RandySF
RandySF's JournalDemocrats' 2016 Senate Hopes Turn on Three Candidates
Democrats sound confident that they can retake the Senate in just two short years. But to do that, they need top-flight recruits; and in three of 2016's most important battleground states, their wish list starts and stops with a single candidate.
In North Carolina, Democrats are publicly and privately pleading with outgoing Sen. Kay Hagan to run again. In Wisconsin, party insiders are buzzing at the prospects of former Sen. Russell Feingold returning to action. And in New Hampshire, Democratic leaders are declaring that Gov. Maggie Hassan is their first-choice nominee for the Senate.
In the minds of most Democratic strategists, these three are the strongest candidates the party can feasibly muster to run against entrenched Republican incumbents. And the speculation about their possible campaigns has effectively shut down other potential Democratic contenders from seriously positioning themselves for a run—a reflection of the trio's strength as candidates and the scarcity of viable alternatives after back-to-back midterm blowouts whittled away the party's bench.
Democrats need to win, at minimum, four seats to retake the Senate in 2017—five if Republicans win the presidency. The path of least resistance likely will include victories in four blue states carried by President Obama in 2008 and 2012, a list that includes Illinois, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Lose any of those races, and the party will have to flip seats in North Carolina, which Obama won in 2008 but lost in 2012, or Florida, where the party's chances would improve dramatically if Sen. Marco Rubio vacates his seat for a presidential campaign.
Otherwise, Democrats will have to compete on more difficult terrain in Ohio and Iowa, where Republican incumbents Rob Portman and Chuck Grassley will be formidable opponents. The Dems will also need to hold two potentially vulnerable seats in Colorado and Nevada, held by Michael Bennet and Harry Reid.
http://www.nationaljournal.com/politics/democrats-2016-senate-hopes-turn-on-three-candidates-20150104
Florida Man says he was making a ‘blood brother pact’ when cutting other man
FORT WALTON BEACH - A man who allegedly cut another man’s wrist said he and the victim were making “blood brother pact,” but he cut the other man too deep, according to authorities.
Okaloosa County Sheriff’s deputies were called to Fort Walton Beach Medical Center on Dec. 15, according to the arrest report. The victim said he and 36-year-old Matthew Orville Crain had been arguing when Crain asked the victim, “How tough do you think you are?”
The victim said Crain them cut the victim’s wrist with a knife, leaving a 4 inch cut the required emergency surgery, the report said. Crain said that he and the victim had been making a “blood brother pact” and he’d accidentally cut the victim’s wrist too deep.
A witness said he’d heard the men arguing for “hours” and had heard Crain threaten the victim, according to the report.
http://www.nwfdailynews.com/local/crime/police-blotters/report-man-says-he-was-making-a-blood-brother-pact-when-cutting-other-man-1.419786
Florida Man and Woman ‘trapped’ in unlocked closet for two days
And it was only until the police arrived that John Arwood, 31, and Amber Campbell, 25, realized they could have opened the door to the closet at Daytona State College and walked out at any time, the Orlando Sentinal reported.
The pair told police they were chased into the closet on Sunday but Arwood didn't dial 911 until Tuesday and his phone's location was tracked.
The pair were found inside the closet along with feces and copper scouring pads often used to smoke crack, according to the Sentinal.
No drugs were found but the pair still face several charges.
http://www.torontosun.com/2014/12/31/florida-couple-trapped-in-unlocked-closet-for-two-days
Florida Man attacks ‘spiritual’ girlfriend’s car over dead granny sex toy dream prophecy
A Florida man was arrested on criminal mischief charges for smashing the car of his “spiritual” girlfriend after she prophesied that his dead grandmother would return to him in his dreams — and violate him with what police called “an adult erotic device.”
According to TCPalm‘s Will Greenlee, Casey Molter and his unnamed girlfriend had gotten into a physical altercation earlier that morning, and police were called to break them up. At that time, Molter had only inflicted minor damage to her car and smashed her cell phone.
After police left, however, Molter continued to attack his girlfriend’s car, breaking a passenger side mirror, deflating its tires, and strewing the hood and windshield with used condoms and what the police referred to as “love notes” written in creams and lotions.
When police returned to the scene, they asked Molter why he was so intent on damaging his girlfriend’s car. He replied that she is a “‘spiritual person’ and can tell a person about their dreams.”
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/01/dead-grandmother-dream-causes-florida-man-to-snap-and-destroy-spiritual-girlfriends-car/
'Agent Carter’ review: Cool addition to Marvel’s TV universe
Gosh, “Marvel’s Agent Carter” is a heck of a lot of fun, and if that statement feels a bit old-fashioned, well, it fits the sprightly period piece about a female secret agent fighting bad guys and sexism just after World War II....
Atwell is terrific in the title role, as capable in the efficient, unflappable skin of Peggy as she is when pretending to be a blond American floozy in a gin joint. James D’Arcy is a model of amusing dry wit as Jarvis, Stark’s butler and his official liaison with Peggy. Jarvis believes in order above all things: Dinner at 7, “Jack Benny” on the radio at 8, to bed with his wife at 9. Cooper oozes ’40s authenticity as Stark, to the point where you’ll almost believe you’re watching a black-and-white period film instead of a full-color TV show.
The cast also includes Chad Michael Murray as an SSR agent with little apparent tolerance for skirts in the SSR, and Enver Gjokaj as a fellow agent who lost a leg in the war and gained a lot more tolerance than his male colleagues. James Landry Hébert plays evil to the hilt as an icy Green Suit.
Many of these characters relate to characters in other Marvel films and TV shows. Howard Stark, of course, is the father of “Iron Man’s” Tony Stark, who was conceived by Stan Lee in the image of Howard Hughes.
http://www.sfgate.com/tv/article/Agent-Carter-review-Cool-addition-to-5990386.php
Blame Anti-Vaxxers for Your Flu
The bigger problem is that the anti-vax crowd waits for this sort of mess to pounce, as if the biologic unpredictability of a living virus is enough to make their point. Their point of course is a slippery one: One day it is poor vaccine efficacy; another it’s not efficacy at all but toxicity or side effects such as autism that make the argument against shots; or lastly, the most absurd and therefore best embraced, the argument is that catching the real infection is somehow more natural and health-making—and therefore better for the kid who is sick.
It is this fear of giving the anti-vaxxers a leg up that has stifled any sort of honest discussion about the very real limits of the flu vaccine. Because let’s face it, by modern standards, where measles vaccine and hepatitis B vaccine are 99 percent effective in every study, a report card coming in at 60 percent efficacy is pretty lame.
Though this too is debatable given that 25,000 to 40,000 people a year die of influenza—the vast majority of them unvaccinated. A simple halving of the number with today’s mediocre vaccine would represent a major public-health triumph. By way of comparison, about 14,000 people in the U.S. died of AIDS in 2011—a vaccine to cut that number in half likely would result in a Nobel Prize.
In other words, the anti-vax crowd, basing their debate well outside the corridors of standard science, has somehow pushed the entire public-health discussion of how best to control infectious diseases to a place outside the rational and evidenced-based. And that’s where a flimsy but emotionally effective argument can do real harm by causing an outbreak not of influenza but of deliberate and profound misunderstanding.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/01/01/when-you-get-the-flu-this-winter-you-can-blame-anti-vaxxers.html
Observation from Hunter S. Thompson on the "clubby" relationship between politicians and journalists
This was one of the traditional barriers I tried to ignore when I moved to Washington and began covering the '72 presidential campaign. As far as I was concerned, there was no such thing as "off the record." The most consistent and ultimately damaging failure of political journalism in America has its roots in the clubby/cocktail personal relationships that inevitably develop between politicians and journalists – in Washington or anywhere else where they meet on a day-to-day basis. When professional antagonists become after-hours drinking buddies, they are not likely to turn each other in... especially not for "minor infractions" of rules that neither side takes seriously; and on the rare occasions when Minor infractions suddenly become Major, there is panic on both ends.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/timewarp-campaign-72-19730705#ixzz3NeqlF9y6
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Mario Cuomo has died.
Former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo, known as a liberal lion and likely Democratic candidate for president in the 1980s and 1990s, died today at age 82, multiple sources confirmed to ABC News.
Cuomo, governor of the Empire State from 1983 to 1994, was the father of current New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
Mario Cuomo's imprint on liberalism in American politics was nearly without parallel. The strains of liberalism and populism coursing through the Democratic Party today -- through the voices of Elizabeth Warren and others -- are echoes of Cuomo.
Andrew Cuomo noted both his father's absence -- and his spiritual presence -- as he was sworn in to a second term as governor today, becoming the first Democrat to enter a second term as New York governor since his father.
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/york-gov-mario-cuomo-dead-82/story?id=27952816
I knew it! Shanghai stampede was over money.
SHANGHAI (Reuters) - A stampede killed at least 35 people during New Year's Eve celebrations in Shanghai, authorities said, possibly caused by people rushing to pick up fake money thrown from a building overlooking the city's famous Bund waterfront district.
The Shanghai government said large crowds started to stampede in Chen Yi Square on the Bund just before midnight, with authorities working to rescue and aid the wounded.
The trigger for the stampede has still to be confirmed, but state media and witnesses said the incident was at least partly caused when people tried picking up fake money.
A man who brought one of the 48 injured to a local hospital for treatment said fake money had been thrown down from a bar above the street as part of the New Year's Eve celebrations. People rushed to pick up the money, triggering the stampede, said the man, who gave his family name as Wu.
http://www.thestar.com.my/News/World/2015/01/01/At-least-35-dead-42-injured-in-Shanghai-New-Years-stampede/
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