A Spork in the Drawer

Noted In Passing

As you have probably noticed I'm on one of my periodic breaks.

I'll do the usual weekend stuff but for now, at least, the less news I read the happier I am. Maybe I'll throw in something fun now and then.

Like it or lump it. :-P

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A Bit Of Jack Levine

Self Portrait with Muse, 1966

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No Comment

[Via FDL.]

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Is It Safe Now?

"Razor"

What fun!

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Saturday Palate Cleanser

Ernie Kovacs:

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A Bit Of Eugene Atget

Maison d'Andre Chenier en 1793 - 97 rue de Clery (2e arr), 1907.

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Saturday Palate Cleanser

The most brilliant movie scene ever:

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Ooookay...

Down in Florida:

An animal sneaking around Baker County is not an orangutan as originally thought but likely a fox squirrel, state wildlife officials said Friday. Officers with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission laid doughnuts at a base of a tree after residents reported seeing a "big orange ball of fur."

The animal was probably an orange phase fox squirrel, Fish and Wildlife investigator Ken Holmes told The Florida Times-Union. The red-orange animals can grow to be about 2 feet tall and can climb in trees.

Right then. Let's review. This is an orangutan:

And this is a fox squirrel:

Now, class, tell me what differences between the two you can spot.

(As a side note, this is a decent example of why I'm skeptical of "eyewitness" testimony.)

(As another side note, I'd laugh like hell if this turned out to be an orang, natch.)

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They Walk The Line

From New York, Not the Daily Show (featuring John Oliver):

More from United Hollywood.

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Cows?

Not so dumb:

Eight cows escaped from a trailer when the rear gate opened as the driver pulled into a McDonald's. It took about two hours to round them up Monday.

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Harsh Justice

Chomp:

The man, whose name has not been released, was allegedly burglarizing a vehicle in the parking lot of the Miccosukee Resort and Convention Center on Thursday. He ran when police arrived at the scene, said Dexter Lehtinen, one of the tribe's police legal advisors.

Tribal police divers searched for the man that night, then again Friday morning and afternoon. During the third dive, the body was recovered. It bore alligator teeth marks on the upper torso.

The Miami-Dade County Medical Examiner Department said the cause of death was an alligator attack.

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$1,500,000,000,000

The mind reels:

The economic costs to the United States of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan so far total approximately $1.5 trillion, according to a new study by congressional Democrats that estimates the conflicts' "hidden costs"-- including higher oil prices, the expense of treating wounded veterans and interest payments on the money borrowed to pay for the wars.

[...]

The report argues that war funding is diverting billions of dollars away from "productive investment" by American businesses in the United States. It also says that the conflicts are pulling reservists and National Guardsmen away from their jobs, resulting in economic disruptions for U.S. employers that the report estimates at $1 billion to $2 billion.

Heckuva job, Bushie.

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A Bit Of Joan Iversen Goswell

Visual Sound, 1994.

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It's A Good Thing I Ignore Sundays

Italian police kill football fan

Man, that's strict.

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November 11

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Saturday Palate Cleanser

Nick Cave (with an assist from Lotte Lenya):

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Good Advice

From Jane Espenson:

By the way, I read something somewhere about how young writers should be discouraged from using the picket lines as networking opportunities. Oh, I disagree. Don't force a script into anyone's hands, but I see nothing wrong with coming out, wielding a picket sign for a few hours, and talking with working (well, you know what I mean) writers about what they do. It's not just networking, it's smart career research coupled with support of a kind that actually means something! Follow ordinary rules of courtesy, and you should do fine.

Courtesy is always recommended.

By the way, Jane also had lunch.

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Ron Paul Isn't Cute

Paul Rosenberg explains.

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Headlines I Could Do Without

Enjoy a refreshing ham soda

Still:

"As always, both packs are kosher and contain zero caffeine," Jones said in a statement.

I hope all my Jewish readers enjoy their ham soda.

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Too Common A Democrat

DiFi.

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1923-2007

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How Bad?

This bad:

North Korea offered a rare note of thanks to long-time foe the United States for helping its sailors fend off an attack by pirates off the coast of Somalia.

North Korea thanking the US? North Korea!?!

There might be some diplomacy here.

Hello, Condi!

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Friend Of Rudy

Bernie Kerik indicted.

I'll let watertiger have this one.

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Karl Rove Has A Problem...

...with some blogs but mostly he doesn't like potty-mouths:

Mr. Rove cited the results of a study that found that writers and commenters on liberal blogs such as DailyKos.com cursed far more than writers and commenters on conservative Web sites such as FreeRepublic.com.

"My point is not that liberals swear publicly more often than conservatives. That may be true, but that's not my point," Mr. Rove said. "It is that the netroots often argue from anger rather than reason, and too often, their object is personal release, not political persuasion."

This coming from a walking expletive.

Fuck you, Karl.

(Whoops! I just proved Karl right! Shame on me!)

[Via Steve Benen.]

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"Mukasey Confirmed As Attorney General"

Thanks Chuck and DiFi!

I'm sure Mr. Mukasey will be double-plus good about our Constitutional rights.

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Might Want To Rethink This One

The Berlin Mexican wall:

A map obtained by The Associated Press shows that the double- or triple-layer fence may be built as much as two miles from the river on the U.S. side of the Rio Grande, leaving parts of Granjeno and other nearby communities in a potential no-man's-land between the barrier and the water's edge.

Based on the map and what the residents have been told, the fence could run straight through houses and backyards. Some fear it could also cut farmers off from prime farmland close to the water. [Emphasis added.]

[...]

Local officials also fear the fence could cut off access to drinking water that is pumped from the river and piped in to 35,000 homes in the Rio Grande Valley. They fear that town officials will not be allowed to set foot inside the no-man's-land to repair any pumps that might fail.

Homeland Security documents on a department website say that "in some cases, secure gates will be constructed to allow land owners access to their private property near the Rio Grande." But the documents offer few details.

Can't these clowns do anything right?

Speaking of border fences, via Balloon Juice, remember that fence the "Minutemen" were building?

It was supposed to be 14 feet high and topped with razor wire. It was also supposed to send a message to Washington that if the government wouldn't seal off the southern border, volunteers could.

[...]

The fence to help stop illegal immigration was the dream of Chris Simcox, the founder and president of the Minuteman Defense Corps.

That one? I wonder how that project is going:

Almost two years later, the reality is a five-strand barbed-wire barrier that ranchers dismiss as a mere cattle fence.

Moo.

But it was a noble experiment, right? Money well spent?

And what happened to all the money donated to the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps is in question.

My oh my. Imagine that.

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Chest Thumping

Reg Henry:

Not to worry. By expressing his belligerent views, Mr. Giuliani is able to make dyspeptic conservatives forget all the other stuff. For them and their talk-show thought controllers, the main thing is to be tough, always tough.

Still, this is fairly amazing for the rest of us. What happened to the gay-bashing so popular with the Republican Party faithful in recent years? What about all their other alleged values that Republicans said they cared about? Will they put aside their favorite prejudices just to worship power at the first church of Rudy Giuliani?

Of course they will. Anything to win. Besides, they understand now that there has been a bit of the old "doth complain too much" syndrome at work with the result that ordinary fellows are afraid to go into men's rooms around the country lest they find conservative preachers and politicians playing happy feet.

Read the whole thing.

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Teevee

Al Gore will be appearing on 30 Rock tonight.

You might as well enjoy the show anyway; depending on how long the WGA strike lasts it might be one of the last eps.

Speaking of the strike, worth a read: The United Hollywood blog and Jane Espenson (Among other things, writer/producer of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and currently co-executive producer of Battlestar Galactica. She also came up with the name "Zima" for the briefly trendy drink. (Full disclosure: I've long had a mad crush on Jane.))

Atrios has posted a funny video of the folks from The Office on the picket line.

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St. Joseph's Baby Roofies

Uhhh...

U.S. safety officials have voluntarily recalled about 4.2 million Chinese-made Aqua Dots toys contaminated with a powerful "date rape" drug that has caused some children to vomit and lose consciousness upon ingesting the contents.

Scientists have found the highly popular holiday toy contains a chemical that, once metabolized, converts into the toxic "date rape" drug GHB (gamma-hydroxy butyrate), U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) spokesman Scott Wolfson told CNN.

CPSC spokescritter Julie Vallese suggests that anyone with these Aqua Dots should throw them out.

Gee, do ya think?

I know this is an unachievable dream but couldn't the relevant regulatory agencies, y'know, do their fucking jobs?

And what the hell is wrong with China?

Perhaps we should reexamine our trade relationship with that country.

Just a thought.

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MSNBC Update

It looks like we won't be seeing any Rosie.

Dodged a bullet, we did.

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Too Much Money

Honestly:

The people at the Serendipity 3 restaurant on East 60th Street announced today that they would offer a $25,000 dessert called the Frrrozen Haute Chocolate[.]

Anybody who pays $25,000 for a dessert should have all of their assets seized.

I'm serious.

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Power Over Principle

So Grand Ayatollah Pat Robertson has gone and endorsed Benito Giuliani despite Rudy's long history of social liberalism. (I don't think for a minute that a president Giuliani would govern as a social liberal, but that's his record.)

This just adds to the pile of evidence that the likes of Robertson care about power first and foremost. They know that whatever else, Rudy will bomb and kill and run his administration in a way that will make us nostalgic for the sanity and moderation of BushCheney. To Hell with strongly held Biblical principles so long as they think they'll be able to put a boot on people's throats.

And as Greg Sargent reminds us, somebody ought to ask Rudy if he agrees with Robertson's contention that the United States deserved the 11 September attacks.

I would enjoy hearing Rudy's answer.

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Schadenfreude Alert

Whackjobs of the right file a lawsuit:

In a suit filed in United States District Court in Washington yesterday, the authors Jerome R. Corsi, Bill Gertz, Lt. Col. Robert (Buzz) Patterson, Joel Mowbray and Richard Miniter state that Eagle Publishing, which owns Regnery, “orchestrates and participates in a fraudulent, deceptively concealed and self-dealing scheme to divert book sales away from retail outlets and to wholly owned subsidiary organizations within the Eagle conglomerate.”

Some of the authors’ books have appeared on the New York Times best-seller list, including “Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry,” by Mr. Corsi and John E. O’Neill (who is not a plaintiff in the suit), Mr. Patterson’s “Dereliction of Duty: The Eyewitness Account of How Bill Clinton Compromised America’s National Security” and Mr. Miniter’s “Shadow War: The Untold Story of How Bush Is Winning the War on Terror.” In the lawsuit the authors say that Eagle sells or gives away copies of their books to book clubs, newsletters and other organizations owned by Eagle “to avoid or substantially reduce royalty payments to authors.”

[...]

“They’ve structured their business essentially as a scam and are defrauding their writers,” Mr. Miniter said in an interview, “causing a tremendous rift inside the conservative community.”

So much for tort reform.

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Lucky Duckies

While I'm not the first to note this today I still feel the need to call out the WaPo's Robert Samuelson:

Recessions also have often-overlooked benefits. They dampen inflation. In weak markets, companies can't easily raise prices or workers' wages.

Yes, by gum, we need to keep those wages down. How else is a CEO to afford that third home or Gulfstream IV?

So I hope those who can't afford health insurance or are having trouble paying that rent or mortgage understand that you're receiving "often-overlooked benefits."

Robert Samuelson says so.

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Department Of The Obvious

Duh:

Programs that focus exclusively on abstinence have not been shown to affect teenager sexual behavior, although they are eligible for tens of millions of dollars in federal grants, according to a study released by a nonpartisan group that seeks to reduce teen pregnancies.

[...]

The study, conducted by Douglas Kirby, a senior research scientist at ETR Associates, also sought to debunk what the report called "myths propagated by abstinence-only advocates" including: that comprehensive sex education promotes promiscuity, hastens the initiative of sex or increases its frequency, and sends a confusing message to adolescents.

You could have a thousand studies like this (and perhaps there has been a thousand studies like this) and it wouldn't faze the "moralists" one whit. The issue for them isn't sex per se but control. This is the hallmark of fanatics of all types.

Now, a more immediate question is will this study dent Snarlin' Arlen Specter's cranium?

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More Unpopular Than Nixon

Who else?

Meanwhile, Bush reached an unwelcome record. By 64%-31%, Americans disapprove of the job he is doing. For the first time in the history of the Gallup Poll, 50% say they "strongly disapprove" of the president. Richard Nixon had reached the previous high, 48%, just before an impeachment inquiry was launched in 1974.

Turning to the bad news, the same poll shows that 46% of Americans think that bombing Iran might not be a bad idea.

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Speaking Of The Writer's Guild Strike

Subtle.

And funny.

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Obama The Coward

So guess who helped spike Stephen Colbert's run for the White House:

Two prominent supporters of Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign in South Carolina called state Democratic Party officials urging them to oppose putting comedian Stephen Colbert's name on the primary ballot, according to party officials and Obama supporters with knowledge of the calls.

[...]

At least one member of the executive council, who requested anonymity, told CNN he felt "pressured" by former State Superintendent of Education Inez Tenenbaum to oppose Colbert from being placed on the ballot.

Tenenbaum is a high-profile supporter of Obama. Her endorsement of Obama in April was touted by the campaign, and she has appeared at several Obama campaign events, including the opening of one of their campaign headquarters this summer. Obama campaigned for Tenenbaum in South Carolina when she ran for Senate in 2004.

[...]

Given the lopsided vote of the executive council against Colbert, it's unclear if the calls had significant bearing on Colbert's fate as a bona fide presidential candidate.

But the calls raise questions about the Obama supporters' motives, given their close ties to the campaign and the fact that Colbert and Obama both draw support from a similar demographic.

If Obama is frightened of a teevee comedian his candidacy is doomed.

Yesterday, Colbert announced he was dropping out of the race:

I am shocked and saddened by the South Carolina Democratic Executive Council’s 13-to-3 vote to keep me off their presidential primary ballot. Although I lost by the slimmest margin in presidential election history — only ten votes — I have chosen not to put the country through another agonizing Supreme Court battle. It is time for this nation to heal.

I want say to my supporters, this is not over. While I may accept the decision of the Council, the fight goes on! The dream endures! …And I am going off the air until I can talk about this without weeping.

Well, that and the Writer's Guild strike.

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Speaking Of KO

Part I:

Part II:

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Doing The Right Thing The Wrong Way

For years it's been obvious that the attempt by the newsnets to imitate FOX "News" has been a silly failure. No matter how many Glenn Becks and Tucker Carlsons the CNNs and MSNBCs hire the right will still consider them to be Muslimonazifascist fellow travellers. The obvious (and correct) strategy has always been to move to the left, to provide an alternative, especially given the success of MSNBC's Keith Olbermann.

Now comes the news that MSNBC has gotten a clue and decided to dump Dan Abrams at 9pm and replace him with a nominal liberal.

So who are they going to put into that slot? David Shuster? Rachel Maddow? Perhaps a surprise such as Cenk Uygur?

No.

Rosie O'Donnell.

Kill me now.

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Remember Remember The Fifth Of November...

Try not to blow up Parliament today or you might end up drawn and quartered:

Not that I'm a killjoy like some.

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ADDED: Scott Horton.

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A Bit Of Diego Velázquez

Dwarf Sitting on the Floor (Don Sebastián), 1645

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Caught In The Act?

Has the notorious (and near-brilliant) graffiti artist Banksy been photographed in the act?

Here's one of Banksy's defacings of the Israeli "security wall:"







And a bit of commentary on Melrose Ave. in LA:

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The Obvious Answer Is The Correct Answer

Paul Kane asks:

Is Feinstein the Democrats' Next Lieberman?

Yes.

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Let Me Be Blunt

All Republicans are criminals and/or hypocrites:

[Fred] Thompson selected the businessman, Philip Martin, to raise seed money for his White House bid. Martin is one of four campaign co-chairmen and the head of a group called the "first day founders." Campaign aides jokingly began to refer to Martin, who has been friends with Thompson since the early 1990s, as the head of "Thompson's Airforce."

Thompson's frequent flights aboard Martin's twin-engine Cessna 560 Citation have saved him more than $100,000, because until the law changed in September, campaign-finance rules allowed presidential candidates to reimburse private jet owners for just a fraction of the true cost of flights.

Martin entered a plea of guilty to the sale of 11 pounds of marijuana in 1979; the court withheld judgment pending completion of his probation. He was charged in 1983 with violating his probation and with multiple counts of felony bookmaking, cocaine trafficking and conspiracy. He pleaded no contest to the cocaine-trafficking and conspiracy charges, which stemmed from a plan to sell $30,000 worth of the drug, and was continued on probation.

Now for the funny part:

Karen Hanretty, Thompson's deputy communications director, said yesterday that "Senator Thompson was unaware of the information until this afternoon. Phil Martin has been a friend of the senator since the mid-1990s and remains so today." Thompson communications director Todd Harris added that Martin was not subjected to the campaign's standard vetting process because "he's a longtime friend."

Sure, Fred, sure.

The party of integrity and morality, my ass.

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Spreading Democracy

How's tht going, George?

Police wielding assault rifles rounded up opposition leaders and rights activists Sunday after Pakistan's military ruler suspended the constitution, ousted the top justice and deployed troops to fight what he called rising Islamic extremism.

[...]

Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said the extraordinary measures would remain in place "as long as it is necessary." He also said parliamentary elections could be postponed up to a year, but no such decision had been made.

Aziz also said that up to 500 opposition activists had been arrested in the last 24 hours.

Meanwhile, Condi bleats helplessly:

Rice, who called Musharraf on Friday and warned him against taking this step, said yesterday that Musharraf's actions are "highly regrettable," telling reporters traveling with her that "the United States has made clear it does not support extra-constitutional measures, because those measures would take Pakistan away from the path of democracy and civilian rule.""

Important note: Pakistan has nukes. Iran doesn't.

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Saturday Palate Cleanser

"There were zwei peanuts walking down the strasse..."

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The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year

The War on Christmas has begun!

Let's go, "Secular Progressives", it's time to carpet bomb some crèches!

Woohoo!

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Falafel Of Death

Your FBI:

Like Hansel and Gretel hoping to follow their bread crumbs out of the forest, the FBI sifted through customer data collected by San Francisco-area grocery stores in 2005 and 2006, hoping that sales records of Middle Eastern food would lead to Iranian terrorists.

The idea was that a spike in, say, falafel sales, combined with other data, would lead to Iranian secret agents. A similar project was aimed at Sunni Arabs in the Washington, D.C., area.

I enjoy a good falafel (no Bill O'Reilly jokes, please) and very much like Middle Eastern food in general. I guess that makes me a suspected terrorist.

Oh, it looks like I'm safe:

The brainchild of top FBI counterterrorism officials Phil Mudd and Willie T. Hulon, according to well-informed sources, the project didn’t last long. It was torpedoed by the head of the FBI’s criminal investigations division, Michael A. Mason, who argued that putting somebody on a terrorist list for what they ate was ridiculous — and possibly illegal.

I also like Risotto. Does that make me an Italian fascist? Some in the FBI might think so!

As ridiculous as it sounds, the groceries counting scheme is a measure of how desperate the FBI is to disrupt domestic terrorism plots.

Desperate? Do ya think?

The possibility of Iranian-sponsored terrorism in the United States has drawn major attention from the FBI because of rising tensions between Washington and Tehran over Iran’s nuclear program.

Here's an idea: Don't freakin' attack Iran.

At any rate, it's good to know that some within the FBI are taking their jobs seriously. That said, the Feebs will have to pry the mujhadara from my cold, dead hands.

[Via BooMan.]

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Vote "No" Or Resign

The head of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC), Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), still won't say if he'll vote for Michael Mukasey or not.

Given Schumer's position, raising money for Democratic Senate candidates and, indeed, playing a major part in selecting the candidates, voting to approve Mukasey should result in Schumer's immediate resignation from the DSCC.

If he can't get this right then he can't be trusted with such power.

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ADDED: Et tu, Russ Feingold?

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UPDATE: Time to go, Chuckles. Feinstein? No surprise there. She joined the Lieberman caucus years ago.

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Blue Clue

Via Open Left, no more Red States:

(Click to enlarge. External link.)


Congratulations, Utah!

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In Which I Agree With Willard

Alone among the teevee networks FOX "News" maintains a copyright stranglehold on the presidential debates they air. The Mittster has told them to get stuffed:

The Romney campaign has sent a letter to Fox News saying that they will defy the network's request that all the GOP campaigns "cease and desist" from using Fox debate footage in ads or on their web sites, I've just learned.

[...]

So we checked in with the Romney campaign to see what was up. And Romney spokesman Kevin Madden confirmed that the campaign has informed Fox that they were defying the request.

Romney may be all suit and no substance save for the flip-flops and he may be the biggest threat to the Democrats taking the White House next year (IMHO) but he's absolutely right on this issue. Neither FAUX nor any one else should control such footage. Copyrights be damned.

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Medieval

Tony Norman:

In Washington, it's always about what's legal -- not what's moral in the eyes of God or man. Besides, as the fever-soaked Ivan Karamazov pointed out in Dostoevsky's brilliant tale of spiritual malaise, there's always the possibility that God doesn't exist, so everything is "legal" in the end anyway.

In recent weeks, a mantra that hasn't been heard since the 15th century has begun echoing through the bloodless salons of the conservative punditry -- "waterboarding isn't torture."

[...]

Never mind that waterboarding was the preferred method of torture used by agents of the Dutch East India Company during the 1600s. Never mind that both the Gestapo and Japanese officers used it during the darkest days of World War II to humiliate their victims and flaunt international law.

[...]

As long as the hearts of the torturers were pure and their actions sanctioned by God and country, the torture of others was an acceptable price to pay for security. Despite our technological advances, very little has changed since the "heresy" trials of old Europe. We're still lying to ourselves about torture.

Maybe we aren't really re-entering a medieval period. Maybe we never truly left our brutal superstitions behind. Given our tolerance for torture, maybe we're more like the terrorists than we'd like to admit.

As usual, read the whole thing.

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Noted In Passing

Busy busy busy.

Be back this afternoon.

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It Was Fun While It Lasted

South Carolina Dems block Stephen Colbert's presidential run:

The party’s executive council voted 14-3 to refuse Colbert’s application for a spot on the ballot.

“The general sense of the council was that he wasn’t a serious candidate and that was why he wasn’t selected to be on the ballot,” said Joe Werner, the party’s director. “There was discussion — I wouldn’t call it a heated debate — but there was discussion about it.”

Lemme get this straight: Colbert isn't a "serious candidate" but Mike Gravel is?

That does not make sense.

Former governor Jim Hodges gets it:

“There are various candidates who don’t get the joke in the Democratic Party and who, for whatever reasons, want to keep him off the ballot,” said Hodges, who signed a petition supporting Colbert’s candidacy. “I personally think he doesn’t hurt any of them. He brings a sense of levity to politics that’s needed, and the people in South Carolina would enjoy it. We probably would have some people participate who otherwise would not do so.”

All in all, a sad day for our political process.

[Via Chris Bowers.]

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Boo Hoo

Bush: Questions to Mukasey on torture "unfair"

Well, if that's the case then I suggest George withdraw Mukasey's nomination in order to spare his feelings further hurt.

"I believe the questions he's been asked are unfair," Bush said in an Oval Office session with reporters. "He's been asked to give opinions of a program -- or techniques of a program -- on which he has not been briefed."

Waterboarding has been around since at least the Middle Ages. I imagine that Mukasey knows what it is without needing to be briefed.

Of course, we all know what's going on here. If Mukasey says the obvious, that waterboarding is torture, then he would have to prosecute those that ordered its use. That means George and Dick, among others.

And we can't have that, can we?

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The Pictures Say It All

He Who Must Not Be Questioned with a convicted criminal and alleged Iranian spy:

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96...97...Do I Hear $100?

Petroleum:

U.S. oil for December delivery rose as high as $96.24 a barrel in electronic trade. By 3:39 a.m. EDT it was up 86 cents at $95.39 a barrel, paring some gains. December Brent crude also hit its record high of $91.63, up $1 on the day.

Oil soared $4.15 or nearly 5 percent on Wednesday, its biggest one-day gain in 10 months, after U.S. data showed an unexpected 3.9 million-barrel drop in crude stocks last week, most of it at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery point.

The record high price for a barrel of oil is an inflation-adjusted $101.70 set in April 1980.

Meanwhile, via Chris in Paris, Shell Oil makes like Big Brother:

Ten Shell gas stations in the Windy City are testing biometric systems that let consumers walk up to the pump, scan their fingertips on a device and fill up their vehicles. The systems, also installed at Shell convenience stores, are directly linked to customers' checking or credit-card accounts for payment.

"When we talk to customers, they're always looking for ways to make buying gasoline quicker and easier, and always looking for ways to make their transactions faster and more secure," said Chris Susse, Shell's manager of global refueling innovations. "They don't want to carry more cards, kits and keychains, and they want it to be free."

[...]

Shell said it will not share personal information of Pay By Touch customers with third parties, and it still offers traditional forms of payment for those uncomfortable with the system.

I guarantee that if this idea takes off Shell will eventually "share personal information" with third parties. Somebody will find a way to make money off of it.

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Numismatics

Despite their utter spinelessness I still prefer the Democrats control Congress rather than the Repubs. That said, the Dem majority is due in part to idiots like this:

A House Democrat is looking to overturn a recent U.S. Treasury ban on melting pennies to extract the copper, a move that could help the vulnerable freshman while costing taxpayers a million dollars a day.

The bill's sponsor is Democrat Zack Space of Ohio, who won a normally reliable Republican seat last fall after the GOP incumbent, Bob Ney, did not seek re-election after being involved in a corruption scandal that led to a prison sentence.

Space says his proposal is aimed at benefiting a company in his district, Jackson Metals, whose president says he would employ 30 people if he were allowed to melt down pre-1982 pennies, which are 95% copper.

[...]

In December, the U.S. Treasury issued a ban on melting pennies and nickels because precious metals prices had soared to the point that the coins themselves exceeded their face value. The Treasury said the cost of replacing those coins "could well be in excess of $1 million a day," the U.S. Mint said in the Federal Register.

You and me could to lose as much as $1,000,000 a day so this twit can help out some pals. Great.

And just what the hell is it with Ohio and coins? Remember this scandal:

Since 1998, Ohio has invested millions of dollars in the unregulated world of rare coins, buying nickels, dimes, and pennies.

Controlling the money for the state? Prominent local Republican and coin dealer Tom Noe, whose firm made more than $1 million off the deal last year alone.

As I recall it, Noe was sent to prison and the scandal helped bring down the Repub leadership in Ohio.

Anyway, if Nancy Pelosi is smart she'll slap down Space's legislation. Enough with this sort of crap already.

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