Month: February 2015

Shorter Washington Post: DSCC not yet prepared for 2016 Senate races.

I’m not saying that February of 2015 is late to be having stories like this with regard to the 2016 elections…

Less than four months after the painful losses, Democratic officials have begun charting a path back to Senate control that runs through more than half a dozen blue and purple states where the presidential campaign is expected to boost Democratic turnout. But even in that favorable terrain, the party faithful fear they could fall short if marquee challengers don’t step forward, since their talent pool is shallow and they are trying to unseat a well-prepared group of Republican senators.

…but if this is still the situation in, say, July – well. Truth of the matter is, the Democrats really should have a better idea of who they’re going to be running with. That they don’t yet is, well, kind of fun.

Single-player DLC for Dragon Age Inquisition?

I’ll believe it when I see it.

…fans can now rest assured that there will indeed be more content coming to Dragon Age: Inquisition in the future after Bioware’s Mark Darrah announced that DLC is now officially in development. Darrah, who works as the executive producer for Dragon Age: Inquisition, tweeted to fans to confirm that Bioware is now working on the first DLC add-on.

However, the content is still too early in development for Bioware to reveal details on what exactly the upcoming add-on may contain.

Continue reading Single-player DLC for Dragon Age Inquisition?

State Department blames uptick in recent ritual human sacrifices on global unemployment rates.

Come, I will show you a wonder: Chris Matthews saying something that most of the people reading this will agree with*. Transcript via Right Scoop (video of all of this over there, too):

[CHRIS] MATTHEWS: Are we killing enough of them [Islamic State cultists]?

[State Department spokeswoman MARIE] HARF: We’re killing a lot of them and we’re going to keep killing more of them. So are the Egyptians, so are the Jordanians. They’re in this fight with us. But we cannot win this war by killing them. We cannot kill our way out of this war. We need in the medium to longer term to go after the root causes that leads people to join these groups, whether it’s lack of opportunity for jobs, whether —

MATTHEWS: We’re not going to be able to stop that in our lifetime or fifty lifetimes. There’s always going to be poor people. There’s always going to be poor muslims, and as long as there are poor Muslims, the trumpet’s blowing and they’ll join. We can’t stop that, can we?

HARF: We can work with countries around the world to help improve their governance. We can help them build their economies so they can have job opportunities for these people…

Continue reading State Department blames uptick in recent ritual human sacrifices on global unemployment rates.

CNN/ORC: Americans getting unhappy over US response to the Islamic State Death Cult.

It’ll be interesting to see whether this poll is part of a trend:

The CNN/ORC poll found 57% of Americans disapprove of how Obama is handling the threat posed by ISIS, a significant decline in support for the President over the past few months. In late September, that number was 49%.

Fifty-seven percent disapprove of his handling of foreign affairs more broadly, and 54% disapprove of how the President is handling terrorism. Another 60% rate Obama negatively on his handling of electronic national security.

Continue reading CNN/ORC: Americans getting unhappy over US response to the Islamic State Death Cult.

Tweet of the Day, …Well, Geez edition.

I try not to play the If X agrees with me then I may need to re-evaluate my position game.

So instead I just need to figure out what the heck is causing Ed Schultz to come to the conclusion that we’re probably going to end up killing a lot of IS death cultists.  Who knows?  If it’s environmental, perhaps we can reproduce the effect elsewhere.

Went to go see ‘Kingsman,’

Short review: My, I’m surprised that Hollywood let this one get greenlit.

Slightly longer review: Fun, pretty well-made. Doesn’t take itself too seriously, doesn’t take our self-appointed ‘elites’ seriously at all.  Definitely a movie based on a comic book, as will become obvious very quickly.  Mark Millar and/or Matthew Vaughn pretty obviously love Bond flicks, and it shows.  Also: while hating this movie doesn’t mean that you’re somebody I dislike, I’m pretty sure that most of the people whom I dislike professionally also hate this movie*. Continue reading Went to go see ‘Kingsman,’

House Democrats in 2015 suddenly worried about tax hike that they refused to stop in 2014.

Shot:

Three senior House members [Sander Levin (Michigan), Jim McDermott (Washington), and Lloyd Doggett (Texas)] told The Associated Press that they plan to strongly urge the administration to grant a special sign-up opportunity for uninsured taxpayers who will be facing fines under the law for the first time this year.

Chaser:

In light of the heavy burden being imposed by the health law on people struggling in a weak economy, it’s worth remembering that less than a year ago, the House of Representatives voted on legislation to defer these penalties… The vote was 250-160 in favor of a delay, with the vast majority of House Democrats voting to impose these penalties rather than defer them. And the three House leaders who are now concerned that the process is unfair – Representatives Doggett, Levin, and McDermott – all voted against putting the penalties off for one year.

Continue reading House Democrats in 2015 suddenly worried about tax hike that they refused to stop in 2014.