Month: February 2015

Former Oregon ‘First Lady’ Cylvia Hayes fights to keep her emails out of the public record.

Protip: when your attempt to block the courts from letting news organizations see your public-service-related emails makes people on the other side of the political spectrum immediately rub their hands and gleefully wonder, Ooh, what’s in the emails? – well, OK. I don’t know what the victory condition could be there, either. The mere fact that you’re fighting a judgement like that will suggest to pretty much everybody that you have something to hide, win or lose.  In other words: it’s a quandary, and no mistake.

Former Oregon first lady Cylvia Hayes declared Wednesday that she will go to court to block a state order requiring her to turn over emails related to her public service… Hayes is under an order issued last week by Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum to turn over to The Oregonian/OregonLive emails dating back three years pertaining to state business. Rosenblum concluded that Hayes was subject to the state public records law.

Continue reading Former Oregon ‘First Lady’ Cylvia Hayes fights to keep her emails out of the public record.

Mike Rowe, Scott Walker, Howard Dean, and the merits of pencils.

(H/T: AoSHQ) Mike Rowe comes across as not wanting to get involved in politics unless he absolutely has to be – a sensible notion – so I don’t mean anything scolding when I note that there’s a flaw in these last two paragraphs:

However – when Howard Dean called [Governor Scott Walker] “unknowledgeable,” he rolled out more than a stereotype. He rolled a pencil across the desk, and gave Scott Walker eight minutes to knock it out of the park.

It’ll be fun to see if he does.

Continue reading Mike Rowe, Scott Walker, Howard Dean, and the merits of pencils.

Where were you when you heard that Vanilla Ice got arrested for grand theft burglary?

The day the music died.

Reality star and ’90s rapper Vanilla Ice (born Robert Matthew VanWinkle) was arrested in Florida for alleged home burglary, police confirmed on Wednesday.

According to a statement from the Lantana Police Department, several household items — furniture, a pool heater, bicycles — were stolen from a Palm Beach County residence in foreclosure. (Apparently a vacant one; the police date the burglary occurring sometime between December 2014 and this month.) Police got a search warrant and found several of the stolen items in a home nearby, which is being renovated by VanWinkle.

I… I don’t know what to say, sorry.
Continue reading Where were you when you heard that Vanilla Ice got arrested for grand theft burglary?

Today is an infrastructure day.

Kids are out at school, wife is home, so of course we’re cleaning the house. And getting the car’s transmission checked. And pulling twenty metric butt-tons of extruded plastic junk out of the kids’ room and packing the still-usable stuff for charity. And getting my wife’s new computer ready for her looming switch-over. And… look, sorry, blogging is at the bottom of this particular list. Maybe later.

‘Sweet Transvestite’ (And how IS Tim Curry doing these days, anyway?).

OK, I’m putting this up for two reasons.  One, it’s a fun song.  Which is enough.

Sweet Transvestite, The Rocky Horror Picture Show – Original Soundtrack

Second: Tim Curry had a stroke in either 2012 or 2013, and I haven’t heard a word about him or how he’s been doing since. That’s maybe a little odd? …I think. I mean, I don’t want to intrude or anything.

They’re making a fifth Pirates of the Caribbean flick. I’m… I’m sorry.

I’m so terribly, terribly sorry.

Production has officially commenced today on Disney and Jerry Bruckheimer Films’Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales! The fifth entry in the blockbuster franchise inspired by the classic Disney Theme Parks attraction is directed by Espen Sandberg and Joachim Rønning (Kon-Tiki) and will film entirely at Village Roadshow Studios and on locations within Queensland, Australia.

Johnny Depp returns to his iconic, Academy Award-nominated role as Captain Jack Sparrow, newly joined by Oscar winner Javier Bardem (No Country for Old Men, Skyfall), rising young stars Kaya Scodelario (The Maze Runner, “Skins”), Brenton Thwaites (Maleficent, The Giver) and Golshifteh Farahani (The Patience Stone, Exodus: Gods and Kings). Rejoining the action are Academy Award winner Geoffrey Rush as Barbossa, Kevin R. McNally as Joshamee Gibbs and Stephen Graham as Scrum.

And things were going so well, too.

Judge orders Andrew Cuomo to… ah, ‘pick a date’ for NY-11 special election.

There’s a slang phrase that fits this situation – basically, Gov. Andrew Cuomo was dragging his heels on announcing a date for the vacant seat – but it’s a rather vulgar one, so I probably shouldn’t use it. Anyway: “Expressing impatience with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a judge said Tuesday he’ll set a date for a special election to replace convicted former U.S. Rep. Michael Grimm unless Cuomo does so by noon Friday.”  The NY-11 seat (Staten Island, and parts of Brooklyn) has been vacant since Michael Grimm resigned after pleading out on tax fraud, and it is a measure of just how badly the NY Democratic party is doing right now that the Democrats are still considered the underdogs for that seat. Continue reading Judge orders Andrew Cuomo to… ah, ‘pick a date’ for NY-11 special election.

Talking Points Memo kind of creeped out by Joe Biden.

Admittedly, in a half-cringing, apologetic fashion that was actively painful to read. It was like the author was writing it under the watchful eye of a man of uncertain temper and poor communications skills… which is probably accurate, at that. Oh, I’m sure that it’s not overt, or anything.  But Lord knows that white progressive males do not like to be the targets of a self-criticism session…

Via Instapundit. Continue reading Talking Points Memo kind of creeped out by Joe Biden.

Tweet of the Day, SOMEBODY Just Got A Reality-Mugging edition.

What changed, indeed.

I know, I know: the temptation is strong to point and mock. But think of it this way: spite and aggravation are wonderful motivators. Why not encourage those who are upset about being lied to take it out on WORTHY targets? – And don’t tell me that you can’t convince anybody to do that. This strategy will only work on some, sure. But ‘some’ are all we need. Even if it’s one or two in a hundred… that’s enough. The Democrats have no. Margin. At. All.

Selah.