The Smoking Gun got their hands on the official incident report filed by Texas Parks and Wildlife.
According the report, the conditions were the following:
Topography: Flat
Visibility: Fair
Type of Cover: Light
Lighting: Sunny
Weather: Clear
Distance from Muzzle to Victim in Yards: 11-50
Light cover, fair visibility, sunny and clear weather? Hmmm.
As almost everyone knows now, our Vice President shot a 78 year old man in the face and chest last Saturday with a 28-guage shotgun. It turns out, to no ones surprise, that Cheney tried to stall the presses on the issue as reported in Time.
Even worse, his victim suffered a minor heart attach yesterday morning. What was the White House’s response? Don’t mention it and make jokes about the shooting instead. That’s right. Instead of telling reporters the latest state of the victim, Scott McClellan decided to make jokes about Cheney shooting a 78 year old man in the face and chest with his shotgun. Now, I understand that there are a lot of jokes to be made as anyone who watches Letterman or Stewart know. However, it seems to be off-color when the White House Press Secretary makes jokes while hiding the knowledge that the victim’s health took a turn for the worst.
For all of you not willing or able to sit through the Super Bowl to catch the million dollar commercials, Google Video is hosting all of them. From Bud’s superfan to the Go Daddy commercials that were not allowed to air, you can see them all.
But check this out: one ad was reused from a different brand. This video is the Degree deodorant commercial “Stunt City†that aired during the Super Bowl. This video is the same “Stunt City†commercial that Leaving Only Footprints found last year. It is the exact same commercial but with a different deodorant, Rexona. If anyone knows more about this, let me know.
You cannot hide the truth forever, especially when it has been photographed. Last week, both photos and emails with Bush and disgraced lobbyist, John Abramoff, were released to the press. The NY Times was the first to print the following picture from a 2001 meeting with Abramoff, Bush, Rove, one of Abramoff’s clients, Chief Raul Garza of the Kickapoo tribe, and many other powerful people:
This follows on the heels of the emails that ThinkProgress was first to publish last week between Abramoff and Kim Eisler, the editor of Washingtonian. This is one of the excerpts from the emails:
HE HAS ONE OF THE BEST MEMORIES OF ANY POLITICIAN I HAVE EVER MET. IT WAS ONE IF [sic] HIS TRADEMARKS, THOUGH OF COURSE HE CAN’T RECALL THAT HE HAS A GREAT MEMORY! THE GUY SAW ME IN ALMOST A DOZEN SETTINGS, AND JOKED WITH ME ABOUT A BUNCH OF THINGS, INCLUDING DETAILS OF MY KIDS. PERHAPS HE HAS FORGOTTEN EVERYTHING. WHO KNOWS.
And we are supposed to believe Bush when he said on January 26th, “You know, I, frankly, don’t even remember having my picture taken with the guy. I don’t know him.†Perhaps, it is because Bush has such a good track record at telling us the truth? You know, if one of the most, if not the most, powerful lobbyists in America was responsible for hundreds of thousands of dollars to my campaign and millions of dollars of campaign funds to my party, I think I would probably know him.
I just rolled back into the Cinci late this afternoon, which was shortly followed by a three-hour nap. Already, I miss the perfect weather, rolling hills, and emerald landscape of northern California. On Saturday night, Rahul and I went to visit Cathie in Napa Valley. Cathie is the link between the two of us being Rahul’s mother-in-law and one of my mom’s closest friends. That and Cathie’s daughter, Rahul’s wife, Sarah, used to baby-sit me.
Napa Valley was absolutely gorgeous. For a gift two years ago, my mom bought my dad a hot air balloon ride over the Valley at dawn. I had no clue how beautiful it was until I was able to see the untouched beauty of the vineyards for myself. Cathie, Rahul, and I drove around most of the loop inside the Valley and ended up doing a wine tasting at a local vineyard. Once it got too dark to enjoy the scenery, we ended up eating at a wonderful Mexican restaurant who’s name I cannot remember.
Yesterday, we had to drive Rahul down to the Bay Area for his flight the next morning. The journey there was absolutely breath taking. James tells me that the two hour drive is a twice daily commute for God-awful hordes of people every morning who either cannot afford to live in the Bay Area or choose not to live there. But for a newbie like me straight outta the plains of Nebraska, it was an incredible trip.
And the most geeky part: I got to drive through my first wind farm.
Well, goodbye California. Goodbye 70 degree sunny weather. Goodbye leaving the windows open and wearing summer clothes. Hello Cincinnati.
What do you get when you drop 250,000 bouncy balls down a San Francisco hill? A wicked awesome viral from Sony.
Today’s eye candy semi-weekly (whenever I feel like changing it) video is an amazing commercial Sony made for their BRAVIA. Over three days, they kept tossing hundreds of thousands of bouncy balls down a hill and capturing the event from dozens of angles. Check out the official site. If you cannot view QuickTime movies, you can watch the viral on Google video.
Then check out the making of the commercial on Google video. I love the riot gear they use to protect the camera man. Someone on site took lots of wonderful pictures you can see on Flickr.
Things are not looking so good for Cheney these days. On the heels of Scooter Libby’s testimony that he authorized the Valerie Plame leak, he ends up spraying a 78 year old lawyer with shotgun pellets on a hunting trip. Official details are yet to be released, but the article has an interview with the owner of the land where the gentleman was shot.
After spending this last week in California working non-stop on our company, Rahul said, “I cannot believe that the Vice President of our country has more free time than we have.â€
Amen.
I got this from J-Luv this morning:
The ellusive cuts to 141 programs in Bush’s budget were finally digested and publish late yesterday. If would be unfair to say that they are being cut in order to increase the defense budget and free up “emergency funds” for wars in Afgan. and Iraq…….. if it weren’t for the fact that its true. See if you can find your program here on the list! Notice all the cuts to education…. b/c children need to start taking PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY for not getting left behind. It’s the American way.
Program Bush Wants to Cut or Kill
Interestingly enough, the majority of these cuts were in his budget proposals the last couple years, and they have been salvaged time and time again (like Head Start and Americorps NCCC, for example). But a very different political climate and increased pressure to eliminate
Congressmembers’ “pet projects” could make the approval and ammending interesting.
This sucks.
70 degrees and sunny. That’s the weather here in Elk Grove, California.
And it’s wonderful. When I left Cincinnati yesterday at 4am, it was snowing. James, Rahul, and I are having our DispatchThis family retreat this week, discussing the future of our company. So far it’s been good. Christie, James’ wife, made a wonderful black bean burrito dinner last night. We moved another one of our customers over to the new system today. James and Rahul got up at 3:30am to be on site when it happened and left me at home for damage control, which meant that I slept next to my phone until 9am.
Today, we are going to check out one of our largest customers and get to walk around some of their job sites in this absolutely ridiculously wicked awesome weather.
Check out my temp here.
Apparently, the latest craze to hit Japan’s shores is hikaru dorodango, balls of mud that shine. A few years ago, a Japanese educational theorist, Fumia Kayo, came across the strange objects while researching children’s play at a nursery school in Kyoto. Impressed with the design and with a little help from an electron microscope, he devised a method so simple that even children could do it. And they have! All over Japan kids are spending hour making dirt balls that shine. Here are his simple instructions:
1. Pack some mud into your hand, and squeeze out the water while forming a sphere.
2. Add some dry dirt to the outside and continue to gently shape the mud into a sphere.
3. When the mass dries, pack it solid with your hands, and rub the surface until a smooth film begins to appear.
4. Rub your hands against the ground, patting and rubbing the fine, powdery dirt onto the sphere. Continue this for two hours.
5. Seal the ball in a plastic bag for three or four hours. Upon removing the sphere, repeat step 4, and then once again seal the sphere in a plastic bag.
6. Remove the ball from the bag, and if it is no longer wet, polish it with a cloth until it shines.