The mother of all Flo charts

From the Mother Jones interview with I love Charts' Jason Oberholtzer and Cody Westphal.

Video: Yunel Escobar outs his barber after Blue Jays manager explains why no one on the team noticed the 'You are a faggot' message on the shortstop's face

Toronto Blue Jays shortshop Yunel Escobar, who now has to give up three days' salary to GLAAD and You Can Play because he was photographed wearing eyeblack reading "Tu ere maricón" (You are a faggot), claimed during a press conference that he had gay friends.
     When asked who, he provided as examples (at about the 20:40 mark), the person who cuts his hair and the person who decorated his house.
     When asked why no one in the Blue Jays organization noticed the eyeblack patch message, manager John Farrell said (at about the 4:10 mark): "...Because it's frequently done on his part, really, no one paid attention to it. The size of the lettering is so small that if you were to view it, you'd have to be right, basically, looking in his eyes."

Pamela Anderson breaks training in Rio

Pamela Anderson, who swore off dudes and cocktails last month to compete better on Dancing With The Stars, appears to have broken training on both counts in Rio last Thursday at Miroir Nightclub. The white polo-shirted dude next to her companion was not loving it.

Straight Minnesotans not buying anti-gay marriage initiative financed by groups outside the state

Romney's '47%' remarks already an Obama ad

Keith Olbermann tweets special comment video; rips Romney's "47%" hidden camera remarks at fundraiser

Romney calls half of USA losers at lavish Boca Raton home of fund raiser Mark Leder, Sun Capital private equity manager; New York Post called another lavish Leder party an 'orgy'

Sneering plutocrat Romney: 47 percent of Americans "believe that they are victims...I'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives... My job is not to worry about those people..."
     Map shows where most of those 47% who pay no federal income tax, (but pay other taxes, including payroll taxes)  are most likely live (via Joe.My.God).
     More about Leder, his "investment" style, and his wild parties in Mother Jones.

Texas Railroad Commission, GOP officials, ok with foreign oil co. breaking laws to confiscate private land

Lamar County Court-at-Law
Judge Bill Harris
Photo: eparistexas.com

In order to seize land in Texas through eminent domain, a pipeline company must be a common carrier and must operate in the public good. TransCanada checked the "common carrier" box on the T4 form, even though it doesn't pipe anyone else's oil in Texas and doesn't even have a rate schedule for the pipeline it wants to extend through Julie Trigg Crawford's land. Also, the only place to pump oil into the Texas segment of TransCanada's pipeline is in Oklahoma. The Texas Railroad Commission and a Paris, Texas judge, let TransCanada get away with this. Oh — Gov. Rick Perry, and both Texas' US Senators, Kay Bailey Hutchinson and John Cornyn are supporting TransCanada, too. Listen to Crawford's story here.

Top 5 reasons Romney won't release more tax returns

Omaha Liberty Project will petition to kill city's new LGBT anti-bias law; Effort to be led by Nebraska Family Council's Femi Awodele and Encore Financial Services CEO Patrick Bonnett

Nebraska Family Council claim (click picture to enlarge): Omaha's LGBT fair employment ordinance
confers "special privileges"  for gay Omahans and infringes on "religious freedoms" (apparently
loopholes in the law allowing religious organizations to discriminate against gay people aren't
generous enough to satiate the Nebraska Family Council.)

Update: a rumor is circulating that activists may purchase a copy of the Lincoln petition and post a list of signatories online, as has been done elsewhere in instances of antigay initiatives.
     Background: In May, after Omaha adopted an LGBT anti-bias ordinance, the Lincoln City Council did the same, on a 5-0 vote with the two Republican councilmen abstaining. The Nebraska Family Council and Family First of Nebraska immediately gathered over 10,000 signatures on a petition to halt implementation of the law, requiring the city council to either let the ordinance die or put it on the ballot. Petition signatures were solicited at every Catholic church in Lincoln; four times the required number of signatures were collected.
     Last week, a petition request with the City of Omaha to put the city's anti-bias law to a popular vote was filed by a group calling itself the Omaha Liberty Project. The organization includes a board member of the Nebraska Family Council, William Femi Awodele; its leader is a local Tea Party activist, Patrick Bonnett, owner of Encore Financial Services, Inc. of Omaha.
     Omaha legal officials are reviewing the proposed petition. If it is approved and attracts enough signatures, the council will have the option to enact or reject a petition-led proposal within 30 days of receiving it. Should the council not enact the proposal, it would go to a public vote during the next scheduled city election.

     Nancy Hicks of the Lincoln Journal-Star notes that the group must collect signatures representing at least 15% of the number of people who voted in the last mayoral election, or about 11,500 signatures of Omaha registered voters, according to the city charter.
     Patrick Bonnett, the director of the new organization seeking to kill Omaha's LGBT anti-bias law is pictured at left in a 2011 rally in Papillion, an Omaha suburb, during which Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning, also a speaker, compared welfare recipients to racoons.
     Among the many reactionary groups Bonnett likes on Facebook as of this writing is one called I hate it when I wake up in the morning and Barack Obama is President.

     Update: Bonnett has now locked down his Facebook page.
     William Femi Awodele is a North Omaha "community leader," from Nigeria, a board member of the Nebraska Family Council and an executive director of his apparent business, Christian Couples Fellowship International, which has a website on which marriage-improvement DVDs for troubled heterosexuals (which cost up to $70) may be ordered.

Below: Awodele, who isn't a lawyer, failed last Spring to persuade the City Council not to adopt Omaha's LGBT anti-bias ordinance after arguing that gay people don't fit the legal definition of a minority — despite the fact that they have employment protection in about 170 US cities — and that a study by the University of Nebraska Medical Center indicates they have too much money to be considered a legitimate minority, anyway. He had more to say but was cut off because his time management skills were insufficient to comply with the council's five-minute rule.



Johnny Perez noted in the above-linked Omaha World-Herald article that a poll in March indicated 60% of voters citywide favored ordinances to prohibit discrimination against gay and transgender residents, while approximately 25 percent opposed them. City Councilman Ben Gray, who proposed the change to city ordinances, said: “This group, whoever it is, must seem to think discrimination against some people is OK,” said

Al Jazeera: more US embassies under seige; reporters visit Sam Bacile's Nakoula Basseley Nakoula's house

Violent protests occurred in Tunisia, Yemen, Sudan and elsewhere as crowds targeted US, UK and German embassies.



Below: Police protection for Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, 55, who has denied that he posed as "Sam Bacile" even though the cell phone number given Associated Press during an interview with "Bacile" was traced to the same L.A. address at which the press service found Nakoula, who has been prosecuted on identity theft, bank fraud and drug (meth) charges.

Egypt's Muslim Glenn Beck, who ignited anti­American violence: he hates gays and atheists, too

He is Sheik Khaled Abdalla, who Time magazine describes as:

A fiery Egyptian TV host on the Islamist satellite TV channel al-Nas, Abdalla is reported to have set off the outrage when he broadcast a clip of the movie trailer that showed the man playing Muhammad. After he showed the video on Sept. 8, the Atlantic Wire reports, online views of the video soared. According to the Guardian, Abdalla drums up outrage among his audience by homing in on perceived threats to Islam and intensifying them.

Full disclosure: the above clip is from the Middle East Media Research Institute (www.memritv.org) which states that its goal is to "bridge the language gap that exists between the Middle East and the West," but which basically excerpts the most alarming and incendiary Arab television it can find, translates it into English, and distributes it via the Internet.
     MEMRI was co-founded in 1998 by Yigal Carmon, a former colonel in the Israeli military intelligence and Meyrav Wurmser, an Israeli-born, American political scientist.

From Wikipedia:

Political Research Associates (PRA), which studies the US political right, notes that... MEMRI "was previously more forthcoming about its political orientation in its self-description and in staff profiles on its website." PRA considers that “MEMRI's slogan, ‘Bridging the Language Gap Between the Middle East and the West,’ does not convey the institute's stridently pro-Israel and anti-Arab political bias.” It further notes, that MEMRI's founders, Wurmser and Carmon, “are both hardline pro-Israel ideologues aligned with Israel's Likud party.”

Sally Struthers drunk driving mugshot: not half bad

It's not a great photo, but the one snapped following a drunk driving arrest of the 65-year-old All In The Family star early Wednesday is about as good as recent paparazzi shots.
     Struthers did two shows later in the day at the Ogunquit Playhouse, currently staging a musical adaptation of 9 to 5.

Romney still won't say how much he'll raise middle class taxes

People. People who eat people...

514 Hudson, according to Google. Click to enlarge.

Another zombie apocalypse head-gnawing attack seemingly due to ingestion of bath salts, has taken place, this time in Pennsylvania, though thankfully not Pittsburgh, for which AKSARBENT has great affection.
     Richard Cimino Jr., 20, of Doylestown, jumped from the second-floor window of a vacant Hawley home at 514 Hudson, after removing all his clothes. Covered in his own blood from what evidently was a messy fall, he then approached two women - Ann Monaghan and Nancy Dean-Corino, both of Hawley - and tackled Ms. Dean-Corino, at which pointing, bleeding all over her, he "began to gnaw" at Ms. Dean-Corino's head, all while "screaming like an animal," according to a state police press release.
      The two women managed to escape and call police. Responding troopers found Mr. Cimino lying in the road with severe injuries.
      Even after being shocked with a stun gun after lunging at a trooper, Cimino managed to punch an emergency medical technician treating his injuries.
     Cimino's behavior echoed that of Rudy Eugene, who attacked a homeless man in South Florida and chewed off his face. Eugene, who was shot and killed by police, was found to be free of drugs, except for marijuana, by the Miami-Dade Medical Examiner. No bath salts were detected.

New Nikon D600 video and full specs; List: $2100 (US); android phones can preview image, trip shutter

All the specs, directly from Nikon:

• Type
  Single-lens reflex digital camera
• Lens Mount
  Nikon F bayonet mount
• Picture Angle
  Nikon FX format
• Effective Pixels
  24.3 million
• Sensor Size
  35.9mm x 24.0mm
• Image Sensor Format
  FX
• Image Sensor Type
  CMOS
• Total Pixels
  24.7 million
• Dust-reduction system
  Image sensor cleaning
• Dust-Off Reference Photo
  Yes
• Image Area (pixels)
  FX-format
  (L) 6,016 x 4,016, (M) 4,512 x 3,008, (S) 3,008 x 2,008
  DX-format
  (L) 3,936 x 2,624, (M) 2,944 x 1,968, (S) 1,968 x 1,312
  
• File Format Still Images
  JPEG: JPEG-Baseline Compliant; can be selected from Size Priority and Optimal Quality
  JPEG: JPEG-Baseline Compliant with fine (approx 1:4), Normal (approx 1:8) or Basic (approx 1:16) Compression
  NEF (RAW): Lossless Compressed, Compressed or Uncompressed 12 or 14 bit
  TIFF (RGB)
• Picture Control
  Landscape, Monochrome, Neutral, Portrait, Standard, User-customizable Settings, Vivid
• Storage Media
  SD, SDHC, SDXC
• Card Slot
  2 Secure Digital (SD)
• File System
  Compliant with DCF (Design Rule for Camera File System) 2.0, DPOF (Digital Print Order Format), EXIF 2.3 (Exchangeable Image File Format for Digital Still Cameras), PictBridge
• Viewfinder
  Eye-level Pentaprism Single-Lens Reflex Viewfinder
• Viewfinder Frame Coverage
  FX (36x24): 100% Horizontal and 100% Vertical Approx.DX (24x16): 97% Horizontal and 97% Vertical Approx.
• Viewfinder Magnification
  0.70x Approx.
• Viewfinder Eyepoint
  20.6mm (-1.0m¯¹)
• Viewfinder Diopter Adjustment
  Built-in diopter adjustment (-3 to +1 m¯¹)
• Focusing Screen
  Type B BriteView Clear Matte Mark VIII with AF Area Brackets (grid lines can be displayed)
• Reflex Mirror
  Quick-return type
• Lens Aperture
  Instant-return type
• Depth-of-field Control
  Yes
• Lens Compatibility at a Glance***
  AF-S or AF lenses fully compatible
  Metering with AI lenses
• Compatible Lenses
  AF NIKKOR lenses, including type G and D lenses (some restrictions apply to PC lenses) and DX lenses (using DX 24 × 16 1.5x image area), AI-P NIKKOR lenses, and non-CPU AI lenses (A and M modes only).
  IX NIKKOR lenses, lenses for the F3AF, and non-AI lenses cannot be used.
• Shutter type
  Electronically controlled vertical-travel focal-plane
• 

  Shutter Speed
  1/4000 to 30 sec.
  Bulb
• Fastest Shutter Speed
  1/4000 sec.
• Slowest Shutter Speed
  30 sec.
• Flash Sync Speed
  Up to 1/200 sec.
  Synchronizes with shutter at 1/250s or slower
• Bulb Shutter Setting
  Yes
• Shutter Release Modes
  Continuous low-speed [CL] mode; 1-5 frames per second
  Continuous high-speed [CH] mode; 5.5 frames per second
  Mirror-up [Mup] mode, Quiet Shutter Release, Self-timer mode, Single-frame [S] mode
• Continuous Shooting Options
  FX-format
  CH: Up to 5.5 frames per secondCL: Up to 1-5 frames per second
• Top Continuous Shooting Speed at full resolution
  5.5 frames per second
• Self-timer
  2, 5, 10, 20 sec. Timer duration electronically controlled
• Exposure Metering System
  TTL exposure metering using 2,016-pixel RGB sensor
• Metering Method
  Center-weighted: Weight of 75% given to 8mm circle in center of frame
  Matrix: 3D color matrix metering II (type G and D lenses); color matrix metering II (other CPU lenses)
  Spot: Meters 4mm circle (about 1.5% of frame) centered on selected focus point
• Metering Range
  0 to 20 EV (3D color matrix or center-weighted metering)
  0 to 20 EV (spot metering)
• Exposure Meter Coupling
  CPU
  AI
• Exposure Modes
  Aperture-Priority (A), Manual (M), Programmed auto with flexible program (P), Shutter-Priority (S)
• Exposure Compensation
  ±5 EV in increments of 1/3, 1/2 or 1 EV
• Exposure Bracketing
  2 or 3 frames in steps of 1/3, 1/2, 2/3, 1 or 2 EV
• Exposure Lock
  Yes
• Mirror Lock Up
  Yes
• ISO Sensitivity
  ISO 100 - 6400, Lo-1 (ISO 50), Hi-1 (ISO 12,800), Hi-2 (ISO 25,600)
  
• Lowest Standard ISO Sensitivity
  100
• Highest Standard ISO Sensitivity
  6400
• Lowest Expanded ISO Sensitivity
  Lo-1 (ISO 50 equivalent)
• Highest Expanded ISO Sensitivity
  HI-2 (ISO 25,600 equivalent)
• Expanded ISO Sensitivity Options
  Hi-1 (ISO-12,800 equivalent) in 1/3, 1/2 or 1 EV
  Hi-2, (ISO-25,600 equivalent) 1 EV
• Long Exposure Noise Reduction
  Yes
• High ISO Noise Reduction
  Low, Normal, High, Off
• Active D-Lighting
  Auto, Extra High, High, Normal, Low, Off
• D-Lighting Bracketing
  2 frames using selected value for one frame
  3–5 frames using preset values for all frames
• Single-point AF Mode
  Yes
• Dynamic AF Mode
  Number of AF points: 9, 21, 39 and 39 (3D-tracking)
• Auto-area AF Mode
  Yes
• Autofocus System
  Nikon Multi-CAM 4800 autofocus sensor module with TTL phase detection
• Detection Range
  -1 to 19 EV (ISO 100, 68°F/20°C)
• Lens Servo
  Autofocus (AF): Single-servo AF (AF-S); Continuous-servo AF (AF-C); auto AF-S/AF-C selection (AF-A); predictive focus tracking activated automatically according to subject status
  Manual focus (MF): Electronic rangefinder can be used
• AF-area mode
  9, 21 or 39 point Dynamic-area AF
  Auto-area AF
  Single-point AF
  3D-tracking (39 points)
• Focus Lock
  Focus can be locked by pressing AE-L/AF-L button
  Focus can be locked by pressing shutter-release button halfway (single-servo AF)
• Focus Modes
  Auto AF-S/AF-C selection (AF-A)
  Continuous-servo (AF-C)
  Face-Priority AF available in Live View only and D-Movie only
  Manual (M) with electronic rangefinder
  Normal area
  Single-servo AF (AF-S)
  Wide area
• Maximum Autofocus Areas/Points
  39
• Autofocus Sensitivity
  -1 to +19 EV (ISO 100, 20°C/68°F)
• Autofocus Fine Tune
  Yes
• Built-in Flash
  Yes
• Flash Bracketing
  2 to 3 frames in steps of 1/3, 1/2, 2/3, 1 or 2 EV
• Built-in Flash Distance
  39 ft. (ISO 100)
• X-Sync Speed
  1/200
• Top FP High Speed Sync
  Up to 1/4000
• Flash Control
  TTL: i-TTL flash control using 2,016-pixel RGB sensor are available with built-in flash and SB-910, SB-900, SB-700, or SB-400; i-TTL balanced fill-flash for digital SLR is used with matrix and center-weighting metering, standard i-TTL flash for digital SLR with spot metering
• Flash Sync Modes
  Front-curtain sync (normal), Rear-curtain sync, Red-Eye reduction, Red-Eye reduction with slow sync, Slow sync
• Flash Compensation
  -3 to +1 EV in increments of 1/3, 1/2 or 1 EV
• Flash-ready indicator
  Lights when built-in flash or optional flash unit such as SB-910, SB-900, SB-400, SB-80DX, SB-28DX or SB-50DX is fully charged
• Accessory Shoe
  Yes
• Nikon Creative Lighting System (CLS)
  CLS Supported
• White Balance
  Auto, Choose color temperature (2500K–10000K), Cloudy, Direct Sunlight, Flash
  Fluorescent (7 types), Incandescent, Preset manual (up to 4 values can be stored),  Shade
• White Balance Bracketing
  2 or 3 exposures
• Live View Shooting
  Photography Live View Mode
  Movie Live View Mode
• Live View Lens servo
  Autofocus (AF): Single-servo AF (AF-S); full-time-servo AF (AF-F)
  Manual focus (MF)
• Live View AF-area mode
  Face-priority AF, Wide-area AF, Normal-area AF, Subject-tracking AF
• Live View Autofocus
  Contrast-detect AF anywhere in frame (camera selects focus point automatically when face-priority AF or subject-tracking AF is selected)
• Live View Scene Auto Selector
  Auto mode, Auto (flash off) mode
• Movie Metering
  TTL exposure metering using main image sensor
• Movie Maximum recording time
  20 minutes at highest quality
  29 minutes 59 seconds at normal quality
• Movie File Format
  MOV
• Movie Video Compression
  H.264/MPEG-4 Advanced Video Coding
• Movie Audio recording format
  Linear PCM
• Movie
  HD 1,920x1,080 / 30 fps, HD 1,920x1,080 / 25 fps, HD 1,920x1,080 / 24 fps, HD 1,280x720 / 60 fps, HD 1,280x720 / 50 fps, HD 1,280x720 / 30 fps HD 1,280x720 / 25 fps,
• Movie Audio
  Built-in microphone, monaural
  External stereo microphone (optional)
• Monitor Size
  3.2 in. diagonal
• Monitor Resolution
  921,000 Dots
• Monitor Type
  Wide Viewing Angle TFT-LCD
• Monitor Angle of View
  170-degree wide-viewing angle
• Monitor Adjustments
  Brightness, 5 levelsBrightness control using ambient brightness sensor
• Virtual Horizon Camera Indicator
  Yes
• Playback Functions
  Auto Image Rotation, Full-Frame and Thumbnail (4, 9, or 72 images or calendar), Highlights, Histogram Display, Image Comment, Movie Playback, Movie Slideshow, Playback with Zoom
  Slideshow
• In-Camera Image Editing
  Color Balance, Color Outline, Color Sketch, D-Lighting, Distortion Control, Edit Movie, Filter Effects, Fisheye, Image Overlay, Miniature Effect, Monochrome, NEF (RAW) Processing, Perspective Control, Quick Retouch, Red-Eye Correction, Resize, Selective Color, Side-by-Side Comparison, Straighten, Trim
• Image Comment
  Yes
• Interface
  Accessory Terminal: Remote Cord: MC-DC2 (available separately); GPS unit: GP-1 (available separately)
  HDMI output: Type C mini-pin HDMI connector
  Headphone Connector
  Hi-speed USB
  Stereo Microphone Input
• Wi-Fi Functionality
  Eye-Fi Compatible
  WU-1b Wireless Mobile Adapter
• GPS
  GP-1 GPS unit
  GP-1A GPS unit
• Save/Load Camera settings
  Yes
• Total custom Settings
  50
• My Menu
  Yes with customization
• Recent Settings
  Yes
• Supported Languages
  Arabic, Brazilian Portuguese, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norweigan, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian
• Date, Time and Daylight Savings Time Settings
  Yes
• World Time Setting
  Yes
• Battery / Batteries
  EN-EL15 Lithium-ion Battery
• Battery Life (shots per charge)
  900 shots per charge (Battery Life) (CIPA)
• AC Adapter
  EH-5b AC Adapter
  Requires EP-5B Power Supply Connector
• Battery Charger
  MH-25 Quick Charger
• Tripod Socket
  1/4 in.
• Approx. Dimensions
  Width: 5.6 in. (141mm), Height: 4.4 in. (113mm), Depth: 3.2 in. (82mm)
• Approx. Weight
  42 oz. (760g)
  

  camera body only
• Operating Environment
  0–40 °C (+32–104 °F)
• Supplied Accessories
  
  

  • EN-EL15 Rechargeable Li-ion Battery
  • MH-25 Quick Charger
  • EG-D2 Audio Video Cable
  • UC-E15 USB Cable
  • BM-14 LCD Monitor Cover
  • DK-21 Rubber Eyecup
  • AN-DC8 Strap
  • DK-5 Eyepiece Cap
  • BF-1B Body Cap
  • BS-1 Accessory Shoe Cap
  • NikonView NX2 CD ROM

*SRP (Suggested Retail Price) listed only as a suggestion. Actual prices are set by dealers and are subject to change at any time.

**Specifications and equipment are subject to change without any notice or obligation on the part of the manufacturer.
***Refer to the product manual or the Compatible Lenses Specification for additional details.

The most famous chord in rock 'n' roll, dissected

Paul McCartney was said to have been highly annoyed when one critic called Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band the "best album yet" from the Beatles' steller producer, George Martin.
     Martin, in his 80s now, is almost deaf, but his son let Canadian rocker Randy Bachman into the Abbey Road studios to settle long-running speculation about exactly how the opening to A Hard Day's Night, rock's most famous chord, was constructed. Below: Miramax rerelease trailer.

Christer Pat Robertson, rich hustler of religion with talkative burning bushes and opinionated snakes, says Muslims 'cannot defend some of the stuff they believe'

You wonder what it is in these Muslims that makes them go crazy when somebody says something about Muhammad, most of which happens to be true... He took his favorite wife when she was either 8 or 9 years old and he was 53. And he began having sexual relations with that 8- or 9-year-old child. And we called that pedophilia in this country, but with him it was like a holy act...

     He had a number of wives and this movie showed him having sexual intercourse with one more more of his wives, and I guess the Muslims got upset about that... they cannot defend some of the stuff they believe... Ishmael, the Bible says, was like a wild donkey. I mean, he was just a wild man. And apparently, that spirit has pervaded these people. And it’s just crazy, but they do it.

AKSARBENT is largely bored by all this pot-can't-call-the-kettle-insane back and forth, but will defend to the death against slurs on donkeys, which are soulful, loyal animals, once you neuter them.

Esteemed diplomat Sarah Palin weighs in on US Embassy crisis

25 things Tom Matlack wants his son to know

Mr. Matlack had AKSARBENT at #17.

$100,000 Gettysburg map languishes on GSA auction site; even at $5, no bidders as of yesterday

An 841-square-feet topographical map of the Gettysburg battlefield — with blinking lights illustrating troop movement — was listed at the GSA auction site for $5 with no bidders as of yesterday. The 1962 map, which cost $100,000, contains friable asbestos plaster. The Gettysburg National Historical Park removed the map from the site in 2008.

Ann Romney, Paul Ryan will speak at LGBT-bashing conference organized and sponsored by two SPLC-certified hate groups

UPDATE: FRC spokesperson Darin Miller told BuzzFeed that the people listed on the online program were those both invited and confirmed. Only the ones with an asterisk next to their names were confirmed — and Mrs. Romney never had an asterisk. Paul Ryan will be there. (Via JMG.)

From The Raw Story:

The Southern Poverty Law Center, which considers the Family Research Council and American Family Association to be anti-LGBT hate groups, has urged public officials to avoid the conference.

     “The FRC is far outside the mainstream,” a letter sent to public officials said (PDF). “It has engaged in repeated, groundless demonization – portraying LGBT people as sick, vile, incestuous, violent, perverted, and a danger to the nation. One of its officials has gone so far as to say that homosexuality should be criminalized.”

     “The FRC’s extremism is vividly illustrated,” the letter added, “by the fact that it has invited the American Family Association (AFA) to co-sponsor the Summit at which you have been invited to speak. Here is what Bryan Fischer, the AFA’s Director of Issue Analysis, wrote in 2010: ‘Homosexuality gave us Adolph Hitler, and homosexuals in the military gave us the Brown Shirts, the Nazi war machine and 6 million dead Jews.’”

The Nebraska affiliate of the Family Research Council is Family First, which, together with the Nebraska Family Council, gathered over 10,000 signatures to kill an equal employment ordinance extending protected class status to gay people as well as Christians.

US diplomatic outposts in Egypt, Libya attacked over inflammatory anti-Islam film financed by Sam Bacile, Israeli-American real estate developer

The film is laughably bad. You'd see better acting and story lines in bargain-bin smut or even in a Kirk Cameron feature.
 

The movie was made by Sam Bacile, an Israeli-American real-estate developer, according to the Wall Street Journal, and promoted by Koran-burning Florida evangelist Terry Jones.

Bacile -- who wrote, directed and produced the film -- said he wanted to showcase his view of Islam as a hateful religion, the Journal reported, citing a telephone interview with him.

     Bacile, 52, told the newspaper that to make the film, he had raised $5 million from about 100 Jewish donors, who he declined to identify. He said he made the two-hour movie over a three-month period last year in California, using about 60 actors and 45 crew members, the Journal reported.

Proving once again that he is clueless about international diplomacy and ruthless about putting politics above statesmanship, Mitt Romney pounced on US diplomatic efforts to diffuse the situation by claiming that the Obama administration's first response was "to sympathize" with the attackers (because it deplored efforts to denigrate religion.)
     An Obama campaign spokesman responded by saying they were "shocked" that Romney would "choose to launch a political attack" shortly after the death of a U.S. official. A State Department officer was killed in Benghazi, Libya, after armed protesters stormed the consulate.

New Nikon D600 expected to be announced at midnight; should debut at Photokina

Today's hoopla about the new iPhone 5/new ipods fortunately seems to be distracting consumers from a significant new Nikon product announcement, but that's ok with AKSARBENT — maybe our preorder of the new d600 will end up higher in the queue.
     Rumors about the Nikon D600 have been documented at Nikon Rumors since April. It will use a new Sony 24mp sensor and will be the cheapest full-frame digital camera you can buy — some are saying as little as $1500, although AKSARBENT will believe that when we see it.
     It will shoot video up to 1/2 hour (almost 3x as long as the $3500 Canon 5d Mk III) at H.264/MPEG-4 AVCHD (24, 25 or 30 frames per second at 1080p and 60 FPS at 720p) and will output uncompressed full HD through its HDMI port. An optional wifi-accessory for the D600 was briefly spotted on Nikon's web site before it disappeared — the first official preannouncement acknowledgement of the product by Nikon.

     Some Best Buy stores have already received display shelf power adapters for a new Nikon camera, identified on the tag as "Nikon D000."

Other highlights:

• 24.7MP full frame sensor
• Built-in HDR (like the 5100)
• Max shutter speed of 1/4000
• Weight: 760g (850g with battery and memory cards), the D800 weights 900g
• 3.2" LCD with 921K dot with ambient sensor control
• Viewfinder coverage: 100%
• The Nikon D600 will have built-in AF motor
• The body most probably will be weather sealed
• ISO range: 100-6400 (with Lo-1 ISO 50 and Hi-2 ISO 25,600)
• 39 AF points (with an option of 11 AF points), 9 cross-type AF points
• AF face detection
• Exposure compensation: ±5 EV (same as the D800)
• The D600 will probably use the EN-EL15 rechargeable Li-ion battery
• 5 fps (same as the D700, the D800 has 4fps)
• 2 SD card slots with Eye-fi support
• Build-in retouching images functionality
• Built-in flash with sync speed of 1/250s
• Two user settings: U1 and U2
• Fn button
• Auto DX crop mode
• In-camera RAW editor
• Built in time-lapse functionality
• New external battery grip

Kirk Cameron now reading minds of dead founding fathers

The dopey child actor, now a dopey adult twit, is worried that the Democrats didn't pander fast enough to Christers because they initially left out the mention of god in their political platform and is telling the losers who take him seriously that the founding fathers would be disturbed about the state of religious freedom today. (Evidently the silence of Cameron's scholarly intuition must be telling him that Jefferson, Franklin and Adams would not be bothered by the president and the military assassinating US citizens without a trial.)
     If our forefathers were in a position to be outraged about anything, it would likely be that their eloquent and fitting motto for the United States, E Pluribus Unum, has been replaced by a religious bumper sticker, In God We Trust, by pushy Christers like Cameron who think their cheap theocracism intellectually trumps the vision of John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson who gave us the best national motto any melting-pot country could ever have.
     Cameron is for Todd Akin, against the legitimate aspirations of gay people, and critical of the "theory" of evolution. The performer's web page says not one word about his education.
     AKSARBENT thinks this is probably because a) no college would want to claim this numbskull as a graduate, or b) he dropped out of school at a very early age.
     At any rate, here's a video about his anti-evolution activism, The Origin of Stupidity.

Jim Cramer on GOP voter suppression in PA

McFly's beatdown: the owner's interesting narrative

Mark Lampe, co-owner, with brother Jeff, of McFly's. Monday
he told KMTV: There's some accusations of possibly me having

my patrons beat up somebody because of a choice they made

and that couldn't be any further from the truth.

Two straight brothers who claimed they were victimized by four homophobic haters at McFly's, an Omaha firefighter/cop bar, have now told their version of events to two television stations, KMTV (the CBS affiliate) and KPTM (the Fox affiliate).
     Co-owner Mark Lampe, who was at the bar Sunday night, told KMTV: "Whatever happened out there I don't know, it's unclear. There's an investigation."
     His brother Jeff, who was not at the bar, said on the establishment's facebook page, "At 1:45 A.M. a fight broke out on the sidewalk and the 2 men were assaulted by some unknown men who were not patrons of the bar."
     AKSARBENT finds it interesting that the the Lampe brother who was on the scene (Mark) said on television that what happened was unclear but that the Lampe brother who wasn't there (Jeff) flatly maintains that the beatdown wasn't administered by the establishment's customers.
     AKSARBENT drives down Center Street several times a month late at night and has never seen a pedestrian near McFly's who didn't appear to be a patron. The location is not in a bar or entertainment district and attracts few walkers. The tavern, at 4530 on the south side of Center, is between a Wells Fargo with a drive-thru ATM on the east and a Sinclair station on the west. Neither is open on Sundays. North of the bar, across Center, are single family dwellings and a bus stop. No buses run after 9 or 10 pm in Omaha on Sundays.

Click image to enlarge.

McFly's facebook page: ...the victims would not leave and demanded the "RIGHT" to go back into the bar. They were denied as the bar closes at 2 A.M. The vitcims [sic] then felt it was ok to kick the doors on the bar, and urinate on the property...
KPTM: Nate said they went back to look for his wallet. He said the owner turned them away. "That's when he said ‘well you were asking for it' and I said ‘why because they thought I was gay?' and he looked at me dead in the eye and said yes," Hall recalled. Mark Lampe denied his claim. He said he yelled at them because they kept banging and kicking on the door.
KMTV: As for Nates [sic] wallet, he tells Action 3 News it showed-up [sic] on his front door step the next morning, and nothing was taken from it.

Commentary: Justice Wiggins a lousy, condescending speaker, but a good judge who shouldn't be removed

Des Moines Register commentary by Graham Gillette, a public affairs and communications consultant:

I plan to vote for David Wiggins even though he is a poor orator and does not understand how to win votes. The question for the electorate is whether David Wiggins has honestly and fairly discharged his duties as a Justice. He has. Justice Wiggins and the others on the Supreme Court did their job. They ruled on marriage without influence and in good conscience. By all accounts Wiggins is an impartial and thoughtful jurist. He should remain on the Court.

Sen. Tom Harkin's hearing on school bullying in Des Moines, revisited

In June Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin's regional regional hearing about bullying was held in Des Moines. AKSARBENT missed the broadcast, but it's available from Iowa Public Television on the Internet.
     Of particular note is the testimony from Liz Sederquist beginning at about 16:24 of this segment, which plainly exposes the benign neglect of some educators who, by administrative fiat, effectively complete the intimidation and calculated damage that some of their nastier student charges begin:

...I'm still technically a student at Gilbert High School, but I rarely ever attend. I have no classes there. I'm there long enough to take my DMAC test. The reason why I rarely step foot in Gilbert is because I slowly dropped my classes in order to remove myself from a school that was unsupportive and hostile to me because I myself identify as lesbian...