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Friday, July 11, 2008

The Morning News

posted by on July 11 at 7:07 AM

A Mental Recession: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac—which together control half of the nation’s $12 trillion mortgage market—are in trouble. So much trouble, in fact, that the government is thinking about taking the giants over.

Hot Water: Israeli police are accusing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of fraud.

Let the Next Guy Do It: The Bush administration won’t be making an effort to regulate greenhouse gas emissions before Dubya leaves office.

Law & Order: The International Criminal Court is going after Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir.

Geekgasm: iPhone 3G hits store shelves today.

Guess I’ll Have the Tuna Melt Instead: Before the Olympics, dog meat is being struck from menus in Beijing.

Christ Almighty: 60-year-old Seattle man tending garden on a traffic circle is killed…over orange construction cones.

Rossi’s Back-Scratchers: The state’s building industry is going after Gov. Gregoire.

Throw the Book at Him: Robert Alan Soloway—also known as the “Spam King”—to be sentenced starting today.

Things Change: The old Chubby & Tubby building on Rainier to be torn down, replaced by apartments.

And finally: The drunk referee…

RSS icon Comments

1

I'm a loser.

Posted by Mr. Poe | July 11, 2008 7:56 AM
2

Great stuff from MSNBC's First Read. Scroll down a bit for the actual passage. The Steelers in question are the Pittsburgh Steelers, as in NFL,... gridiron,... American football:

Imagine if Al Gore or John Kerry had changed the facts of a story they told forever in order to appeal to whatever swing state they were speaking in? John McCain is getting killed on Steeler fan forums for claiming that when he was a P.O.W. he would tell his interrogators the names of the starting defensive line of the Steelers. The actual story in his book had to do with Green Bay Packers offensive line. Also, the famous Steelers defensive line that McCain was trying to refer to (Mean Joe, L.C. etc.) didn't become famous until after McCain was out of Vietnam. The actual Steelers front four McCain could have referred to, according to one the Steeler fan forum that is crushing McCain on this comment today: "When McCain became a prisoner of war, the Steelers front four consisted of Ken Kortas, Chuck Hinton, Ben McGee and Lloyd Voss." Not exactly household names.

Speaking as a Pittsburgh Steelers fan, I can say now that McCain has lost my vote. OK, well, he never had my vote, but if he had my vote up 'til now...

Y'know, Al Gore never actually claimed to have invented the Internet. But McCain actually did share this casual, lazy fib. What does it say about a man who is able to lie so easily when the lie can so easily be revealed? Memo to Dan Savage: can you make a big stink about this the way only you know how to make a big stink?

Posted by cressona | July 11, 2008 8:06 AM
3

Rather than deny the Chinese their tasty dog cuisine in the name of cultural differences, we should send them our doomed pitbulls! That way, everyone wins.

Posted by DanFan | July 11, 2008 8:08 AM
4

Why hasn't Charles made an Amanda posting yet this morning? Wake that man up!

Posted by stinkbug | July 11, 2008 8:23 AM
5

someone sockpuppeting poe?

Posted by Bellevue Ave | July 11, 2008 8:24 AM
6

Is that guy drunk or is his spine broken?

Posted by heywhatsit | July 11, 2008 8:40 AM
7
Posted by SeattleBrad | July 11, 2008 8:48 AM
8

@ 6 -- Aye, the "drunken referee" looks more like he had his backribs racked and his bell rung.

An authentic drunken referee would fall over if he tried walking like that wouldn't he?

Posted by RonK, Seattle | July 11, 2008 8:56 AM
9

DanFan is right. Human fed pit pull is very tasty.

Posted by Mike | July 11, 2008 9:07 AM
10

And here's news even The Stranger missed:

InBev Raises Anheuser Bid to $70 a Share, Person Says (Update2)

... Discussions over the $70-a-share bid may still fall through, said the person ...

I feel suddenly empowered to move markets.

Posted by RonK, Seattle | July 11, 2008 9:10 AM
11

I don't quite know what to say about the traffic circle story, other than that it is horribly, tragically sad.

Posted by laterite | July 11, 2008 9:18 AM
12

LOL I am embarrassed for iPhreaks

Posted by Non | July 11, 2008 9:21 AM
13

Look, I made my own iPhone out of oatmeal.

Posted by Fnarf | July 11, 2008 9:36 AM
14

no interest in McCain's meltdown over a simple question about medical benefits for birth control?

i see there's another full post over a supposed obama gaffe.

i would think presidential politics + health care + women's reproductive rights would merit some attention and OUTRAGE on ye olde slog.

alas. even here, when McCain does it, it's not worth a mention.

Posted by chops | July 11, 2008 9:51 AM
15

no mention of McCain's meltdown over a question about his vote on heatlth insurance and birth control?

i see a supposed obama gaffe gets a full post.

i would think presidential politics + health care + women's reproductive rights + lying would rate a mention.

but alas, even here on ye olde slog, when McCain does it, it doesn't rate a mention.

Posted by chops | July 11, 2008 9:54 AM
16

dammit, slog. refresh.

Posted by chops | July 11, 2008 9:55 AM
17

@11 it's sad that he died, but reading the full story, the guy sounds like an angry old man. Did he deserve to die? not at all. Was it right for him to be punched? not at all.
But still he freaked out at some kids, sprayed them with his garden hose and may or may not have pushed one of them, all because he was too stubborn to move a few parking cones.

Posted by Little Red Ryan Hood | July 11, 2008 9:57 AM
18

Mr. Poe is a loser, and he's not what he appears to be.

It's true!

Posted by Cookie W. Monster | July 11, 2008 10:02 AM
19

It sounds like his maintenance activities were pretty typical and not unusual for an intersection with a roundabout. Why shouldn't he be stubborn? Why should he be "nice", or bend to the whims of a group of teenage girls. Have you ever dealt with a pack of teenage girls? A crueler, more arrogant gathering of humans one could not ask for. Teenage girls deserve to get yelled at by an old man every once in awhile.


Angry old man? If you survived Vietnam, and had your house hit by a car, I'd say you're completely justified in being an angry old man. In fact, anyone 60 and above has pretty much earned the right to be as angry and irascible as they want.

Posted by laterite | July 11, 2008 10:18 AM
20

That referee is seriously injured, not drunk.

Posted by blah | July 11, 2008 10:34 AM
21

Well said, laterite.

chops: meltdown? really? Because he didn't want to discuss the issue? Important topic, okay, but not exactly front burner stuff. I don't think it's fair to castigate him for not being prepared on the spot to discuss a vote from 5 years ago. And then kos blames it on his age. spin spin spin spin spin I'm getting dizzy.

Posted by him | July 11, 2008 11:11 AM
22

Drunken referee is beautiful. If he isn't drunk, then he has back spasms and is drunk. I've been there, just not as a referee.

Posted by Lloyd Clydesdale | July 11, 2008 11:25 AM
23

@21.
it's the hipocrisy of it all.

your campaign co-chair says you're for it, but you voted against it. simple question: what do you think today? change your mind?

i won't answer until someone tells me what i should think. i don't really know what my position is.

would obama get away with this kind of response? no way. someone would want to cut his nuts off for about a week's worth of the news cycle.

but it's okay for mccain. he's a doddering old maverick straight talker. we can let it go.

Posted by chops | July 11, 2008 12:04 PM
24

I would love to see Mr. Poe sick a pitbull on McCain's campaign manager ...

No, wait, maybe not.

Posted by Will in Seattle | July 11, 2008 12:22 PM
25

Totally agree with @17 -- it's sad it happened but that man seemed to have a history of provoking fights.

Posted by Dawgson | July 12, 2008 9:00 AM

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