Bernie Mac, Dead at 50
— Dave in Texas

Complications from pneumonia.

The article mentions he suffered from an inflammatory lung disease that went into remission in 2005, but (as some of you pointed out) wasn't the cause of his death.

RIP Bernie.

(tip from pajamamomma)

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 06:31 AM | Comments (28)
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Possibly the Most Bizarre and Radical Land Use Ruling Ever (genghis)
— Open Blog

Few topics bore me more than water management issues. ItÂ’s the kind of thing discussed on local government access cable channels and you flip through on your way to the pay-per-view porn or the Home Shopping Channel (Dave in Texas tells me thatÂ’s where he always buys his Hummel figurines, and who am I to disagree? Whatever else you may say about him, the man knows value when he sees it).

But that’s not important at the moment. Yesterday in the sunny and arid state of Washington a ruling was handed down by something called the “Pollution Control Hearings Board” which may alter the way all future buildings are constructed. Read the whole article here.

”The way homes, shopping centers and other developments are built around Puget Sound could dramatically change to help reduce damage from polluted stormwater, under a new ruling that rejects existing state stormwater rules.
The state Pollution Control Hearings Board, which acts as a court to review challenges to state environmental regulations, said today the state Department of Ecology had not gone far enough in mandating new techniques to control stormwater.”

Ok so far, though the Department of Ecology is a fairly radical agency, so it really takes an effort to up the ante and out-radical them. Can it be done?

”The hearings board ordered Ecology to require the biggest cities and counties in Western Washington, including Seattle, Tacoma, and King, Pierce and Snohomish counties, to mandate much wider use of methods that get rainwater to soak into the ground.”

Because otherwise it floats up into outer space rather than into the extensive drainage system where itÂ’s captured and reused.

”Environmentalists argued the new methods, which include narrower streets, gardens designed to soak up rain, and homes built on columns that leave topsoil undisturbed, are well-tested and usually reduce environmental damage.”

Let that sink in for a bit. Homes built on columns. That leave topsoil undisturbed.

I suppose it’s possible. I’ve heard (and this is hush hush so don’t tell anyone) from industry insiders that they’ve developed a magic “bean” (as they call it) which, when planted, eventually grows into a structural column, so no heavy equipment is needed which might disturb the topsoil. Other research teams are working feverishly on a system to prefabricate the housing and bring it in by helicopter. They’ve almost got it solved but are in a quandary regarding lifting a whole shopping center, apartment complex or office building into place.

Artist depiction of future Seattle development
(PS: I encourage anyone who comments on this post to use at least one fucking profane word. Is that too much to ask? DonÂ’t you know weÂ’re at war? Comments not including profanity may be edited to include them)

Posted by: Open Blog at 09:48 PM | Comments (103)
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Cool Facts about Fred Baron
— Ace

Fred Baron has touched many of our lives -- a Ferrari here, a full ride to Gonzaga State there, a paying a thug to kill an annoying and well-insured wife somewhere else.

Tell your stories about how Fred Baron selflessly intervened in your own lives to give you a better future, or to poison a blackmailer.

Posted by: Ace at 06:07 PM | Comments (177)
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"Son of a Mill Worker"
— Ace

From last year. Bob Shrum revealed this about the Talented Mr. Edwards:

Kerry talked with several potential picks, including Gephardt and Edwards. He was comfortable after his conversations with Gephardt, but even queasier about Edwards after they met. Edwards had told Kerry he was going to share a story with him that he’d never told anyone else—that after his son Wade had been killed, he climbed onto the slab at the funeral home, laid there and hugged his body, and promised that he’d do all he could to make life better for people, to live up to Wade’s ideals of service. Kerry was stunned, not moved, because, as he told me later, Edwards had recounted the same exact story to him, almost in the exact same words, a year or two before—and with the same preface, that he’d never shared the memory with anyone else. Kerry said he found it chilling...

I find Edwards' claim that he granted the interview to ABC to protect the Hunter and Young families from harassment... very plausible, actually!

And only "chilling" if "chilling" means "poignantly, even pungently sweet."

Two Secret Messages Just Went Out from the DNC to the MSM... But I can't decode them, alas.

In case maybe you guys can, here are the media's fresh orders:

1) TECTOPR ACKBAR

2) GENEVA BETHIZEAL

Posted by: Ace at 05:22 PM | Comments (52)
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Friend of John's: Yeah, I'm Such an Amazingly Awesome Buddy I Paid Rielle Hunter to Go Away and then Didn't Tell John About It
— Ace

Uh huh.

There are Two Americas... and I want to live in Fred Baron's America, babyyyy!

Mr. Baron, who was chairman of Mr. EdwardsÂ’ presidential campaign finance committee, said he paid money for Rielle Hunter to move from North Carolina to another location.

He said she and another campaign aide, Andrew Young, who claimed paternity of Ms. HunterÂ’s child, were being dogged by tabloid reporters who believed she had an affair with Mr. Edwards and fathered the child.

Mr. Baron would not say how much money he provided for the couple's move. He said Mr. Edwards did not know about the arrangement.

“The money was purely and simply to get them out of North Carolina and to get them into a stable place,” he said. "They were unable to afford a second home. It was to give them the ability to live somewhere where they wouldn't be harassed."

From the article Allah has:

Baron insisted Edwards never knew what Baron did for Young and Hunter; he believes Edwards didnÂ’t even have an inkling that Baron was doing thisÂ…

“My role is to be supportive of these two families,” he said.

Hush money? “Of course it wasn’t hush money!”…

“Personal funds only — no campaign funds,” he writes.

He's like some kind of deep-pocketed superhero or something. I think he might be Batman.

I'm thinking this semi-confession arrives just before the National Enquirer article naming him one of Rielle's benefactors.

Thanks to DrewM.

Questions: 1) How likely do you think it was that John Edwards didn't notice that the itinerant bohemian semi-employed "documentarian" Rielle Hunter was suddenly flush with cash? If he did notice, did he ask where all the loot was coming from? If he did ask, do you think she said, "I can't say, it's a secret?"

2) Do you think that this super-duper fundraiser paying big money to John Edwards' mistress (and probable baby-mama) disclosed his donations on relevant filings?

3) Do you think that this rich fatcat might maybe kinda-sorta have had some extra-special influence over John Edwards, should he have become President? Think maybe Edwards would have had to have maybe agreed with any requests this Mr. Baron might have made on behalf of the rich folks giving him money? Or any request Mr. Baron might have personally? Do you think the Talented Mr. Edwards would have had the integrity to refuse such corrupt requests and said, "Sir, expose my failings if you like, but I answer to a cause higher than self, and that cause is the office the American people entrusted to my care"?

Yeah? You think he would have said that?

Me too.

He's the son of a mill worker, you know. He's got values.

Bonus: See Allah's post on this. Turns out Edwards copped to this in order to protect the Hunter and Young families from further harassment from tabloids. Son of a mill worker.

Also, Elizabeth Edwards has released a statement which, um, mentions her breast cancer in defending her husband.

John made a terrible mistake in 2006... But he did tll me. And we began a long and painful process in 2006, a process oddly made somewhat easier with my diagnosis in March of 2007.

She's got the timeline down too, I see.

I Know Who I'm Writing In For President... The Draft Fred Baron Movement starts now, up at the top of the left sidebar.

Posted by: Ace at 03:36 PM | Comments (58)
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Lefty Blogger Digby: Hey, You Know What Story Needs Covering? McCain's Alleged Affair With Vicky Isemann
— Ace

He brings this up as if he's just responding to the Edwards reportage in a tit-for-tat manner, but in fact check down further into his blog and it's clear he's had this particular bee in his bonnet for a while now.

Wondering why Obama is appearing in all the "celebrity tabloids" while McCain is completely absent....

There must be some explanation as to why there have been no stories about Vicki Iseman, no drug stories about Cindy, no stories about McCain's legendary temper tantrums. Why?

Fair warning, though: He hardly has to demand the media take a second look into Vicky Isemann. Having covered for John Edwards for months only to see the story nevertheless forced into the media by the NE, the media will now dedicate some man-hours to sleuthing any McCain affairs. It's only "fair," of course. They have to Avenge Elizabeth. (Protect Elizabeth is so yesterday; now it's Avenge Elizabeth.)

Oh, just one more bit from the sub-atomic psychokinetic fissionist "digby."

Anthrax Trutherism, baby:

(Lying to the press about the anthrax killers and WMD in Iraq, well, not a problem.)

Who lied to the press about the "anthrax killers"? (Plural, note.)

I paged down to see what he might be talking about but I didn't see any more such intriguing speculations. I'm not sure if this is yet another passive-aggressive don't-hold-me-to-this-I'm-just-"airing-a-theory" cowardly conspiracy theorizing by a lefty blogger, or what.

But it certainly does seem to indicate the left of the blogosphere suspects much about the anthrax attacks that they're as of yet too chickenshit to commit to writing.

So they just toss it out there, vaguely, like that play about the Trystero in Crying of Lot 49.

Posted by: Ace at 03:33 PM | Comments (23)
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Can't Make Next Saturday's Moronpalooza
— Ace

Drop me an email if you've made plans you can't break or something... I don't know what I'll do. If someone's really screwed by this, I'll see if I can't work something out. But right now it looks like I need to cancel/reschedule.

I mean, me personally. Doesn't mean you guys can't meet, if you want.

Posted by: Ace at 03:21 PM | Comments (12)
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Olympics Open Thread
— Gabriel Malor

NBC will be broadcasting the taped Opening Ceremonies at 7:30pm/6:30 central. If you can make sense of it, NBC-Universal's schedule for showing events is here. (Personally, there's got to be a better way of finding out what is being shown and when. If you know of one, please put it in the comments.)

Despite that picture, I am looking forward to the Games. China was a terrible choice to host, but that doesn't take away from the achievements of the athletes and I intend to cheer the U.S. team and U.S. allies as I condemn China.

This is an open thread for Olympics discussion.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 03:05 PM | Comments (49)
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Amanda Marcotte: "To be a successful politician, you have to have the cocky optimism and self-confidence that leads you to think that you can have affairs and get away with it."
— Purple Avenger

Remember -- its required now that you be a narcissistic "special" lying cheating tarting scumbag to be a "successful politician".

IÂ’ve been skeptical about the Edwards story from the beginning, not because I think that any random politician is better than that. To be a successful politician, you have to have the cocky optimism and self-confidence that leads you to think that you can have affairs and get away with it...

In related news, the Obama campaign just dispatched three hit men to make sure Amanda shuts the fuck up permanently.

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 02:26 PM | Comments (28)
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Former Edwards Blogger Amanda "Milky Load of God" Marcotte: Edwards' Affair Is Irrelevant. Let's Get Back to the Real Issues, Like John McCain's Divorce
— Ace

No, really.

It's official: The Clinton Playbook is being run, exactly like it was last time.

Party like it's 1997!!!

Thanks to DrewM.

Whoops! Purple Avenger just linked this post. But he cut something different from the post. I'm letting this sorta-double-post lie. I like DrewM's snark, too.

Vid of David "Sucker of Cock" Shuster: The media has two jobs here, which I've been seeing all day.

Job One: Reassure the public you knew all about this and are hardly surprised, because you don't want them to think you're so out of the fucking loop this snuck up on you. So everyone's in "Oh, of course I knew, it was all so obvious!" in-the-know cool-kid mode.

Job Two: The trickier one-- attempt to explain how it can be you knew all about this but didn't report it, or bother to do the minimum threshold of follow-up. Bear in mind, the National Enquirer is a small outfit. When they assign three or four people to a story, that's a substantial fraction of their entire component of reporters and photographers.

It's nothing for a network news organization to assign three or four people to a story -- they've got hundreds of unpaid interns chomping at the bit to do something besides edit and fetch coffee, for God's sakes. So even if they didn't want to send a reporter, they could have sent a dozen recent graduates out there to get the story... which they would have gotten. This was not exactly a Phillip Marlowe murder mystery here.

Note that Job One and Job Two are basically impossible to square in any satisfactory manner. But they're quite righteous and smugly self-complimentary about both.

In this video, David Shuster lets everyone know he knew allllll about this way before the Iowa primary, but failed to report on it -- or, apparently, follow up at all-- because "credible sources" within John Edwards' camp assured him the story was garbage and that he'd be embarrassed to report it.

"You're only as good as your 'sources' are," Shuster says. Well, Dave, your sources are apparently shit, buddy, and you're so fucking credulous, stupid, or in the tank you deem them "very credible." So I guess you're not that good, eh?

Unable to let it stand there -- with David Shuster looking pretty bad -- he goes on to say how goshdarn angry he is about being lied to by his very credible people/crochet club buddies.

It's their fault, you know.

Which is odd.

Edwards' people were just doing their job. They did their job well.

It was Shuster who failed to do his job.

Why are they to blame? They never held themselves out as disinterested parties or objective observers. They're supposed to be invested in their client's/friend's future.

It's Shuster, and the rest of his sucker-of-cock buddies in the media, that fell on their smug, soft faces here.

And it's insulting to hear them all whine about being "used."

And of course then Shuster turns around and reasserts his superiority as a journalist over those working at the National lEnquirer, even while conceding they somehow stupidly blundered into getting the story right, while Genius Journalist David "Sucker of Cock" Shuster was all righteous and ethical and brilliant while gettign it completely wrong.

MSNBC should cut an advertisement from that last interview. "Watch MSNBC-- We're too damned smart and professional to get stupid 'news' right."

Posted by: Ace at 02:26 PM | Comments (34)
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