Bump in the road: Be warned, you’re going to hear those four words a lot in this new ad by the Mitt Romney campaign. The ad has stirred up some discussion, specifically because it’s making such a strident criticism of such an offhanded turn of phrase. Arguments about the content of the ad aside, though, here’s what we’ll say: This is a poorly constructed piece of political handiwork. The reason being, the ad uses the words “bump in the road” so many times that they begin to lose all impact well before the end (in which it dissolves into a full cacophony of “bumps in the road”). It’s really, really trying too hard, which is something we sometimes think about Mitt himself. source
The scene in Yemen: The depressing, daily drumbeat of violence, upheaval and power struggle continues, and in this case, things are looking like they could get a lot worse before any better. The airport in Sanaa has closed, amidst some of the most sustained, violent clashing in Yemen since the initial protests against the Saleh government. source
Quite stunning video: Brought to you by Al Jazeera English, a video taken just following Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s defiant and surprising speech yesterday. There’s a bit to follow, here: Assad waves to the crowd, then gets into his car which begins slowly driving, flanked by personnel on all sides. A woman rushes over, brandishing what what appears to be a paper that is snatched away by one of the personnel, but this interruption causes a chaotic reaction of people surging towards the car. Then, the feed cuts out, and instead shows jarringly contrasted overhead shots of a city with jaunty music, presumably to prevent this from inflaming the citizenry. source
last week WordPress, the exemplary blogging platform, was hit with a massive distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack that stalled its servers. At the time, they believed it may have been politically motivated against a Chinese language blog.
this week While WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg updated the record in an email to IDG News Service, saying he no longer believed the motive to be political, he did confirm that the DDoS attack originated from China. A little international intrigue? source
Teargas in the streets of Tehran: So says the Facebook page of Iranian opposition figure Mir Hossein Mousavi, where this video was posted. It shows Iranians protesting, reportedly against the Iranian government’s detainment of political prisoners, before fleeing back towards the camera. Mousavi’s Facebook claims this was caused by a sudden teargas attack. source
Shark week? More like shark year: Reported shark attack rates reached their highest level since 2000 last year, topping out at seventy-nine. The most publicized were likely those in the Red Sea, where there were five attacks in four days, and four of those attacks were thought to have been done by just two sharks. Still, the biggest takeaway from this? Shark attacks are still, as ever, exceedingly rare, even with repeat offenders like the Red Sea duo stalking the waters. source
We are going to take a look at them and see whether the option is there or not, but it’s a decision she (Murkowski) has to make. There is an option I know of.
A staffer for Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski • On the possibility that Sarah Palin’s most hated enemy will take her campaign out of the Republican Party if she loses to Joe Miller. Murkowski was viciously attacked by Palin in the days prior to the election and still has a ton of money left in her coffers, so she can afford it. There’s a backstory to the Palin thing, too. Frank Murkowski, Lisa’s dad, snubbed Sarah when appointing Lisa to the seat. Later, Palin unseated the elder (and then-unpopular) Murkowski in the 2006 gubernatorial campaign. source
