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crimsonblue's Journal
So the Men's Volleyball gold medal match is currently in progress, and guess what? The game isn't on TV. Nor is it available streaming online. And, the game won't be shown until 6pm tomorrow night. In other words, more than 18 hours after it happened. So, I have the choice to either follow the play by play online, ruining any and all joy I've had from watching the sport thus far in the Olympics, or waiting until tomorrow night. I fucking hate NBC, and I seriously seriously hope that ESPN wins the rights for the 2014 and 2016 games, as they have already committed to showing EVERY event LIVE. Why is showing gold medal match live good enough for the women, but not the men? Eat shit and die, NBC.
I'm watching the Women's gymnastic qualifying on NBC, and the Chinese team is currently up. I noticed a discrepency in the scoring for Cheng Fei for the Vault Competition. The score that flashed on TV and that the announcers gave was 15.912. On the Olympics website, the scoring was 16.150. This increase in score gave Fei the top score in the event. Who, might you ask, came in second? Not to mention that Fei did not have a clean landing. Shawn Johnson with a score of 16.000 . Is this an accidental error or rightful rescore, or was this blatant score switching by the Chinese? I might add that the score on the NBC website agrees with the score flashed on TV. Why are the NBC and China website scores in disagreement???? below is the scores ---------------TV / NBC website score----------- Official Beijing Olympics website score Cheng Fei------------ 15.912 ---------------------------------- 16.150 links for the NBC and Beijing websites: NBC Olympics website Official Olympics websiteUPDATE: ANOTHER DISCREPENCY--- Li Shanshan score a 16.125(according to the China site) but scored a 16.025 according to the NBC site. Update: I'm stupid, I think. They only showed the second of Cheng Fei's vaults on NBC, and I guess she did get a 16.150 in her first vault (which wasn't aired on TV).
I just read an article by Thomas Edsall, concern trolling about Obama's supposed "problem" in Pennsylvania. Apparently, Pennsylvania is only "leaning" Dem, even though Obama has a more than 9% lead according to the article's own polling source. Furthermore, the article distorts (at least on my computer) the polling graph from the website in order to make it appear that McCain actually has a lead. From the "article" : But Callahan is not a lock for Obama: "I'm just tried of seeing so much of him, he's started to turn me off. I'm kind of burned out; it's as if they already wrote him into office." Callahan could be a fluke, and interviews with some 40 voters here, in surrounding suburbs, and in Reading, Pa., all suggest that Obama is positioned to win Pennsylvania and its 21 Electoral College votes by a narrow margin. Obama's Pennsylvania Problem------------------------------ UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE | ------------------------------ I emailed Mr Edsall, and he responded very timely. After his explanations and reasoning, I feel sufficiently convinced that he wasn't purposely misleading in his article. I've changed the OP title as a result.
Come on people. We are better than to listen to bullshit media spin. Don't forget that the media pushed the al Qaeda link. Ivin's so called shrink has a long rap sheet, and she isn't even a psychiatrist, but a social worker. As people that believe in the presumption of innocence, we need to stop believing the unsupported crap spewing from the FBI and media.
Of all the Veep speculation here on DU, I've seen very little mention of Sebelius, and she is usually written off because: a)her selection would offend feminists and Hillary supporters (because ONLY Hillary is qualified to be VP); b) she would have negligible draw; or c) nobody knows her.
To answer those concerns:
A) Hillary, although she ran a historic campaign, is not entitled to the VP, nor does Obama owe her anything. Obama ran a dignified campaign against her, and refrained to the best of his ability from attacking her character. It seems, to me, to be completely antithetical to equal rights to support only 1 woman for the highest office. Kathleen Sebelius has been a fantastic governor for Kansas, and she has stood up repeatedly to the area's near-violent pro-life faction (especially concerning the Dr. Tiller matters). She has proven to be a progressive in the mold of early Kansans with her opposition to new coal plants, demands that the state balance its budget, and her dedication to providing more funds to the state's public universities (Just 4 years ago, the total deferred maintenance bill-- a lovely leftover of the Graves admin-- for the colleges here was over $600 million. Now, it is under $200 million, and the universities are actually able to prevent further degradation of buildings).
B) No VP will ever have the same aura as Obama, mainly because he is a once in a generation politician. So, what's the point in trying to overshadow Obama? Sebelius can and has gone to bat for progressive causes, and she has tremendous street cred in the Midwest, not mention that she is highly liked by her fellow governors (and she was even the president of the national governor's association). In her SOTU rebuttal, it may not have played well in the traditional blue states, but it played very very well here in Kansas (and I think probably similarly in other red states). She came off as smart, logical, and tenacious, all without appearing vindictive or angry. We need a VP that is willing to go against public opinion (her vetoes of new coal plants, as well as her thrice vetoing of a Voter ID act). She is clearly effective in this respect.
C) It's true that she is relatively unknown outside Kansas and the midwest, but I can guarantee that any skeletons would have come out already, especially since the state GOP has dramatically more funds every election cycle. She would have 3 months for the public to get to know her, which is more than enough time. She can hold her own in debates, she is articulate, she is very intelligent, she is attractive, and she is likeable.
Having a VP from a state that elected one of the first women to the US Senate (Nancy Landon Kassebaum) would be a fantastic and symbolic choice.
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all that being said, I don't know if she would take the job, especially since Brownback is not running for reelection in 2010. However, Sebelius on the ticket could move a Kansas Senate seat to the Democrats (Slattery is running a tough race against Roberts).
For my birthday, my parents are buying me a new phone and 1 yr of service. I want an iphone, but they aren't in stock anywhere in KS or KCMO, and I'm getting impatient. I've researched a lot of others, but what would you recommend? (the whole spying thing doesn't bother me in respect to phone carrier... Not because att and verizon do it, but bc I have a colored past that basically ensures the govt is keeping tabs on me.. yippee.)
As we all know, the new FISA legislation allows warrantless wiretapping of any communication involving an overseas participant. As it is being construed is that this only applies if one or more participants are physically located outside the borders of the U.S. However, what if domestic communication were routed overseas and then back again, say a mile or so over the border into Canada and back to the U.S.. Would these qualify as foreign communications? If so, you can bet your ass that the NSA is currently engaging in this as an end around the law, and is probably colluding with the Canadian (or others) government to do this. Think about it: 1. The NSA has access to the AT&T infrastructure, through which runs roughly 1/2-2/3 of entire global internet traffic. 2. The NSA determines that is is illegal to wiretap domestic-only communications. 3. The NSA reroutes the communications to Canada or overseas, before transmitting the communications back to NSA headquarters. 4. Since the communications were, at any time, outside U.S. borders, they are classified as international communications. 5. The NSA now begins monitoring ALL global traffic, domestic or otherwise. This is a big what-if theory, but from my limited knowledge of the NSA, this is: a) very feasible, and b) probable to likely. IBM has a 1Pflop supercomputer (the roadrunner) up and running-- which was built, incidentally, for the U.S. military. The NSA most assuredly has supercomputers that are at least 2-3 times more powerful. Why is this computing power important. The extreme spreed of these supercomputers means that the NSA has the shear power to run more than 10^18 operations a second; in layman's terms, this computer could run the ENTIRE backbone of the internet as a mere application, much like you run Firefox or Word. By being able to simultaneously run all of the data, filtering and sorting become much more easy. In effect, the NSA has computers capable of sorting every single email being sent right now, along with with every webpage being looked at, and every bank transaction currently underway. 128, 192, and 256-key Encryption technology does slow them down, but as we approach 2-5 Pflop machines, the time needed for successful brute force attacks reduces to a number of days, hours, minutes (down from centurys or millenia). Scary, isn't it? Anyone with more knowledge about supercomputers or the NSA feel free to comment below, or PM me if you have something especially juicy. As an added bonus, here's a youtube of the NSA supercomputer cooling system
The Democratic Party has controlled both chambers of Congress since 2006. I know you don't believe me, but it's true. Tell me which party this reminds you of: 1. Failed to end the War in Iraq 2. Provided unconditional funds for the War in Iraq 3. Labeled the Iranian Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization, thus giving the President the authority to conduct military operations against Iran as part of the 'War on Terror' 4. Ignored rampant politicization coursing through many departments of the Government (DOJ, EPA, CDC, NASA, USDA, FDA, FEC, FCC) 5. Confirmation of Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court of the United States 6. Confirmation of Michael Mukasey as Attorney General of the United States 7. Condemnation of Moveon.org for exercising its freedom of expression via House and Senate resolutions, a practice rarely ever used to condemn a non-profit organization 8. Ignored the rampant abuse and grotesque torture at Abu Ghraib, Bagram, and Guantanamo 9. Provided retroactive civil immunity to Telecommunications Companies 'believed to have assisted the Government in (illegal) domestic surveillance post 9/11' 10. Updated the already adequate FISA bill to allow for further warrantless wiretapping, as long as it has Executive permission. 11. Removed the Constitutional check and balance of impeachment as a viable option to deter, prevent, investigate, and prosecute high crimes and misdemeanors committed by the Executive Branch. 12. Failed to assist homeowners struggling with the widespread mortgage meltdown. If you guessed the Republicans, you'd be wrong. Yes, they did agree with every item on the above list, but none of these matters could have occurred without direct and complicit involvement by the majority party, The Democratic Party. Paradise lost, indeed. (reposted from my dKos diary)
My National Championship Kansas Jayhawks had 5, count em, FIVE, players be selected in the NBA draft. Brandon Rush, 13th pick (Portland, traded to Indiana) Darrell Arthur, 27th (New Orleans, traded to Portland) *he slipped this far down because there were spurious and completely false allegations that he had some sort of kidney problem.. He should have been a lottery pick Mario Chalmers, 34th pick (Minnesota, traded to Miami) Darnell Jackson, 52nd pick (Miami) Sasha Kaun, 56th pick (Seattle) *he has a $1 million offer to play in Russia, and he graduated with honors with a degree in computer science (and held a lucrative internship the previous two summers). My Kansas Jayhawks saw the largest single draft from any one school (tying with Connecticut from a few years back) It just goes to show: CHAMPIONSHIPS are helpful and CHAMPIONS are usually well-rewarded.  
If you hate your stupid wireless phone company because: a) they spy on you (ATT and Verizon), b) they fuck over the consumer (ATT and Verizon) or c) have terrible customer service (Sprint), there is an alternative for you. Presenting CREDO Mobile, a MVNO (that runs on the Sprint backbone), committed to responsible business practices. While CREDO does run on Sprint, Credo does all of their own service, plus Sprint does not comply to blanket wiretapping (unlike ATT and Verizon). Sprint require warrants, and ensures that employees are present at all times with officials conducting wiretapping (I have a friend that works at the Sprint KC backbone building, and he reassures me that there are no strange pipelines leading to nowhere). From their website,
How can a cellphone make a difference?
It’s about the power of adding up every-day actions. Along with our parent company, Working Assets, we’ve been doing it for more than 20 years. We’ve raised $60 million for the causes we support, and our activism recently helped halt 30 coal-fired plants from being built, succeeded in raising the federal minimum wage and registered over 1.5 million voters. As a CREDO Mobile member, 1% of charges go to fund progressive nonprofits. And right in your bill we’ll let you know about important issues and ways you can speak out. Join our existing members in sending over 80,000 letters and calls to Congress, the White House and corporate leaders each month.
How do you decide what causes to fund?
It’s a team effort. Every year, we ask our members to nominate nonprofits for funding. We evaluate the nominees and send our final selection on the donations ballot, so you vote on how to distribute the money among the groups. Vote on how to distribute the funds for this year’s nonprofits here.
If you want to feel good about the cell phone company you use, please consider CREDO Mobile. www.credomobile.com
By now, all of us here at DU have become quite accustom to the constant bombarding of Barack Obama as just another sexist man. Is this really the case, or is this a bullshit cop-out, meant to destroy the party?
Following the agreed upon rules of the Democratic Party, Barack Obama is leading by the one category that matters: delegates. His lead in this area is unassailable and feasibly impossible to surpass. Among other categories that "matter", Obama leads nearly all: He has the most votes, the most number of primary states, the most number of caucus states, the most money, and the most public support.
Let us all be clear: Hillary Clinton cannot win this election through traditional means. Period. Obama has won this campaign fair and square. The only avenue Hillary has left of becoming President is by denying Obama the highest office this fall. Cue the legions of Clinton supporters who vow to either: a)stay home in November, or b) vote for John McCain in November. Are they lobbing these threats out of concern for their country, or are they doing it because of anger?
Women have been oppressed throughout history by their male counterparts. That is incontrovertible. However, sex relations in 2008 America are at the pinnacle of history. Are there still stereotypes out there that negatively impact women? yes. But there are also stereotypes that hurt African-Americans, Latinos, and even affluent progressives. Has sexism been a main aspect of this campaign? NO. Obama has NEVER sought to belittle Hillary because of her gender, and has never once stated that she was unfit to be President because of her gender. Obama has never attributed the results of a primary loss to women supporters of Hillary, and he has never used women as a wedge issue. Contrast that with Hillary's campaign, that belittled Barack's South Carolina win BEFORE the vote was even counted. Hillary has pushed the grossly inaccurate meme that Obama is an elitist who is out of touch with "hard working Americans, white Americans." (Me thinks that it is Hillary who has the far greater net worth, and me thinks it was Obama who became a community organizer instead of following lucrative job offers.)
I do not know how this race became a fight of men against women, and I want it to fucking stop. Look at the last fucking eight years and tell me if this bullshit sexism accusation helps anything. Does it help bring our troops home? Does it provide health care for our citizens? Does it return the right of Habeas Corpus? NO. It is the supreme height of arrogance and disdain to smear a candidate as being sexist, especially when it is immorally attributed.
To place the plight of "sexism" over the plight of "racism" is beyond irresponsible; it is bigoted and disgusting. Barack Obama has legally gained an insurmountable lead in the Democratic Primaries and Caucuses. To try and steal it from him is not only unethical, morally bankrupt, and childish; it is destructive to democracy.
In this country, people have the right to support whomever they wish for President. They even have the right to purposely destroy another candidate's chances. That does not make it moral. That does not make it acceptable. To those that wish to push the bigoted meme that Obama is a "sexist", it seems obvious to me that the general election does not matter to you if Hillary is not the nominee. I hope you can live with the consequences of your infantile behavior.
Steinbrenner signs Olbermann to baseball contract
New York- The New York Yankees have signed Keith Olbermann to a long term baseball contract. George Steinbrenner, owner, had this to say, "I have been a long time fan of Keith's nightly television show, "Countdown", and tonight he showed his hitting prowess. He has hit one of the biggest grand slams I have seen in my many years, and a few more long bombs like tonight's could help our team win the World Series this year." Mr Olbermann was not available for comment, as he was busy retching his stomach for the terrible reality that has been the Bush Administration.
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i wish he would have said the word he wanted to... who gives a shit if everyone else on tv would've thrown a fit and MSNBC got fined... would they really fire him after that?
I salute you, Mr Campaign manager guy... You promised us a speech better than the Sermon on the Mount, and served up confetti to boot.. oh wait it sucked balls You correctly identified that ALL the candidates were on the Michigan ballot... but wait no they weren't! You didn't let something as pesky as "Math", "Reality", or "Proper pitch and intonation" keep you from pushing your gal... math is for elites! You laugh at us mere mortals, and see into the future to know that something "bad" may happen to Obama... spreading your hate! So here's to you, mr Campaign manager guy.... (only to be enjoyed in the states that matter) Grab a fresh one, because you've earned it... mr "stupid I'm a crazy mindless" campaigner guy! 
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