text:
Inbred Peckerwood Empire
Wingnuts having to watch that pile of shit is the best revenge.
Update: Link fixt.
Posted by Roger at 9:48 AM 3 comments:
A Christmas Contest
Mike Allen, PoliticHo:
WE'RE GRATEFUL TO PLAYBOOKERS for being such a loyal, encouraging audience. Seven years ago, there were three of you. Now, there are 100,000 of you. Thank you for the grace for our errors, of omission or commission; for teaching us something fascinating, every single day; and for your passion for the very topics that we've devoted our life to illuminating. We're always anxious to serve you better, and are grateful for your suggestions about content, tone, format – anything. We answer every personal email: mallen@politico.com.
The first Roger Ailes reader to get a personal return e-mail from mallen@politico.com will win a valuable prize, worth at least $10 USD. All other readers will receive nothing more than the joy of knowing that Mike Allen has wasted his life. The winning entrant must provide a physical address to which the prize can be sent, or may designate a charity for receipt of the prize. E-mail replies from Mike Allen predating this announcement and automated replies are ineligible. Mike Allen and his immediate family, registered and unregistered lobbyists, and employees of Politico, the Chamber of Commerce, Morning Joe and the Hair Club for Men are ineligible. The winning Allen response will be published on this website, along with the recipient's e-mail if needed for context. Your e-mail address and any personal information will not be disclosed, but this website cannot indemnify you in the event of retaliation by Mike Allen.
Posted by Roger at 11:41 AM 1 comment:
Giáng Sinh Vui Vẻ
The 2013-2014 King William's College General Knowledge Paper
is available here.
"Let's have a great Christmas. Let's have a great year. Let's have the best year of our whole lives. We can, you know... this could be the best one ever."
Man-Child vs. Girly-Boy
I'd have to pick girly-boy by a TKO. You don't want to get anywhere near Little Richie's pajamas after he's encrusted them with his Sarah-starbursts.
Grand Old Police Blotter: Tennessee Pride Edition
No longer is Glenn Reynolds the most vile Republican in all of Tennessee:
WASHINGTON — A federal judge ordered a program of "high-intensity" home supervision Monday for Ryan Loskarn, who was fired last week as Sen. Lamar Alexander's chief of staff after being arrested on federal charges of possession and distribution of child pornography.
Officials believe that between November 2010 and March 2011, Loskarn made several purchases from a website offering child pornography DVDs. Loskarn was also accused of offering child pornography files for download from his home computer.
Court documents say that when law enforcement officials arrived to search his house, one official watched as Loskarn seemed to place an object outside a window. Officials later found a portable hard drive in that location, and a prosecutor said Monday that the drive contains at least 200 videos of child pornography.
The possession charge carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, while the distribution charge carries a minimum of five years and a maximum of 20.
Loskarn has been held in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service since his arrest.
Alexander, a Republican running for a third term in 2014, removed Loskarn from his Senate office payroll as soon as he learned of the investigation. Loskarn also worked for Alexander when the senator chaired the Senate Republican Conference, a post he stepped down from in 2011.
Loskarn had a track record as a highly regarded congressional aide for more than a decade. — more than once making Roll Call newspaper's "Fabulous 50 Movers and Shakers" list. He also once worked for Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn.
It is too much to hope that Reynolds would represent Loskarn as counsel in his criminal trial.
According to Roll Call, Loksarn was "one of the Senate GOP's top strategists and aides."
Posted by Roger at 5:17 PM 1 comment:
Fail, Fail Again
In support of the soon-to-be-pulped The Up Side of Down, the current promotional blurb from the publisher, on amazon.com:
Megan McArdle is a special correspondent for Newsweek/ The Daily Beast. A graduate of the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago, she has been a finance and economics correspondent for The Economist and a business columnist and blogger for The Atlantic. She lives with her husband, Peter, in Washington, D.C.
Special doesn't even begin to cover it.
And by the time Feb. 11, 2014 gets here, it will be Newsbusters/The Daily Caller.
Posted by Roger at 5:02 PM 2 comments:
The Universal Prayer
As an unethusiastic and increasingly frequent user of health care services, let me say that everyone should have access to the same health care I have received. Except for the people I like, who should only have access to the beneficial health care that I have received.
Posted by Roger at 11:07 AM 6 comments:
Know Your Conservative Heroes
The non-intern-paying New Republic has more on wingnuts who supported apartheid and attacked Nelson Mandela:
Reagan called the ANC "notorious terrorists," and, as late as 1988, called apartheid "a tribal policy more than ... a racial policy."
It wasn't just Reagan. Moral Majority leader Jerry Fallwell called [Desmond] Tutu a "phony" who didn't speak for South Africans blacks. He even urged Americans to support the Pretoria government. North Carolina Senator Jesse Helms filibustered the sanctions bill. Strom Thurmond and Phil Gramm likewise opposed it. And future vice-president Dick Cheney called Mandela a terrorist, saying in 2000 that he didn't regret his position. Pat Buchanan called Mandela a "train-bomber." The Heritage Foundation said America should stop calling for Mandela's release from prison. Pat Robertson, Grover Norquist, future Tea Party leaders, and current Republican Senators—all were on the books supporting the Apartheid government. When 35 House Republicans broke with the Reagan administration, the National Review called them "uppity," and Human Events called them a "lynch mob."
Of course, these attacks are only in the past because Mandela retired from public life -- and some of the wingnuts are no longer alive.
Here's a bonus wingnut hack attacking Mandela more recently.
Breaking News: Must Roger Credit!
Vice.com breaks a story about unpaid interns at liberal publications, and at The New Republic.
Roger Ailes broke the story months ago.
Whoever writes Silly Sully's shitty blog for him pretends Sully didn't know about the practice, despite the fact Sully worked for TNR.
Gawker has a good rundown on what the Right's greatest heroes said about Nelson Mandela in real time. One example:
Ron Paul: James Kirchick gave a good rundown of Ron Paul's hardline racist newsletters in a 2008 New Republic article, including this tidbit regarding what the newsletters had to say about Nelson Mandela: "South Africa's transition to multiracial democracy was portrayed as a 'destruction of civilization' that was 'the most tragic [to] ever occur on that continent, at least below the Sahara'; and, in March 1994, a month before Nelson Mandela was elected president, one item warned of an impending 'South African Holocaust.'"
Of course, no one will mourn Ron Paul's death and no one will ever cite a contribution Ron Paul has made to anything anywhere.
Alms For The Poor-Mouths
In the middle of National Review's latest latest beg-a-thon -- tied to Michael Mann's suit against NR and Mark Stain -- the fine print:
Sure, we have insurance, and the insurer is paying the bills. But the insurer doesn't pay the full fare, and I have to tell you, it is quite a fare. Quite. And now as we enter an intense phase of this case, where the legal hours will rise like the sea levels in Professor Mann's dreams, that fare will become ... stratospheric.
I'm expecting this will cost a couple hundred grand. And maybe more. Again, this is out of pocket.
It's lovely to imagine the rubes swallowing this shite. If NR's insurance company is paying to defend NR, NR shouldn't be incurring anything, unless they're demanding something special they didn't buy insurance for.
In a previous beg-a-thon, almost one year ago, NR claimed they'd raise over $100,000 in a week. And didn't mention that the insurance company was paying. Either the wingnuts grew some brains on Day 8, or NR got its 200K long, long ago.
C'mon, suckers, give 'til it hurts. NR can't defend itself unless Golberg's pantry is filled with Ring-Dings and Rich Lowry's booster seat is upholstered with 24 karat gold.
A Humble Request
I have had ongoing medical problems for some time, and have reached a point medically where doctors are recommending a treatment I hope to avoid. I have no reason to believe my doctors are wrong in their opinions, but am looking for an alternative solution. This requires that I locate a specialist who would be willing to pursue that solution (if such a thing exists). I have tried, and am currently trying, to find such a person myself, including through my current doctors and HMO, via internet/library research and speaking with family and friends, so far without luck. (For my sins, I have read my Evidence of Coverage cover-to-cover.) I will keep trying. If anyone has any suggestions about how to navigate such waters, I would be most grateful if you could contact me via e-mail (at rogerailes - at - hotmail.com) with any advice. Please be assured I will in no way seek to impose on you further than recieving your suggestions with unqualified gratitude.
So as not to confuse, this is not a request for medical advice but for an answer to the question "how does one find someone who may not exist to discuss a medical solution which may not exist?"
To everyone, I apologize for the vague, secretive and annoying nature of this post. I'm not dying (any more than everyone else is), or anything close to it, nor do my complaints deserve special consideration. Believe me, if I knew what else to do, this post would be a gag about Mickey Kaus or some other asshole.
"Roger"
Dog Fellates Man
Breaking: Mike Allen is a slap-headed whore.
Which is why he fits right in on "Morning Joe."
I made the mistake of turning on that clusterfuck this morning. In between the plenteous plugs for Banjo Boy's latest book, a human centipede comprised of Mike Brzezinski, Harold Ford Jnr., Donny Deutsch Jnr., Mark Halperin Jnr. and Nicole Wallace pretended that Brzezinski's high-school-aged daughter had raised a $100K for some charity, zero dollars of which derived by means other than Mika's shakedown of dolts looking for facetime on Morning Joe. (Ford Jnr. and Deutsch Jnr. acknowledged their shakedowns on the program.) Brzezinski's attempt to create the next Luke Russert/Peter Doocy was even more revolting that Brzezinski's standard insipidity.
Grand Old Police Blotter: Fort Myers Vice Edition
The latest Republicriminal to be arrested was caught enjoying a refreshing combination of tea and coke:
U.S. Rep. Trey Radel, the tea party freshman Republican from Fort Myers, was arrested Oct. 29 for cocaine possession in Washington D.C, Politico reported.
Radel, who faces a maximum of 180 days in jail and a fine of up to $1,000, was charged Tuesday in D.C. Superior Court with misdemeanor cocaine possession and is scheduled to appear in court on Wednesday.
A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police Department said the agency has no record of Radel's arrest; the U.S. Attorney's office for the District of Columbia declined comment. Radel couldn't be reached. [Try Rob Ford's place -- R.A.]
If Radel had been arrested in his home state for cocaine possession, he would have faced far more-serious consequences than in Washington. The crime is a felony in Florida, where Radel would have lost his voting and other civil rights had he been convicted in state court.
Another contrast between DC and Florida: If the congressman had been a state worker, he would face termination under Gov. Rick Scott, who wants to drug test state employees.
If the anti-choice "libertarian" falls, the FL G.O.P. has another Tea Party favorite ready to take his place in the War on Women on Drugs, time off for good behavior permitting:
A Florida judge on Tuesday set bail for George Zimmerman at $9,000 and ordered a number of conditions for his freedom -- including that he not possess weapons -- while he awaits trial on charges he pointed a shotgun at his girlfriend.
He was released from the John E. Polk Correctional Facility on Tuesday afternoon. He didn't speak with the media.
Zimmerman was arrested Monday at his girlfriend's Apopka home, four months after he was acquitted of murdering teenager Trayvon Martin.
A prosecutor revealed a new allegation against Zimmerman while trying to argue for a higher bail -- that Zimmerman tried to choke his girlfriend a week and a half before Monday's alleged shotgun incident, and that Zimmerman had talked about suicide.
Sing us out, Elvis!
Sead more here: http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpolitics/2013/11/report-tea-party-rep-trey-radel-busted-for-personal-cocaine-possession.html#storylink=cpy
The Teabaggers' Salman Rushdie
Dylan Davies received a hand-delivered death threat, but unwisely forgot to smash the courier's face in with his rifle.
Consequently, the man of action is unavailable to substantiate his all-true tales of derring-do untl further notice.
Logan Buries The Lede The Truth
CBS' 60 Minutes tells a truth about its lies:
"We end our broadcast tonight with a correction," Logan said this Sunday. She used Jones's real name, Dylan Davies. when an incident report surfaced. It told a different story about what he did the night of the attack." Davies, she said, "insisted the story he told us was not only accurate, it was the same story he told the F.B.I. when they interviewed him." When "60 Minutes" learned on Thursday that, in fact, the F.B.I. report "was different from what he told us, we realized we had been misled, and it was a mistake to include him in our report. For that we are very sorry. The most important thing to every person at '60 Minutes' is the truth. And the truth is, we made a mistake."
This is, in many ways, an odd statement and an understatement. To say that the incident report "surfaced" and told "a different story" isn't quite adequate: Karen DeYoung, of the Washington Post, obtained it, and it was apparently already among the papers turned over to Congress. The discrepancies extended to Davies's location that night: he was not in the compound at all but, rather, in his "beach side villa." ("We could not get anywhere near," the report read.)
"After the broadcast, she said, 'questions arose about whether his account was true....'"
Exactly so.
So eager was CBS to spread Davies' conservative bullshit that it performed no investigation into whether that account was true. CBS and Logan never raised any questions before broadcasting Davies' fairy tale.
And who exactly would raise questions about Davies' account on 60 Minutes BEFORE HE APPEARED ON THE FUCKING PROGRAM AND GAVE THAT FUCKING ACCOUNT? People who had never seen that account because they didn't have access to the interview foorage, or the bullshit book CBS was publishing? If you're going to broadcast bullshit, saying that no one called you on your bullshit before you broadcast it is neither a defense nor an apology. It's an admission of gross incompetence.
60 Minutes preferred to turn a doughy-looking mope into an action hero just to keep the Benghazi lies alive. Until they clean house, 60 Minutes is no more credible that NewsBusters or Breitbart News.
When Is A Jury Trial Not A Jury Trial?
Dan Abrams' right-wing media website Mediaite (aka NewsBusters for Profound Dummies), declares that a jury acquitted Sam Donaldson of a DUI charge via verdict:
Verdict Reached in ABC Reporter Sam Donaldson's DUI Trial
A jury on Friday acquitted veteran ABC anchorSam Donaldson of DUI charges filed against him late last year.
The Delaware trial reportedly lasted five hours and, following his acquittal, the veteran reporter strode over to the officer who'd arrested him and told her: "You did your duty as you saw fit. I bear no animus toward you whatsoever.
GEORGETOWN — A Sussex County judge dismissed charges against former ABC political correspondent Sam Donaldson, who last year was arrested in Lewes and charged with driving drunk.
Judge Rosemary Beauregard said the arresting officer's report was incomplete and a failed sobriety test was improperly administered.
Donaldson appeared Nov. 8 in a nearly empty Sussex County courtroom. The state would call only one witness – arresting officer Katie Couchman of Lewes Police Department. Couchman testified she stopped Donaldson about 8 p.m., Dec. 1, 2012, because he was driving on the shoulder of the road, to the right of the westbound lane.
You'd think that Dan Abrams would employ people who could rewrite articles accurately, if not actually understand and/or distinguish between complex legal concepts like "judge" and "jury."
Posted by Roger at 12:18 PM 1 comment:
Confidential to A Head Case
These people, assuming they exist:
Like Bridget Jones's "smug marrieds," the "smug insureds" — friends who were covered through their own or spouses' employers or who were grandfathered into their plans — asked why I didn't "just" switch all of our long-term doctors, suck it up and pay an extra $200 a month for a restrictive network on the exchange, or marry the guy I'm dating. How romantic: "I didn't marry you just to save money, honey. I married you for your provider network."
Were just rubbing your nose in this:
At their core, they pose one of the most complicated, painful, and pervasive dilemmas many single women are forced to grapple with nowadays: Is it better to be alone, or to settle?
My advice is this: Settle! That's right. Don't worry about passion or intense connection. Don't nix a guy based on his annoying habit of yelling "Bravo!" in movie theaters. Overlook his halitosis or abysmal sense of aesthetics. Because if you want to have the infrastructure in place to have a family, settling is the way to go. Based on my observations, in fact, settling will probably make you happier in the long run, since many of those who marry with great expectations become more disillusioned with each passing year. (It's hard to maintain that level of zing when the conversation morphs into discussions about who's changing the diapers or balancing the checkbook.)
See. They're only concerned about your happiness.
(Apparently "contributing editor at The Atlantic" doesn't come with health benefits.)
Happy 10th Anniversary to Echidne of the Snakes!
Tin, aluminium or bitcoins make appropriate gifts.
Logan's Rum
Another Teabag fairy tale exploded:
The correspondent for the disputed "60 Minutes'' segment about the attack on the United States Special Mission in Benghazi, Libya, last year apologized on the air Friday morning, saying it was a "mistake'' to put on a security officer whose credibility has since been undermined by his diverging accounts of his actions that night.
The reporter, Lara Logan, said on "CBS This Morning'' that the news division was misled by the officer, adding, "We will apologize to our viewers, and we will correct the record on our broadcast on Sunday night."
The apology followed disclosure by The New York Times on Thursday evening that the security contractor, Dylan Davies, had provided the F.B.I. an account that contradicted a version of events he provided in a recently published book and in the interview with "60 Minutes," which was broadcast on Oct. 27.
Mr. Davies told the F.B.I. that he was not on the scene until the morning after the attack.
For those unfamiliar with Davies, this sums him up pretty well: "Davies['] motivation to lie presumably has something to do with the fact that he is coming out with a book about alleged warnings that he gave the U.S. government about security flaws before the attack."
Let's go behind of the scenes with the crack investigative news team at 60 Minutes, which is not at all similar to the late Mike Levey's "Amazing Discoveries" (since Mike's financial conflict of interest was blatantly obvious, rather than concealed)":
"He denied that [incident] report [to his employer]," Ms. Logan said, "and he said that he told the F.B.I. the same story that he had told us. But what we now know is that he told the F.B.I a different story to what he told us. And, you know, that was the moment for us when we realized that we no longer had confidence in our source. And that we were wrong to put him on air."
That magic moment!
You can't put anything past Logan, if someone else does her job for her after the fact. What we now know is that the CBS News division is infested with right-wing hacks.
Will Logan be axed? I Rather doubt it.
But if she is, Breitbart News is hiring.
Like Father, Like Scum
The Paul family has an interesting relationship with the hired help.
1. Ron Paul hires racists to ghostwrite the racist "Ron Paul Newsletter," then claims ignorance of the newsletter's content and asserts he's not responsible for the work of his ghostwriters. Of course, Paul keeps the money from the sale of his racist newsletters.
2. Rand Paul hires the racist "Southern Avenger" to ghostwrite his book, The Tea Party Goes to Washington and work on his Senate staff, then allows the racist ghostwriter to resign when his past is revealed. Of course, Paul keeps the money from his book sales.
3. Rand Paul has his Senate staff ghostwrite his second book, speeches and Moonie Times column using plagiarized material. When he's caught, Paul plays the victim but refuses to fire the responsible staffers, presumably because they would reveal the extent of Paul's personal involvement in the theft of intellectual property. Of course, Paul keeps the money from his book sales, speeches and column.
I'm sensing a trend.
Trotter Ends His Run
Being remembered for this must be something of a mixed legacy:
Dishes from the final week of menus included poached white asparagus with charred broccolini, manchego cheese and red pepper essence and root beer leaf ice cream with vanilla cremeaux and birch syrup-infused meringue.
Better than being remembered for this, I guess:
In August, almost a year to the day after the restaurant closed, [Charles] Trotter kicked out high school students who had been invited to showcase their artwork from an after-school program in the former restaurant. One student said Trotter "went ballistic" when their instructor declined the chef's request that they sweep floors and clean toilets.
Location: Senegal
The Hayes Code
Charlotte Hayes, last seen being struck by a sedan in Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita, wishes to deliver a spanking to Rush Limbaugh, Chris Christie, Bill Bennett and Ted Cruz:
Obesity, the product of a lack of discipline, sloppy dressing, loud and intimate cellphone chats broadcast to a captive audience and foul language nonchalantly uttered in the ATM line are all forms of this "self-expression" [i.e., "White Trash"ism].
What really cheeses Char off is that it's white people who are letting it all hang out. She only attacks pale peckerwoods, aka, "White Trash," and not their darker cousins. She believes either that non-whites are beyond reproach, beyond salvation, or not an appropriate subject for discussion in polite society. What gives the game away is that she truly believes there was a time when whites weren't trash.
Students of Arnold Toynbee, the English historian, will recognize what is going on here. In a chapter of his "A Study of History" entitled "Schism in the Soul," Toynbee argued that it is a sign that a society is disintegrating when it takes its cues for manners and customs from the underclass. He describes such societies as being "truant" to their own values.
Toynbee is the guide to what we see all around us today.
And students of veterinary science will recognize horseshit when they read it.
Last year, "Here Comes Honey Boo Boo," which features a cornucopia of social ills, was TLC's highest-rated show, attracting more cable viewers than the Republican National Convention, which had the misfortune to share the time slot with the charmers from Georgia. The show's matriarch, June Shannon, has four daughters by four men, one of whose names she can't recall.
TLC's ratings were 47 percent higher, if I'm not mistaken.
In addition to loud-bodied fatties and public-space vulgarians, Hayes lays into stamped tramps, including one presumably easily-identifable slapper who showed up for Heritage Foundation cocktails sporting Chi Omega ink.
My young friend wore a "bespoke" tattoo, which means it was designed in consultation with an "artist." In my mind, it bespoke volumes.
800 words in the N.Y. Post just to shame one hep-C deserving slut. Now that's uberclassy!
Has A Man Ever Delivered A Baby?
Top three (polite) responses, survey says:
Yes. I was delivered by a man, or so I'm told.
Has a baby ever been conceived without a man?
Has a woman ever contracted testicular cancer?
Corrections and Amplifications
From the Wall Street Journal, 10/29/13:
An earlier version of this post stated that Mr. Furley's wife had a taxpayer-funded abortion. Mr. Furley was unmarried. Further, the Wall Street Journal has not been able to confirm independently the claim that Larry Dallas obtained roofies through Medicare Part D. We regret being caught.
Roger's FAQ
Does the Affordable Care Act cover the Thighmaster?
Your Articles of Incorporation Won't Get You Into Heaven Anymore
Here's one part of Obamacare that's working perfectly.
Suck on it, libertarian fundies.
(Via LG&M.)
Governor P90XXXL
Chris C. meets Shaun T.:
Among [Governor] Christie's efforts, Kulkarni certifies, is a healthy diet and regular exercise, doing aerobic and resistance-training exercise four days a week for an hour at a time.
After the February lap band surgery, Christie "has been losing weight steadily," according to Kulkarni.
Christie/Ryan '16, the Insanity ticket. Lose the weight, keep the hate.
Correction: I am reliably informed that it is Shaun T., not Shawn T. It still rhymes with auntie. I regret the error.
Update: There does appear to be a dispute about Mr. T.'s height. Per Google:
Shaun T
Shaun Thompson, better known as Shaun T, is an American fitness trainer and choreographer best known for his Insanity and Hip-Hop Abs home fitness programs for adults and children. He measures 6 feet 1 inch tall and weighs 175 pounds.
Born: May 2, 1978 (age 35),
Deptford Township, NJ
Height: 5' 11" (1.80 m)
Education: Rowan University
Roger's Plug and Play
When you do your Christmas shopping for dear ol' Rog, be sure not to get me Critical Mass by James Wolcott (491 pages. Doubleday). It will already be in my hot little hands and undergoing its third reading by Black Friday.
I've also asked the local libraries to order copies, so I can read them and keep my personal copy of the tome in anal-retentive pristine condition.
Be sure to ask your local bookseller for "Wolcott's Critical Mass," lest she try to palm off the latest Sara Paretsky novel or a bicycle ride around San Francisco instead of the real goods.
Comfort Food For The Smug
At least it's not Jonah Goldberg's Boston baked beans.
Taft Punk
Every blogger and her sister has had fun at the expense of Peggy Nooners and her exclusive interview with Bob Taft's Wikipedia page. I cannot improve on that ridicule, but I have discovered several transcription errors in Noonan's recapitulation of their Socratic exchange.
Herewith, the record straight:
Senator?
Oh, Christ. Not this loon.
Go away, I'm dead. I have no powers of thought or speech.
Why did they call you "Mr. Republican"?
I was a powerful Republican Senator. You may have read about that on my Wikipedia page.
What is the purpose of a party?
To amass and wield political power. A political party is not a fucking car.
He feels more sympathy toward the tea party than the establishment.
That's not a question. What kind of interview is this?
The establishment?
That's not even a complete sentence. What the fuck is wrong with you?
Of course I side with the establishment. My father was the fucking President. I was in politics my whole adult life. I supported big business over labor, and government activism in support of big business. I wasn't some Bible-humping halfwit like Sarah Palin or Rand Paul. I wouldn't let a bunch of amateurs and cranks tell me how to run the G.O.P. And I wouldn't stoop to piss on Andrew Breitbart.
What should the establishment do?
You're not listening, Nooners. You're going to write some idiotic article where you claim to speak for me and characterize me as a Tea Partier, aren't you? You need to be institutionalized.
How will a big merge happen?
I thought you had a kid years ago. I'm not a gynecologist, for Christ's sake.
See you in Hell.
You'll Never Write Anything Better Than Lanark
Happy 10th anniversary to The 100 Greatest Novels of All Time.
Don't even think about writing one of the 100 greatest novels of all time; they've already been written.
The RepubliKlan Party WIll Rise Again
Ted Cruz and Sharia Palin have joined Krazy Kounsellor Klayman and Confederate flag waving wingnuts outside the White House outside the White House to show "Respect for Our Vets."
I would do so, but geography prevents me from pissing on a Confederate's grave at present.
Update: Who knew that a couple hundred racists and three carnival freaks = a Million Veterans? I blame the New Math.
Best cross ever, from today's New York Times crossword:
2 Down: Like a control freak (4 letters)
15 Across: Trailing (9 letters)
Update (10/19) : Answers:
INTHEREAR
Update (10/25): This was the highlight of my month -- Will Shortz on buttseks in The Grey Lady. I guess it's just me.
Of Being Sick and Tired
Spent the last week away from the computer on doctors' advice. But I'm back on my feet, for the time being at least.
If I disappear again, send Ted Cruz's search party.
Ask Questions Later
This is a question that I haven't seen a good answer to: Why was the woman who allegedly tried to illegally pass a security checkpoint near the White House shot and killed?
I'm not saying the shooting was wrong; I'm saying I haven't seen the justification for it. She injured people and endangered people when she fled the scene, no question. It would seem that shooting at the driver of a speeding vehicle, one which has an infant inside, also risks endangering people. The question should be: were the lives of police officers who shot her or anyone else's life immediately in danger, such that the shooting was the best (if not only) way to prevent further loss of life or injury to innocent bystanders.
If the following account is correct, it appears the threat had been eliminated before the woman was shot:
Several minutes later, officers appeared to have the woman cornered in front of the western side of the Capitol facing the National Mall. But as officers, with their weapons drawn, approached Ms. Carey's car, she rammed it into reverse.
Officers tried to dodge out of the way, but the Infiniti struck a police car and raced up Constitution Avenue, where it crashed into a barrier.
What occurred next was not clear. Ms. Carey managed to get out of the car, and was shot by several officers. According to a law enforcement official, she was not armed, and it was not known whether she presented an immediate danger.
Was not known to whom, at what time? By the official when he was asked by the reporter, or by the officers who shot her right before they shot her?
I can see where it might be reasonable to assume that the woman had violent intentions even after she left her disabled vehicle. But was there a reasonable concern that she had the ability to commit violence once she outside her car?
Posted by Roger at 12:15 PM 7 comments:
Dropped By A Deuce
The star of "The Hot Chick" didn't leave the Democratic Party, the Democratic Party left the star of "The Hot Chick." Rob Schnider, the actor known for making "makin' copies" the catch phrase of the 1990s is no longer a Democrat, because Adam Sandler prefers working on the East Coast big government has ruined his movie career:
"The last time I made a movie in California was seven years ago," he said. "And that's because we're not being competitive. I own a vitamin company with my friend and we moved out of state because of overregulation. It isn't helping businesses."
The Democratic Party's also the reason Rob's castmates Phil Hartman and Chris Farley haven't made a movie in seven years, amirite? At least Victoria Jackson's still got a film career.
Rob fails to mention where his failed sitcom, his work on "Betty White's Off their Rockers" and his cartoon voiceover work were venued. I'm guessing Alabama.
But Schneider isn't a social conservative yet. Like Sarah Palin, he still loves the dick jokes:
I went to my doctor and told him "my penis is burning." He said, "That means somebody is talking about it."
Bill O'Reilly on line one, Robmeister. Strike while the iron is hot!
Breaking 'Bag
They did it for them. They liked it. It made them feel alive.
A Housekeeping Note of Staggering Genius
Those seeking to enter into correspondence with Roger Ailes the blog may reach this blog via e-mail at rogerailes @ hotmail.com or rogerailes @ outlook.com.
The fastmail.fm account for this blog is no longer active.
Allan West, Crucified on the Cross of Political Correctness
Allen West is the latest victim of the P.C. Police and identity politics:
Two sources familiar with what happened told BuzzFeed that West had gotten into an argument with a female employee and called her a "Jewish American princess" while telling her to "shut up." Reached by phone, West told BuzzFeed he was leaving his job voluntarily, though one source familiar with the situation told BuzzFeed he had been fired..."No I didn't get fired," West said. "I'm leaving to pursue political aspirations. That's it. There'll be a statement that comes out and it's effective in October." Asked specifically whether he referred to the employee as a "Jewish American princess," West said simply, "There was an exchange, that's all."
I'm not understanding why this didn't go over well at Depends Media.
Surely other vocal opponents of political correctness will denounce the enemies of free speech who have silenced a great man. I fully expect Glenn Reynolds to resign out of principle in response to Aubrey Chernick's attack on a black man, and for FOX News to double the brother's salary now that's he's out of his other job due to ethnic sensitivity run amok. This can only be made right by Depends' immediate reinstatement of West, and the termination of the woman who -- like so many others -- has slandered Col. West.
And, if not, Al's just wrapped up his victory in that Florida Senate race.
Why Can't Billy Count?
Billy Jacobsen, the third worst blogging law professor in the U.S., displays his mad McArdle skillz in defense of his dinosaur pals.
He's unhappy with the Gallup headine "Tea Party Support Dwindles to Near Record Low," so he reimagines the hed as "Opposition to Tea Party drops to near record low." Gallup is trying to trick you sheeple, by the use of graphs which illustrate its point.
Gallup plots Tea Party support at its highest in 2010, at 32 percent, and at its lowest in 2011, at 21. Current support is 22 percent, a number immediately adjacent to the record low of 21.
Gallup plots Tea Party opposition at its highest in 2012, at 29 percent, and at its lowest in 2011, at 21. Current opposition is at 27, two percentage points from its high and six percentage points from its record low. Closer to higher than lower, and five more percentage points above its record low than TP support is. In no conceivable interpretation of the English language is Tea Party opposition near a record low. It's near its record high.
Billy's beef is that Tea Party support was actually lower in 2012 (21 percent) and then rose before falling again. Says he: "Tea Party support is significantly lower than three years ago, but about where it was two years ago. So the drop took place two years ago, not recently as the Gallup headline (picked up in the mainstream media) would have you believe."
But Tea Party support climbed to 26 percent in early 2012, and has dropped since then to 22. Thus, as Gallup correctly asserts, Tea Party support has dwindled from the last measurements, and it is now at a near-record low. The hed says nothing temporal, except the implied statement that Tea Party support was even lower in the past (when it was at the record low). There's nothing inaccurate, or misleading, about the Gallup hed.
Even PolitiFact wouldn't try to get away with Billy's bullshit.
Billy Jake also posits that if you eat dinner with four other people representing the American electorate, one diner would be a Tea Party supporter. He'll be the one playing with his food.
It's Always Sunny in Galt's Gulch
Libertarian Fonzie is at it again, leading the advance team for our newest Objectivist Messiah. This time, it's Rafael Cruz as "The Beaver":
Six years ago, it was Ron Paul who would lead us to the Promised Land if we clapped until we were clapped out:
When a fierce Republican foe of the wars on drugs and terrorism is able, without really trying, to pull in a record haul of campaign cash on a day dedicated to an attempted regicide, it's clear that a new and potentially transformative force is growing in American politics.
Well, Ron didn't make it to the mountain top, but Randy surely will:
In such a compromised moral and political universe, characters such as Rand Paul and Justin Amash are not just rare but necessary. We need more of them. Their willingness to articulate governing principles and then legislate accordingly is the reason they are leading an ideological insurgency in the Republican Party and stoking what outlets from The Atlantic to NPR to the Post are recognizing as a "libertarian moment."
(A libertarian moment is when the Invisible Hand forgets your grandchildren's names.)
And if not Randy, surely Rafael:
There's every reason to believe that the future belongs to the wacko birds and their general, transpartisan message that government is too big and too powerful. The trend throughout the 21st century, reports Gallup, is increasing skepticism toward Washington, D.C. The trend is particularly pronounced among all-important independent voters, who make up a plurality of the electorate. In 2003, 45 percent of them thought the government was too powerful. Now it's 65 percent. They will vote for candidates—and a party—pushing limiting government.
There's got to be a pony in here somewhere! as Libertarian Moses once said.
Nick Gillespie is head crossing guard at the Great Man School of Libertarian History. One of these days, he keeps insisting, a visionary man -- it's always a man -- on the public payroll will inspire the yokels to cast of their chains and renounce the minimum wage. It's practically here. Why can't you see it?
P.S. Being a libertarian and a writer for The Daily Beast means never having to check facts. In his Cruz piece, Libertarian Fonzie demonstrates the same devotion to factual accuracy that led him and Matt Welch to falsely accuse "Janet Reno's FBI" of gunning down people at Waco:
It was like an old Chip and Dale routine from Looney Tunes, where the two excruciating chipmunks couldn't stop complimenting each other.
That's all, folks.
(Cruz link via Roy E.)
...It's Blowing Those You Know
The New Republic has shocking news:
The list of interns who toiled in the executive mansion during the summer of 2013 included the offspring of Ron Klain, the former Joe Biden former chief of staff; Steve Rattner, the financier and onetime car czar; Don Baer, the communications powerhouse and former Clinton administration speechwriter; and Margaret Hamburg, the Food and Drug Administration commissioner. There's also a young man named Summers,whose father will not be chairing the Federal Reserve—though it's safe to say his family had a certain familiarity with the White House and other corridors of power before he landed that internship.
The proud parents of the class of 2013 also included Raghuveer Nayak, a Chicago democratic donor and fundraiser for former Illinois pols Jesse Jackson Jr. and Rod Blagojevich (he also donated $19,800 to Obama between 2004 and 2009). There was also a scion of the Lerner family, the real estate titans who own the Washington Nationals, and children of at least two different VIPs among influential Washington law firms: Winston & Strawn'sTimothy Broas and Holland & Knight's Rich Gold.
I was an unashamed beneficiary of nepotism in my youth. The only hitch was that jobs I got through nepotism were uniformly shitty -- landscaper's assistant, hospital kitchen worker, substitute teacher, etc. So my main beef with nepotism is that my relatives are all miserable failures.
But at least I got paid. Not only do these prestigious interships only go to the well-connected, the portions are so small mummy and daddy are footing the bill:
A recently launched operation called the Fair Pay Campaign aims to bring attention to the White House's failure to pay its interns. Mikey Franklin, the campaign's founder, said the White House is just the first target in his crusade against the rise of the unpaid internship. "It's an obvious place to start," he said, because the White House should be a model for the rest of the country. "It's a particularly egregious case."
I guess Mikey won't like this either,
The New Republic will hire both Politics intern [sic] and Books and Arts interns. To apply, submit a resume and cover letter to ebreger@tnr.com with the subject "Fall Web Internship." The cover letter should explain why the applicant is interested in working at The New Republic and specify if the application is for the Politics or the Books and Arts internship. The internships are full-time, unpaid, and based in the D.C. office.
I'm guessing the salt of the earth didn't get a callback for those slots either.
The Butthurt of Dylan Byers, The Man Who Would Be Kurtz
Dylan "PoliticHo" Byers is crestfallen that his crush, Ted "Filibuster Bluth" Cruz, gets no respect from the media outlets Byers hates:
Yes, the difference between filibustering and grandstanding plays a part. Equally important is the fact that Cruz's theatrics are frustrating members of his own party. But, part of the disparity in coverage is due to the fact that the mainstream media, generally speaking, don't admire Cruz the way they admired [Wendy] Davis — or rather, they admire him only insofar as he makes for tragicomic theater, whereas they admired her on the merits.
Cruz is portrayed in the media as "aimless and self-destructive" (NYT ed board), elitist (GQ) and likely guided more by presidential aspirations than principles (CNN). Josh Marshall, the editor and publisher of Talking Points Memo, had no qualms about coming right out and calling Cruz, his former Princeton colleague, an "arrogant jerk" — and worse.
These portrayals may be accurate or inaccuarate — Cruz certainly has an elitist strain and he certainly has political ambitions. But that's not the point: The point is that the coverage of Cruz has been critical, and in some cases unforgiving, from the outset. At least initially, Davis wasn't viewed through a critical lens at all. Her willingness to stand for 11 hours was evidence of the American dream in action. Period.
Byers apparently reserves his greatest respect for Long Dong Strom, who lapped Davis twice with his 24-hour plus actual filibuster in 'Fifty-Seven. That marathon session was Byers' American Dream, because who besides the nefarious EMESSEM gives a shit about ends or goals or motives. Or "merits."
More fundamentally, Byers plays the EMESSEM canard from the bottom of the deck, failing to mention that such right-wing publications as the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post have also bashed Cruz's stunt, that the FOX News Channel has frequently fellated Cruz (and sometimes criticized him), or that supposedly liberal e-rags like The Daily Beast slandered Davis. Like every other dishonest wingnut, Byers pretends that the top-rated U.S. cable news channel, the newspaper with the largest national circulation, the newspaper with the seventh-largest national circulation and PoliticHo itself (publisher of this President Cruz fluffer, among others) aren't -- unlike GQ, Vogue and TPM -- part of the EMESSEM.
Byers is so dishonest that he purports to quote Peggy Nooners as conceding Davis' greatness. Is Byers a lying sack? Judge for yourself.
Update (two minutes later): I see Charles Pierce has already sliced and diced Byers like Ron Popeil's uncle on speed.
Ted Cruz's Fractured Fairy Tales
Ted Cruz will be reading these bedtime stories from the floor of the United States Senate this week:
Goodnight Loon
Hop on FOX
The 500 Toques of Bartholomew Cubbins
Only a Miracle Can Save America from the Red Conspiracy
Mi Lucha
Calling Doctor Howard, Doctor Fine, Doctor Howard
Mickey Kaus has just discovered that private hospitals -- including the one in which he was dropped on his head as an infant -- offer additional amenities for well-to-do patients. (Yes, now you can recuperate after childbirth in the equivalent of a Residence Inn, located atop an institute named for a billionaire advocate for socialized medicine who became wealthy via a U.S. government grant!)
Kaus frets that this means the best nurses will begin gravitating toward "VIP-high roller duties," unlike in all previous human history, when health care professionals clamored instead for the prestigious but poorly-paid duty of sponge bathing psychosomatic Slate bloggers earning high five figure salaries for 20 minutes of work a day.
The hairless hack's muddled point appears to be that Obamacare won't eliminate luxury medicine and is therefore a failure or, possibly, that Obamacare is not needed because luxury medicine exists. Either way: Obama sucks!
The only thing missing is Kaus's concern that ferriners are using high-end hospitals to drop anchor babies.
Try The Po' Boy (pg. 47) and Mitt's Grits (pg. 124)
For those of you who need help spreading peanut butter and marshmallow creme on white bread, help is at hand.
Home is where good things happen—and for the Romney family, the heart of the home is the kitchen. Ann Romney, wife of former Massachusetts governor and presidential candidate Mitt Romney, invites readers into her home and kitchen, combining some of her favorite foods with memories of raising a family.
Part "insider look," part cookbook, The Romney Family Table starts out with a unique blend of personal memories, homegrown traditions, and the foods that have made family events special. Join the Romneys for family nights, summers at the lake, Christmas Eve, and many other occasions, detailed in an intimate and welcoming style.
Then, indulge yourself in scores of additional mouthwatering recipes. From the simple (Fluffernutter Sandwiches) to the sophisticated (Peppered Pork Chops with Peach-Vinegar Glaze); from the Honey Wheat Bread Ann made regularly for five growing sons to the Buttermilk Pancakes she and Mitt shared with their Secret Service details at the end of Mitt's presidential campaign, these recipes will become treasures for you as they have been for the Romney family.
Which is to say, not at all.
Note: You will be asked to relinquish all mobile devices before you join the Romneys for family nights, summers at the lake, Christmas Eve and many other occasions.
Roger's Required Reading
"Moses Wine and the Curious Incident of the C*** in The White-House," by Roger L. Simon
Posted by Roger at 7:00 PM 23 comments:
Grand Old Police Blotter: No, That's Too Obvious Edition
Surprisingly, someone was arrested in Michele Bachmann's office who wasn't Michele Bachmann.
WASHINGTON — A top aide to Republican Rep. Michelle [sic] Bachmann of Minnesota has been arrested by the U.S. Capitol Police and charged with theft.
Senior legislative aide Javier Sanchez, 37, of Virginia, was arrested Thursday after an investigation into a series of thefts in the Rayburn House Office Building, where Bachmann's Washington office is located.
Bachmann spokesman Dan Kotman said Monday that Sanchez's employment was terminated the following day.
"Any further questions should be directed to Capitol Police," Kotman said.
Sanchez was charged with second-degree theft, indicating the stolen items were worth less than $1,000, according to Capitol Police spokesman Shennell Antrobus.
I blame the vaccine.
R.I.P. Michael Hastings
Journalist Michael Hastings, author of The Operators, died today in a car accident in Los Angeles.
Good News BoBos
From St. BoBo's epistle to the wingnuts:
Correction: June 14, 2013
An earlier version of this column misattributed a passage from Corinthians that ends with the statement, "God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong." The letter to the Corinthians is by Paul, not Jesus.
In the draft, he attributed it to Ricardo Montalban.
Let me speculate that Bobo didn't work his way through the U. of C. Or learn anything when he there.
Conflict of Interest Kurtz Strikes Again
The ash burns on Howie Kurtz's ass are getting more noticable by the minute.
Update: Erik Wemple keeps his speculation clean.
Posted by Roger at 7:06 AM 221 comments:
Libertarian Old Police Blotter: Joe Gone to Prison Edition
I can't find anything to tie Joe Francis to the Republican Party, although he shares many of the G.O.P.'s views on women. So I'll make this a "Libertarian Old Police Blotter."
Anyway, here's the good news:
Joe Francis of Girls Gone Wild fame has been accused of hitting girls in the past. But this time the charges stuck.
The L.A. City Attorney's office triumphantly stated that Francis was convicted by a jury today of "three counts of false imprisonment, one count of dissuading a witness from reporting, and one count of assault causing great bodily injury":
Prosecutors say the 40-year-old enticed three women into his limo outside Hollywood's Supperclub. Two of the women thought they were simply being driven to a parked car nearby. But no, the City Attorney's office says:
Instead Francis took them to his place and got into a physical altercation with two of the women as he tried to separate them from their companion.
If there's any justice, Joe will spend the next five years in prison. Congratulations to the prosecutors for their outstanding work.
As One Hack Falls, One Hundred Hacks Rise Up to Take His Place
Coverage of Howard Kurtz's sacking by The Daily Beast pays tribute to Kurtz by being just as hacktacular as Kurtz himself. A choice nugget:
The question of Kurtz's future, in terms of both reputation and relevance, now turns to CNN.
It took two people to write that.
It's all there in the PoliticHo article -- worthless anonymous quotes which insult but don't inform, "seems" and "it is unclear"s as hedges for ass-pulled speculation, Twitter reprints. It's almost as if Kurtz wrote it himself.
Dylan Byers is either laboring under the misimpression that his crap is superior to Kurtz's, or he knows his crap is just as bad and that his employer doesn't care.
Howard Kurtz's Conflicts of Interest Reduced By Nine Percent
So what does a right-wing hack do after failing downward from a Washington Post Co. property and a virtual joke (NewsBeast)?
He can follow his fellow hack, Mickey Kaus, and write bitter anti-immigrant screeds at the Daily Choler.
Don't worry, folks. Howie has several other jobs he can do poorly. I mean, what are the odds that CNN will wise up?
The Washington Post reports the story by defining irony down:
People familiar with both sides — media people ironically speaking anonymously about other media people — agree that there was mutual antagonism and tension for several months.
And then there's Maude:
Kurtz has expressed dissatisfaction with deep cutbacks and in his bureau site's increased emphasis on liberal commentary, including the addition of two former Obama administration officials as columnists.
Yet not a peep out of him about the hiring of Megan McArdle or "The Royalist."
But I repeat myself.
Fright or Flight
Eric Alterman makes a persuasive case for the worthlessness of Maureen Dowd.
Maureen Dowd herself makes the same case every time she is published:
"BARBARA BUSH is a word that rhymes with fright."
Blight?
Parasite?
Anti-semite?
My vote: Shite.
Posted by Roger at 11:48 AM 15 comments:
If You See Something, Say Something
You've probably seen reports that Tamerlan Tsarnaev was so radicalized and bloodthirsty that he disrupted a worship service by shouting because the imam was praising a religious pacifist:
Here's one account:
About three years ago, I saw Krauthammer flip out in synagogue on Yom Kippur. The rabbi had offered some timid endorsement of peace — peace essentially on Israel's terms — but peace anyway. Krauthammer went nuts. He actually started bellowing at the rabbi, from his wheel chair in the aisle. People tried to "shush" him. It was, after all, the holiest day of the year. But Krauthammer kept howling until the rabbi apologized. The man is as arrogant as he is thuggish. Who screams at the rabbi at services? For advocating peace?
Elsewhere, the man had frequently cheered the slaughter of innocents through bombing.
The mosque kicked Tsarnaev out of its congregation.
An Art Lover Inquires
How much do you think it would cost to commission a Jon McNaughton painting of Ben Carson battling Kermit Gosnell in the skies over Jerusalem, and call it "Undercard of The Armageddon"?
Plato and Bacon
The Man of Virtue sings of Bowdoin and the NAS:
[In his Forward to What Does Bowdoin Teach?, Bill] Bennett begins by asserting that "Plato… remarked that the two most important questions in society are 'Who teaches the children?' and 'What do they teach them?'" Unfortunately, Plato "remarks" no such thing, at least in any of the works known to me (I invite readers to correct me if I'm wrong). I suppose that the phrase could be a reasonable, if rather simplistic summary of Plato's thought about education. But the actual source appears to be a Michelle Malkin column. The phrase also appears, without a specific citation, on a number of cut-and-paste quote sites. Misquotation happens all the time, of course. But it's a bad start for a defense of traditional education–particularly one that claims that Bowdoin students aren't learning enough about Greek philosophy.
Here's something else Plato didn't say:
The children now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise.
And Plato wasn't talking about Butterbean Bennett when he didn't say it, though if the quote fits, wear it.
Anyway, had Plato answered the questions he didn't ask, his preferred answers would not have been "homeschoolers" and "wingnuttery." If one wanted to stoop to conquer, one could argue that Plato was Melissa Harris-Perry back in the day.
In the same two-page Forward, at page 10, Butterbean also uses a fake Lincoln quote.
Many institutions frown on this sort of thing.
But we shouldn't be too hard on Big Bill. When you pay someone minimum wage to bloviate under your name, you're bound to get inferior work product.
(link via Dr. Berube)
Posted by Roger at 12:25 PM 15 comments:
Shattered Ass
Ta-Nehisi Coates has an excellent post-mortem on the excremental Michael Kelly,
who wasn't so much a cheerleader for the invasion of Iraq but a pitbull, rabidly slavering his militaristic fantasies on anyone with spitting distance.
His apologists will claim he was only wrong in hindsight, but that's not true. As the excepts quoted by Coates illustrate, Kelly wasn't reporting facts, he was seeking to make things true by wishing them to be true (and doing so in a truly obnoxious manner).
Kelly was wretched. He was vile. He was contemptible.
And he was one of a rare breed to whom the phrase "hoist with his own petard" applies literally.
Ayn Rand Barbie Speaks
"Of course, predictions are hard, especially about the future."
No doubt McArdle will claim she's making a funny, but her whole column is chock full o' such boneheaded drivel.
At this point, it's just a matter of time. In some sense, the sexual revolution is over . . . and the forces of bourgeois repression have won.
That's right, I said it: this is a landmark victory for the forces of staid, bourgeois sexual morality. Once gays can marry, they'll be expected to marry. And to buy sensible, boring cars that are good for car seats. I believe we're witnessing the high water mark for "People should be able to do whatever they want, and it's none of my business." You thought the fifties were conformist? Wait until all those fabulous "confirmed bachelors" and maiden schoolteachers are expected to ditch their cute little one-bedrooms and join the rest of America in whining about crab grass, HOA restrictions, and the outrageous fees that schools want to charge for overnight soccer trips.
Either McArdle thinks the "sexual revolution" was a gays-only phenomenon or she thinks that the availability of marriage cannot coexist with the choices not to marry and to fuck without a wedding ring. And she's apparently never considered that equality of rights is a good thing independent of any desire to exercise such rights.
What McArdle actually thinks is that marriage is all about the accumulation of wealth and saying "screw you" to losers who are unlike her.
That's why McArdle has never supported marriage equality, and still does not. (She concedes the inevitability of marriage equality, but never the immorality of inequality.) And why she's hopeful that unmarried sluts and their bastards will once again suffer public prejudice and shame. Because the more people she can say "screw you" to, the happier she is.
(via alicublog)
The 2013-2014 King William's College General Knowl...
Your Articles of Incorporation Won't Get You Into ...
Allan West, Crucified on the Cross of Political Co...
The Butthurt of Dylan Byers, The Man Who Would Be ...
Grand Old Police Blotter: No, That's Too Obvious E...
Libertarian Old Police Blotter: Joe Gone to Prison...
As One Hack Falls, One Hundred Hacks Rise Up to Ta...
Howard Kurtz's Conflicts of Interest Reduced By Ni...


Life can get complicated. We all have things that help us get away from the daily grind. Follow montana matt and his wife as they find how fly fishing has fulfilled both their careers and their livelihood.
An official MF3 selection, this short films showcases the famous Montana Bonefish. Special thanks to Montana Matt and Tracy Moore.
Fly fishing brings you to some incredible places. This film captures the experience of fly fishing in some of the most unique and beautiful destinations out there.


Advanced editor and librarian for the Waldorf Blofeld. Runs as VST, AU or Stand-alone application.
An advanced editor for the Access Virus C, KC, Rack XL or lower models. Runs as VST, AU or Stand-alone application.
Click to subscribe to the reKon audio YouTube channel.
reKon audio has released their latest new product, the VST-AU Blofeld Editor today. The VST-AU Blofeld Editor™ is a real-time MIDI Synth Editor that allows you full control of every parameter of the sound on the Waldorf Blofeld Keyboard and Desktop model synthesizers running OS version 1.16B2, or the latest OS version 1.22 firmware. With it, you can view, manage and edit all your Patches, Banks, and Multi Programs with detail on the computer, visually. All parameters are fully automatable in your favorite VST or Audio Unit Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) host*, giving you the ability to visually program the hardware synthesizer along with your music via the DAW host sequencer. This ability to model your Patches in real-time, inside your main music production environment is part of what makes the VST-AU Blofeld Editor™ unique when compared to other hardware Synth Editors.
The software is supported under OSX 10.9 and Logic Pro X, as well as previous OSX versions 10.6 and higher. If you don't need or use a DAW host, you can still use all the features, manage your patches, and make real-time edits with the Standalone version.
The VST-AU Blofeld Editor comes in VST, Audio Unit and Standalone versions for both Mac OSX (10.6 and above), and Windows (XP and above).
* See product web pages for current DAW support.


To the completed exam of Navy Goa Group C Posts On 7th Feb 2019, the board will be scheduling the Goa Naval Area Result 2019 link activation in the month of March/April 2019. Ahead of the result outcome, candidates have to check the Goa Navy Group C Answer keys@hqgnanavyciviliansrect.com.
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Abstract : Safety is a prevalent issue in intelligent transport systems (ITS). To ensure such a vital requirement, methodologies must offer support for the careful design and analysis of such systems. Indeed these steps must cope with temporal and spatial constraints associated with mobility rules and parallelism which induce a high complexity. Here we handle the problem of unexpected and uncontrollable vehicles which significantly endanger the traffic. In this context, we propose to apply discrete control theory to a model of automatic motorway in order to synthesize a controller that handles collision avoidance. This approach includes two parts: the design of a formal model and an efficient implementation based on hierarchical decision diagrams.


This is NOT from 'The Onion'.
A Japanese company has ordered all 2,700 of its employees to get identical hairstyles – to help save energy.
Tokyo-based Maeda Corporation announced the move as part of a national campaign to reduce energy consumption in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear disaster in March.
Men are expected to sport a short back-and-sides, slightly longer on the top, while women have been asked to wear a 'cute' bob with a fringe that can be swept to one side.
'We are not sure of the data yet, but we believe if people have short hair they do not need to use their hair driers for so long and they will use less water.
There is another advantage for employees of the construction firm, Ms Inoue added, as it is easter to make short hair neat again after staff have been wearing hard hats.
She said a lot of staff had been calling for information on where they can get their hair cut in the correct style.
Since the Fukushima Dai-Ichi was destroyed in the earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan in March, the coutry's government has asked its people to slash their energy consumption.
The disaster led to a review of the country's energy policy that has left less than a quarter of its remaining nuclear plants still in use.
Without approval to restart reactors being taken down for maintenance, all of Japan's reactors could be shut by next May, adding more than $30billion a year to the nation's energy costs.


text:
Case having display window and mobile terminal having the case
A case having a display window and a mobile terminal having the case that suppress damage due to static electricity applied to a display window are provided. The case of a mobile terminal for covering a display device thereof includes: a case body in which a window space for exposing a panel of the display device is formed; and a display window attached to a peripheral edge of the window space and having an EMI protection layer formed around a peripheral edge of the display window. Static electricity applied to the display window of the case is thereby grounded through the EMI protection layer formed in the display window, thus suppressing damage of an external appearance of the display device due to static electricity.
Seo, In Su (Suwon-si, KR)
Choi, Ju Sik (Suwon-si, KR)
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (Suwon-si, KR)
455/575.4
H04M1/02
20050148343 System and apparatus for time zone interrupt for world wide mobile telephone users July, 2005 Perlmutter
20050245232 Emergency response mission support platform November, 2005 Jakober et al.
20090161616 RANGING PROCEDURE IDENTIFICATION OF ENHANCED WIRELESS TERMINAL June, 2009 Ramesh et al.
20080214252 Handheld electronic keypad access case September, 2008 Oten et al.
20040203783 Wireless network handoff key October, 2004 Wu et al.
20100022237 MULTI-MODE COMMUNICATION SYSTEM January, 2010 Wallis et al.
20040263482 On a substrate formed or resting display arrangement December, 2004 Goertz
20020019230 Cellular radio telecommunications network February, 2002 Bhatoolaul et al.
20050119032 Optical messaging June, 2005 Airas
20080167019 METHODS AND SYSTEMS OF PROVIDING STATUS MESSAGE CALLING FEATURES July, 2008 Guedalia et al.
20050215284 Collaborative coexistence with dynamic prioritization of wireless devices September, 2005 Su et al.
CUMMING, WILLIAM D
Docket, Clerk (P.O. DRAWER 800889, DALLAS, TX, 75380, US)
1. A case of a mobile terminal for covering a display device thereof, comprising: a case body in which a window space for exposing a panel of the display device is formed; and a display window attached to a peripheral edge of the window space and having an electromagnetic interference (EMI) protection layer formed around a peripheral edge of the display window.
2. The case of claim 1, wherein the EMI protection layer is formed at a peripheral edge of a display window area through which the panel of the display device is exposed.
3. The case of claim 2, wherein the display window has a first surface facing the panel of the display device and a second surface opposite to the first surface and exposed to the outside, and wherein the EMI protection layer is formed around a peripheral edge of at least one of the first surface and the second surface.
4. The case of claim 3, wherein the EMI protection layer is formed around the peripheral edge of the first surface.
5. The case of claim 4, wherein the EMI protection layer comprises silver (Ag) and nickel (Ni).
6. The case of claim 5, wherein the EMI protection layer is formed using one of spray, sputtering, deposition, and attaching an EMI tape.
7. The case of claim 6, further comprising a coated layer formed between the display window and the EMI protection layer.
8. The case of claim 7, further comprising a primer layer formed between the coated layer and the EMI protection layer.
9. A mobile terminal comprising: a lower case; a display device provided within the lower case so that a panel of the display device faces outwards from the lower case; and an upper case coupled to the lower case to cover the display device, the upper case comprising a case body in which a window space for exposing a panel of the display device is formed, and a display window attached to a peripheral edge of the window space and having an EMI protection layer formed around a peripheral edge of the display window.
10. The mobile terminal of claim 9, wherein the EMI protection layer is formed at a peripheral edge of a display window area through which the panel of the display device is exposed.
11. The mobile terminal of claim 10, wherein the display window has a first surface facing the panel of the display device and a second surface opposite to the first surface and exposed to the outside, and the EMI protection layer is formed around a peripheral edge of at least one of the first surface and the second surface.
12. The mobile terminal of claim 11, wherein the EMI protection layer is formed around the peripheral edge of the first surface.
13. The mobile terminal of claim 12, wherein the EMI protection layer comprises silver (Ag) and nickel (Ni).
14. The mobile terminal of claim 13, wherein the EMI protection layer is formed using one of spray, sputtering, deposition, and attaching an EMI tape.
15. The mobile terminal of claim 14, wherein the upper case further comprises a coated layer formed between the display window and the EMI protection layer.
16. The mobile terminal of claim 15, wherein the upper case further comprises a primer layer formed between the coated layer and the EMI protection layer.
17. The mobile terminal of claim 16, further comprising a direction key assembly connected to the display device provided in the lower case and having a ground layer, wherein a hole for exposing a direction key of the direction key assembly is formed in the upper case.
18. The mobile terminal of claim 17, wherein the display device further comprises: a panel case within which the panel case is installed; a drive integrated circuit (IC) provided at one side of the panel; and an EMI tape covering the drive integrated circuit and connected to the ground layer of the direction key assembly.
19. The mobile terminal of claim 18, wherein the EMI protection layer contacts with the EMI tape.
20. The mobile terminal of claim 19, wherein the panel case is grounded, and the EMI protection layer contacts with the panel case.
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION(S) AND CLAIM OF PRIORITY
The present application claims priority to an application entitled "CASE HAVING DISPLAY WINDOW AND MOBILE TERMINAL HAVING THE CASE" filed in the Korean Intellectual Property Office on Dec. 20, 2007 and assigned Serial No. 2007-0134572, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a case and a mobile terminal and, more particularly, to a case having a display window and a mobile terminal having the case that reduces damage due to static electricity applied to a display window.
As information and communication technology and manufacturing technology of a mobile terminal develop, various forms of mobile terminals that can perform various applications and that are easily carried have been introduced. Mobile terminals are manufactured in various forms of a bar type, a flip type having a cover, a folder type, and a slide type.
In the mobile terminal, due to static electricity applied from the outside while using the terminal, a problem may occur in which a part thereof or a coated layer of a surface thereof is damaged. That is, due to static electricity applied to a display window of a case for covering a panel of a display device of the mobile terminal, a problem may occur that a drive IC (integrated circuit) of the panel is damaged.
Further, when static electricity is applied to a coated layer formed at an outer edge of the display window, an appearance fault such as a black spot may occur in the coated layer at the edge of the display window, thereby damaging an external appearance of the mobile terminal.
To address the above-discussed deficiencies of the prior art, it is a primary object to provide a case having a display window and a mobile terminal having the case that reduces damage to a drive IC of a display device of the mobile terminal and damage of an external appearance of the mobile terminal due to static electricity applied to the display window of the case.
In accordance with an aspect of the present invention, a case of a mobile terminal for covering a display device thereof includes: a case body in which a window space for exposing a panel of the display device is formed; and a display window attached to a peripheral edge of the window space and having an electromagnetic interference (EMI) protection layer formed around a peripheral edge of the display window.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, a mobile terminal includes: a lower case; a display device provided within the lower case so that a panel of the display device faces outward from the lower case; and an upper case coupled to the lower case to cover the display device, the upper case including a case body in which a window space for exposing a panel of the display device is formed; and a display window attached to a peripheral edge of the window space and having an EMI protection layer formed around a peripheral edge of the display window.
Before undertaking the DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION below, it may be advantageous to set forth definitions of certain words and phrases used throughout this patent document: the terms "include" and "comprise," as well as derivatives thereof, mean inclusion without limitation; the term "or," is inclusive, meaning and/or; the phrases "associated with" and "associated therewith," as well as derivatives thereof, may mean to include, be included within, interconnect with, contain, be contained within, connect to or with, couple to or with, be communicable with, cooperate with, interleave, juxtapose, be proximate to, be bound to or with, have, have a property of, or the like. Definitions for certain words and phrases are provided throughout this patent document, those of ordinary skill in the art should understand that in many, if not most instances, such definitions apply to prior, as well as future uses of such defined words and phrases.
For a more complete understanding of the present disclosure and its advantages, reference is now made to the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like reference numerals represent like parts:
FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view illustrating a mobile terminal according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a perspective view illustrating an assembled state of the mobile terminal of FIG. 1;
FIG. 3 is a plan view of a part of the mobile terminal of FIG. 1 illustrating a state in which an EMI tape is attached to a drive IC of the mobile terminal;
FIG. 4 is an exploded perspective view illustrating a display window of the mobile terminal of FIG. 1;
FIG. 5 is a plan view of a part of the mobile terminal of FIG. 1 illustrating a state in which a display device is positioned under the display window;
FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view of the mobile terminal taken along line VI-VI of FIG. 5 illustrating a state in which an EMI protection layer of the display window contacts with a panel case; and
FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view of the mobile terminal taken along line VII-VII of FIG. 5 illustrating a state in which an EMI protection layer of the display window contacts with an EMI tape.
FIGS. 1 through 7, discussed below, and the various embodiments used to describe the principles of the present disclosure in this patent document are by way of illustration only and should not be construed in any way to limit the scope of the disclosure. Those skilled in the art will understand that the principles of the present disclosure may be implemented in any suitably arranged mobile terminal.
FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view illustrating a mobile terminal according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a perspective view illustrating an assembled state of the mobile terminal of FIG. 1.
Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, a mobile terminal 100 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention is a slide type mobile terminal and includes a first body 10 and a second body 30 that slides along the first body 10 through a sliding means 20.
A keypad 12 is disposed in a front surface of the first body 10 and is exposed to the outside by a sliding movement of the second body 30. Although not shown in the drawings, a main board including a microprocessor for controlling the entire operation of the mobile terminal 100 is installed within the first body 10, and an electrical signal input through the keypad 12 is transmitted to the main board.
The second body 30 includes a lower case 40, a display device 50, a direction key assembly 60, and an upper case 70. The display device 50 and the direction key assembly 60 are installed in an installation space formed between the lower case 40 and the upper case 70 upon assembling thereof. The lower case 40 is coupled to the front surface of the first body 10 through the sliding means 20. The display device 50 is installed within the lower case 40 such that a panel 53 of the display device 50 faces away from the front surface of the first body 10. The direction key assembly 60 is installed within the lower case 40 at an end of the lower case 40 adjacent to the keypad 12 of the first body 10 such that a direction key 69 of the direction key assembly 60 faces away from the front surface of the first body 10. The display device 50 and the direction key assembly 60 are electrically connected by a connection terminal (not shown) extending from the direction key assembly 60.
FIG. 3 is a plan view of a part of the mobile terminal of FIG. 1 illustrating a state in which an EMI tape is attached to a drive IC of the mobile terminal. FIG. 4 is an exploded perspective view illustrating a display window of the mobile terminal of FIG. 1. FIG. 5 is a plan view of the mobile terminal 100 of FIG. 1 illustrating a state in which the display device 50 is positioned under the display window. FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view of the mobile terminal 100 taken along line VI-VI of FIG. 5 illustrating a state in which an EMI protection layer of the display window contacts with a panel case. FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view of the mobile terminal 100 taken along line VII-VII of FIG. 5 illustrating a state in which an EMI protection layer of the display window contacts with an EMI tape.
Referring to FIGS. 1 to 7, the display device 50 includes a panel case 51, a panel 53, a drive IC 55, and a tape wiring substrate 57. As the display device 50, a liquid crystal display (LCD) and an active matrix organic light emitting diode (AM OLED) may be used.
The panel 53 is provided within the panel case 51, and the drive IC 55 is mounted at one side of the panel 53. A wiring pattern exposed at one side of the tape wiring substrate 57 is connected to an electrode pad of the drive IC 55 and is mounted at one side of the panel 53 together with the drive IC 55. The remaining portion of the tape wiring substrate 57 is bent towards the rear side of the panel case 51 and is provided in the rear surface of the panel case 51. Electronic parts 52 for controlling the panel 53 through the drive IC 55 are mounted in the tape wiring substrate 57. Therefore, a signal input to the tape wiring substrate 57 is transmitted to the panel 53 through the drive IC 55, and a signal output from the panel 53 is transmitted to the tape wiring substrate 57 through the drive IC 55.
The panel case 51 may be made of plastic or metal, and when the panel case 51 is made of metal, the panel case 51 is grounded. For example, the panel case 51 is connected to a ground wire of the tape wiring substrate 57 and is grounded. The panel 53 is provided within the panel case 51 and may be positioned such that its upper surface is lower than an upper surface of the panel case 51.
In order to prevent application of static electricity to the drive IC 55, the drive IC 55 is covered with an EMI tape 59. The EMI tape 59 is connected to a ground layer 63 of the direction key assembly 60 to form a ground path for grounding static electricity. In order to prevent an electric potential of the drive IC 55 from falling to zero volts through the EMI tape 59, an insulating paper may be added between the drive IC 55 and the EMI tape 59. In FIG. 1, in order to show the drive IC 55, the EMI tape 59 is not shown.
The EMI tape 59 performs a function of reducing damage of the drive IC 55 due to static electricity and an abnormal operation of the drive IC 55 due to electromagnetic waves, and is formed by mixing silver (Ag) and nickel (Ni) within a tape made of plastic.
The direction key assembly 60 having the ground layer 63 is electrically connected to the tape wiring substrate 57 of the display device 50 to be installed in the lower case 40. The direction key assembly 60 has a structure in which a plurality of dome switches 65 forming the direction key 69 are disposed at a surface of a base film 61, and the ground layer 63 is formed on the surface of the base film 61 except at the positions at which the dome switches 65 are disposed. The direction key assembly 60 is connected to the tape wiring substrate 57 of the display device 50 through a connector 67 formed in a portion of the base film 61 protruding at one side thereof. For example, the connector 67 installed at one end of the base film 61 is coupled to a socket 54 formed in the tape wiring substrate 57 to electrically connect the direction key assembly 60 and the display device 50.
The direction key 69 includes a keypad 66 covering the dome switches 65, and the keypad 66 is exposed to the outside through holes 85 of the upper case 70.
The upper case 70 includes a case body 80 and a display window 90. A window space 83 for exposing the panel 53 of the display device 50 is formed in the case body 80. The display window 90 is attached to a peripheral edge of the window space 83 through an outer surface of the case body 80, and an EMI protection layer 99 is formed around a peripheral edge of the display window 90.
A recess 81 for inserting and installing the display window 90 is formed in the outer surface of the case body 80 around the periphery of the window space 83. The window space 83 has a size such that the entire panel case 51 is exposed. The case body 80 has a plurality of the holes 85 through which the direction key 69 of the direction key assembly 60 is exposed adjacent to an area in which the recess 81 is formed.
The display window 90 is made of an acryl material having an excellent light transmissivity and has a first surface 91 facing the panel 53 of the display device 50 and a second surface 93 opposite to the first surface 91. The EMI protection layer 99 is formed around a peripheral edge of at least one of the first surface 91 and the second surface 93. The present exemplary embodiment illustrates an example in which the EMI protection layer 99 is formed around the peripheral edge of the first surface 91 of the display window 90.
Particularly, the EMI protection layer 99 is formed at an outer edge of an area of the display window 90 in which the panel 53 of the display device 50 is exposed. Thereby, a part of the EMI protection layer 99 is exposed at the inside of the window space 83.
The EMI protection layer 99 may be formed by one of spray, sputtering, deposition, and attaching an EMI tape. The EMI protection layer 99 is made of a material including silver (Ag) and nickel (Ni). Because the first surface 91 and the second surface 93 of the display window 90 are flat surfaces having a little flexure, the EMI protection layer 99 may be formed in a uniform thickness at the first surface 91 of the display window 90.
A coated layer 95 is formed between the display window 90 and the EMI protection layer 99. The coated layer 95 is formed around a peripheral edge of the first surface 91 of the display window 90 in order to provide an enhanced external appearance of the mobile terminal 100. A logo or decoration, such as that of a mobile terminal manufacturer or a mobile communication provider, may be displayed in the coated layer 95. As a method of forming the coated layer 95, an electroless plating method may be used.
For stable bonding between the coated layer 95 and the EMI protection layer 99, a primer layer 97 is formed between the coated layer 95 and the EMI protection layer 99. The coated layer 95, the primer layer 97, and the EMI protection layer 99 are sequentially layered in the same area around a peripheral edge of the first surface 91 of the display window 90.
Particularly, when the upper case 70 is assembled in the lower case 40 in which the display device 50 and the direction key assembly 60 are installed, the EMI protection layer 99 contacts with the upper surfaces of both the panel case 51 and the EMI tape 59 as shown in FIGS. 5 to 7.
Therefore, because static electricity applied to the display window 90 is grounded by the ground layer 63 of the direction key assembly 60 via the EMI protection layer 99 and the EMI tape 59 contacting the EMI protection layer 99, damage to the drive IC 55 due to static electricity and damage of an external appearance of the display window 90 can be reduced. Particularly, because the EMI protection layer 99 formed in a uniform thickness around an entire peripheral edge of the flat display window 90 has a uniform resistance value, the EMI protection layer 99 can be effectively processed up to a high static electricity voltage.
When the panel case 51 is grounded with a metal material, because static electricity applied to the display window 90 can be grounded through the EMI protection layer 99 and the panel case 51 contacting the EMI protection layer 99, damage of the mobile terminal 100 due to static electricity can be reduced.
As described above, according to the present invention, because the EMI protection layer is formed around a peripheral edge of the display window of the case and the EMI protection layer is grounded, static electricity applied to the display window of the case can be grounded, and thus damage of a drive IC due to static electricity can be reduced.
Particularly, because the EMI protection layer formed in a uniform thickness around an entire peripheral edge of the flat display window has a uniform resistance value, the EMI protection layer can be effectively processed up to a high static electricity voltage.
Because the EMI protection layer is formed on a coated layer formed at an outer edge of the display window of the case and the EMI protection layer is grounded, generation of a black spot in the coated layer due to static electricity can be reduced.
By covering the drive IC with an EMI tape and grounding the EMI tape, damage of the drive IC due to static electricity can be more effectively reduced.
Although the present disclosure has been described with an exemplary embodiment, various changes and modifications may be suggested to one skilled in the art. It is intended that the present disclosure encompass such changes and modifications as fall within the scope of the appended claims.
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Just back from a very tiring but most enjoyable muster in Chester. Other than what was probably close to a 2 mile walk to the battlefield, the whole thing ticked all the boxes: spacious camp site, regimental gatherings/song in the awning, lively beer tent and good battles. Despite only fielding 6-7 each day we got to play with a similar number of Bagots on Sunday and work with the musket on Monday, which involved some hand-to-hand with Royalist musket and some good-natured encounters with various push regiments while defending the musket.
We posed for a lovely picture (courtesy of Rusty Aldwinckle) which will appear in orders soon along with a blog from Martin. Pity we couldn't get the whole regiment together, including some of the Mackenzie boys who were putting on a display with the apprentices.
Anyhow, a fab time was had by all.
This entry was posted in General News, Uncategorized and tagged 2015, august, chester, of, seige. Bookmark the permalink.


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Indigenous Peoples and the response to COVID-19
Indigenous Peoples at increased risk due to coronavirus
Learn more aboue global processes, the Indigenous Peoples' movement and IWGIA's work in countries in Latin America, Africa and Asia and how Indigenous Peoples are reacting to and are affected by the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Indigenous Peoples Human Rights Defenders are more at risk of being targeted as movement is restricted and governments broaden laws.
Already marginalised, Indigenous Peoples chronically lack proper access to health resources and information, further exacerbating the risk to their communities in times of emergency.
Indigenous Peoples are responding to the pandemic using self-determined protection mechanisms.
A Rapid Assessment Report The impact of COVID-19 on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Bangladesh
Written on 10 August 2020 .
Author: Trimita Chakma
Editor: Pallab Chakma
Bangladesh is home to over 501 indigenous and tribal peoples (ITPs) living in different parts of the country, which constitute approximately 1- 2%2 of the total population. The ITPs have their district languages, cultures and heritage and primarily live in the delta region of the country or "the plains", as well as in the South-Eastern part of the country known as the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT).
ITPs from both the plains and the hills have been deprived from socio-economic development for a long time. A recent study3 revealed that several socio-economic indicators such as health, education, household level income, food consumption, participation and women's empowerment remain below the national average for ITPs. For instance, poverty rate among ITPs in Bangladesh is above 80 per cent4 in the plains and 65 per cent in the CHT, which is higher than the national average of 20.5 per cent. Compared to the national average, the average income of ITPs is 26 per cent less in CHT and 41 per cent less in the plains.5
Traditionally, the livelihoods of rural indigenous communities mostly depended on subsistence farming. Due to the increasing dispossession of land and resources caused by conflict, land grabbing and climate change, their livelihoods have become highly vulnerable.6 The worsening economic conditions drove many of them to out-migrate in urban areas and take up seasonal or contractual work in precarious working conditions thus forcing them to live in perpetual marginalization and poverty.7 In addition, they are regularly subjected to identity-based discrimination and human rights violations. For instance, many Garo women migrate to the cities in search of employment and end up working as domestic help or in beauty parlours. Even though they perform the same work, they receive a lower wage than their Bengali counterparts. A large number of indigenous women are also hired in the garment factories in the EPZs near Dhaka and Chittagong because they are not unionized and do not demand better wages or other benefits.8
The above described challenging situation of the ITPs has been exacerbated by the recent global crisis brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. Soon after the government declared a country wide shutdown to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 on 26 March 2020, the ITPs living in rural areas started facing a crisis of food shortage. On 8 April 2020, the media reported some 30 families in Kapru Para area in Lama Upazila of Bandarban district in CHT had nothing but to eat wild potatoes from nearby jungle as they were forced to undergo self-isolation.9 This was followed by an unprecedented crisis of food insecurity spreading across other remote villages all over the country, impacting millions of vulnerable indigenous communities.
In response to the crisis of food shortage, Bangladesh Adivasi Forum, Jatiya Adivasi Parishad and Kapaeeng Foundation — three organizations working for the rights of Indigenous Peoples of Bangladesh — issued a joint press release10 on 12 April 2020 urging the government and other welfare organisations to provide food assistance to the starving indigenous population. The press statement reported many indigenous communities across the country were facing severe food crisis due to the loss of livelihoods as a result of the shutdown, most of whom are daily wage earners; only a small proportion of the ITP population received any form of relief. These communities were: the Hajong and Banai community in Nalitabari, Dhobaura, Durgapur, Kolmakanda, Maddyanagar and Taherpur, nearly 1.5 million peoples from 38 indigenous communities living in 13 districts in Rajshahi and Rangpur, tea garden workers in Sylhet, indigenous communities in Cox's Bazar as well as in the three districts of the Chittagong Hill Tracts.
It is crucial for the government of Bangladesh to explicitly address the needs of the ITPs who remain particularly vulnerable to the COVID-19 due to their historical socio-economic marginalization in the country. Between April and June 2020, Kapaeeng Foundation conducted a rapid assessment survey to document the ground realities of ITPs as a result of the policies and measures put in place by the government to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The assessment carried out with the funding support from the European Commission through ILO. The major impact that stood out from this study are the loss of livelihoods and income sources of the indigenous people, and as a result, a severe crisis of food insecurity, as well as inadequate access to health services and exacerbation of poverty due to growing debt.
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DDCC ranked No. 2 in nation in preseason poll
Mike Duprez
It was always the goal of Davidson-Davie Community College coach Matt Ridge to develop the Storm into a national power.
The Storm are there.
DDCC is ranked No. 2 in the 2021-22 preseason NJCAA Division II national poll. And that's fresh on the heels of finishing runner-up in the 2020-21 national tournament.
The Storm were 31-1 in the 2019-20 season. They were ranked No. 3 in the nation but did not get any postseason honors since the national tournament was canceled due to COVID-19.
They come into the 2021-22 season, which begins on Nov. 1, with high expectations as evidenced by the ranking.
"I think it's a sign of respect for our history and last few years," Ridge said. "But it certainly doesn't help this team win games and it also puts a huge bullseye on our chest again."
DCCC is ranked one spot behind Des Moines (Iowa) Area Community College, the team that beat the Storm in the Division II national championship game last season.
It helps that the Storm have four returning players, including three starters.
Javeon Jones leads the way. The 6-foot-1 sophomore averaged 14.6 points, 7.0 rebounds and 5.5 assists while earning first-team NJCAA Division II All-American honors. Sophomore guard L.J. Rogers averaged 10.6 points and 6-foot-5 guard/forward Tim Boulware averaged 5.7 points. D.J. Suggs, a sophomore guard, was the top player off the bench, averaging 12.4 points.
Among the new players are 6-foot-4 freshman forward Ethan Whitaker from Oak Grove and 6-foot-5 freshman forward Jonathan Foust from Providence Grove. Foust was player of the year in the PAC-7 and named to the East-West All-Star Game.
The question is whether this version of the Storm can be at the level of the teams from the last few years.
"It's my staff's and my job to get every player to maximize their potential and get everyone to play hard, smart, and together," Ridge said. "If we do that every day and prepare harder than any team in the country, then we should have a chance to compete regionally and nationally."
The longtime Storm coach believes the preseason work is crucial.
"The days our players plant the the seeds are not the days they get to eat the fruit," Ridge said. "But it's those days they are working while nobody is watching that will increase their probability of being a regional and national champion."
Ridge is 363-77 in his 14 seasons at DDCC.
The Storm open the season at Chipola College in Marianna, Florida on Nov. 1.
Mike Duprez can be reached at (336) 249-3981, ext. 218 or mduprez@gannett.com. Follow Mike on Twitter@LexDispatch_md.