. On Halloween, right before the election, Portland, OR-based Republican radio host Lars Larson played a spoof ad on his show making fun of openly gay U.S. Congressman Barney Frank:
Now remember, this Erection Day — Election Day, vote for Barney Frank for President. I’m Barney Fag — uh, Frank and I approve this massage — message.
Very...
Begich [vs Ted Stevens] takes lead in latest vote...
Mark Begich made a dramatic comeback Wednesday to overtake 40-year incumbent Ted Stevens for the lead in Alaska’s U.S. Senate race. Begich, who was losing after election night, now leads Stevens by 814 votes — 132,196 to 131,382 — with the state still to count roughly 40,000 more ballots over the next week.
Read the latest from Anchorage Daily News.
Two Blazers Don't Vote
From Willamette Week:
Last week when Oregonian reporter Jason Quick asked Trail Blazers players whom they were supporting for president, guard Steve Blake and forward Ike Diogu said they weren’t planning to vote. Diogu said it was for “personal reasons,” Quick wrote, and “Blake said he has never voted, yet will support whomever wins.” (Brandon Roy also told Quick he wouldn’t vote, but later...
The Climate For Change - By Al Gore
Al Gore writing in Sunday’s The New York Times:
Here is the good news: the bold steps that are needed to solve the climate crisis are exactly the same steps that ought to be taken in order to solve the economic crisis and the energy security crisis…
What follows is a five-part plan to repower America with a commitment to producing 100 percent of our electricity from carbon-free...
A Quiet Windfall For U.S. Banks
From The Washington Post:
The financial world was fixated on Capitol Hill as Congress battled over the Bush administration’s request for a $700 billion bailout of the banking industry. In the midst of this late-September drama, the Treasury Department issued a five-sentence notice that attracted almost no public attention. But corporate tax lawyers quickly realized the enormous...
The Fall - The New Yorker →
“The lamb may lie down with the lion, but he won’t get a very good night’s sleep. And John McCain has not been sleeping very well since crawling in bed with Grover Norquist and James Dobson.” [Bob Kerrey, who had generally defended McCain’s campaign tactics]…
Silverton gives its vote to transgendered mayor →
As the nation’s first openly transgender mayor, Rasmussen cuts a distinct figure among his flannel-clad neighbors, from the wavy red mane, past the ample breast implants, along the maroon stockinged legs, over the crimson tips of his manicured nails and down to the size 11 black Mary Janes. “This is a place that takes you for who you are,” Rasmussen says, the sweep of his...
Prop 8 and the resurgence of "blame black people" →
antsonalog:
In terms of predictive value, religion, political ideology, and being married with children tell us much more about how someone voted on Prop 8 than race does.
Right-wing media feeds its post-election anger -... →
Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity dive shamelessly in, talking about the ‘Obama recession’ and other partisan lines.
Obama Positioned to Quickly Reverse Bush Actions -... →
Transition advisers to President-elect Barack Obama have compiled a list of about 200 Bush administration actions and executive orders that could be swiftly undone to reverse White House policies on climate change, stem cell research, reproductive rights and other issues…
Obama Victory Alters the Tenor of Iraqi Politics -... →
Obama’s election is already effecting things on the ground in Iraq…
A New Generation Transforms US Politics - By James...
The day after Barack Obama was elected President, James Carville writes about the youth vote in The Financial Times:
Mr Obama and congressional Democrats made history on Tuesday night in no small measure due to the unprecedented enthusiasm of America’s youth… Quite simply, young voters (18-29 years old) delivered and delivered big.
Exit polling indicates that Mr Obama won two-thirds of...
North Carolina Won't Finish Count Until Next Month
The last state in the nation to announce results for President apparently won’t do so until December 1. From the Raleigh News & Observer:
Democrat Barack Obama is the unofficial winner in North Carolina, but the victory over Sen. John McCain won’t be sealed until provisional ballots are counted and certified next month. Unofficial returns show Obama ahead by 13,746 votes.
...
Bellwether No More For Missouri (Thank You Ralph...
Ralph Nader still is an asshole (Missouri edition). From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:
Final unofficial tallies on the Secretary of State’s Web site show Republican John McCain winning the state by 5,868 votes, with all precincts reporting. Of the 2.9 million votes cast in the presidential election in Missouri, McCain won 1,442,613 and Democrat Barack Obama won 1,436,745. Independent...
We Are Not Done - Karol Collymore
From Blue Oregon:
There isn’t very much that can bring me down today, except this: California, Florida and Arkansas. In the same year that America elected an African American president, we’ve also denied rights to our GLBT community members. Florida added marriage discriminaton to their laws. Arkansas now bars unmarried couples from adopting children who need homes, directed at same...
Why Merkley's going to win →
No George Bush sewage plant for San Francisco →
OBAMA WINS!
I’m calling it at 6:35pm PST on election night. NBC and CNN just called Ohio for Obama and NBC called New Mexico for Obama. All Obama has to do is win the west coast — CA, OR, WA, HI. It’s over!
Oregon Democrats maintaining turnout lead - The... →
Democrats outpace Republicans in Oregon voting →
Twitter, Flickr, Facebook Make Blogs Look So 2004 →
(via antsonalog)
The Man For The Moment - By Hillary Clinton
From Hillary Clinton in the Sunday New York Daily News:
On Tuesday, New Yorkers and Americans have a big decision to make. Do we continue to pursue the policies of the past eight years or do we chart a new course…
Obama will invest new jobs in clean energy, manufacturing and infrastructure. And he’ll fight for universal health care. I can’t wait to stand on the South Lawn of...
And More Crap...
Robocalls and misleading flyers — this time in Florida, Virginia, and Pennsylvania. Wired Magazine sums it up:
The call is just one of a number of dirty tricks being pulled off around the country just before record numbers of voters are expected to turn up at the polls on Election Day.
Read Wired’s summary.
Obama-Inspired Black Voters Warm to Politics →
From The New York Times:
Across the country, black men and women like Mr. Battle who have long been disaffected, apolitical, discouraged or just plain bored with politics say they have snapped to attention this year, according to dozens of interviews conducted in the last several days in six states…
David A. Bositis, senior political analyst at the Joint Center for Political and...
And It Begins...
From the Minnesota Star Tribune:
Minnesotans should beware intimidating phone calls about their voting practices from people purporting to be with his office, Secretary of State Mark Ritchie said Wednesday.
The calls in question apparently are being made by the conservative nonprofit Minnesota Majority as part of an effort to uncover voting irregularities.
Read the full story.