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Friday, March 27, 2009
Boomer with Attitude / News N.C. nutcases in Congress, Pt. 2
Posted By John Grooms on Fri, Mar 27, 2009 at 3:48 PM
Continuing today's theme of N.C. Nutcases in Congress, let's move on to the Queen Bee of Right-wing Lunacy, the Congresswoman who makes Sue Myrick look like Nancy Pelosi, one of the only legislators honored to be in a late-night Jimmy Fallon slow-jam, and whose name itself makes her sound like a soft porn actress, let's give it up for Rep. Virginia Foxx!
She represents the 5th Congressional District, and has served those fine people well by repeatedly making a fool of herself with outlandish rhetoric right out of the 1950s McCarthy era.
Foxx's reaction to the economic downturn? It's the Democrats' fault, and those who are "right with God" have nothing to worry about. She accused Democrats of being the cause of high gas prices and supporting "anti-American" policies. She's routinely denied saying things that she was captured saying on film. Foxx was one of only 11 members of Congress to vote against the aid package to victims of Hurricane Katrina, and was one of only 33 Republicans to vote against the extension of the Voting Rights Act. She did, however, successfully maneuver a joint resolution praising the Christmas tree industry through the House, but it died in the Senate.
Her peak moment was during the hearings on steroid use in baseball. She denounced the hearings as an unnecessary, Democratic conspiracy of some sort (she never was clear on exactly what she was talking about there), and then made a spectacle of herself by showing huge photos of Roger Clemens and telling him he didn't seem to have grown bigger over the years (thus bravely challenging the adage that "seeing is believing"); when the tide turned against Clemens, Foxx became a national laughing stock by denying she had ever defended him. Her latest crusade is to ban federal funding for groups that work in poor communities, specifically banning them from registering voters. Yep, that's Virginia Foxx: defending the nation against poor people being allowed to vote. Makes you proud to be a North Carolinian, doesn't it?
If we have time next week, we may examine another N.C. nutcase in Congress, Rep. Patrick McHenry. Meanwhile, have a good weekend.
News Stool Pigeons takes the accident in stride
Posted By Kimberly Lawson on Fri, Mar 27, 2009 at 2:59 PM
On Tuesday, a two-car accident in northeast Charlotte ended with a van crashing into the Stool Pigeons near UNC-Charlotte. They seem to be taking it well.
(Photo by Jimmy Murphy)
Film / Film Reviews / News Monsters vs. Aliens: Pleasant if pedestrian
Posted By Matt Brunson on Fri, Mar 27, 2009 at 12:28 PM
By Matt Brunson
MONSTERS VS. ALIENS
**1/2
DIRECTED BY Rob Letterman & Conrad Vernon
STARS Reese Witherspoon, Seth Rogen
With a title like Monsters vs. Aliens, the latest animated effort from DreamWorks sounds as if it could match all those Pixar gems in terms of emerging as a toon tale equally likely to entertain the adults as the small fry. After all, what film-lovin' grownup, specifically one weaned on a steady diet of 50s fantasy flicks playing all night on late-night TV, could resist a movie guaranteed to be crammed with more inside jokes than anybody could reasonably hope to absorb during the initial viewing?
Film / Film Reviews / News Duplicity: Bright, brainy entertainment
Posted By Matt Brunson on Fri, Mar 27, 2009 at 12:28 PM
By Matt Brunson
DUPLICITY
DIRECTED BY Tony Gilroy
STARS Julia Roberts, Clive Owen
Duplicity is a jet-setting romp that proves to be as bright as it is brainy. Writer-director Tony Gilroy, flush from his Michael Clayton success, retains that film's examination of corporate malfeasance yet replaces the sense of dread with a sense of style. After all, when a movie showcases a Caribbean hotel where rooms cost $10,000 per night, it's clear that the protagonists won't be cut from the same cloth as us po' folks who have to worry about trifling matters like soaring unemployment rates and obstructionist Republican Congressmen.
Film / Film Reviews / News Two Lovers equals two stars
Posted By Matt Brunson on Fri, Mar 27, 2009 at 12:27 PM
By Matt Brunson
TWO LOVERS
DIRECTED BY James Gray
STARS Joaquin Phoenix, Gwyneth Paltrow
It's not that writer-director James Gray makes bad movies. It's just that it's difficult to remember anything about the movies he makes — they're so low-key, they make similarly quiet and brooding pictures look as rambunctious as Transformers by comparison. 2007's We Own the Night starred Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Wahlberg and had something to do with bickering brothers on opposite sides of the law. 2000's The Yards also starred Phoenix and Wahlberg and somehow involved an ex-con with good intentions being dragged back into a life of crime. And all I recall about 1994's Little Odessa is that, uh, it included actors and buildings and perhaps a few props.
Arts / News It's time to Krawl...
Posted By Anita Overcash on Fri, Mar 27, 2009 at 11:54 AM
Head over to Plaza Midwood and check out the art krawl on Sat., March 28. See flyer below:
News Stimulus money coming this way for energy projects
Posted By Rhiannon Fionn-Bowman on Fri, Mar 27, 2009 at 11:30 AM
Unfortunately, there's no word on what the state and local government will do with the money; hopefully they'll use it to create a few jobs.
Charlotte will get $6.7 million in federal money to spend on energy-efficiency projects, the Obama administration said this morning.The money is part of $58 million for such work that will flow to North Carolina under the recently-passed economic stimulus package. The administration says energy-efficiency projects can create new jobs.
Today's announcement says North Carolina's State Energy Office will get nearly $21 million in new money and Mecklenburg County about $650,000, in addition to the Charlotte funding. It's not immediately clear how the city and county will use the money.
Read the rest of this Charlotte Observer article here.
Boomer with Attitude / News N.C. nutcases in Congress, Pt. 1
Posted By John Grooms on Fri, Mar 27, 2009 at 10:48 AM
The theme today is N.C. Nutcases in Congress. Members of Congress are rarely anything to be thrilled about, but North Carolina's delegation features a couple of Congresswomen who are, in fact, very entertaining in their own right-wing, showboat-y way.
First up, we're all familiar with Charlotte's Rep. Sue Myrick: she hears messages from coffeemakers (one once advised her to run for mayor); thinks Muslim convenience store owners represent a threat to America; is a loud leader of the "Kick 'em all out" school of immigration reform; and, as a devout, morally superior Christian, broke up her current husband's first marriage. She wrote an op-ed for today's daily paper touting the so-called Fair Tax Act, an ultra-rightwing idea that would eliminate the IRS and all other taxes and replace them with a national sales tax which, according to about 99% of economic experts, would shift tax burdens onto the backs of those less able to afford it. The bill has as much chance of being passed as I do of becoming King of Sweden, but Sue's never been one to let reality get in her way.
As if to prove her off-kilter sense of reality (Hugh McColl, last October, described her as "a slow learner"), she also announced she would take part in a so-called "American Tea Party" on April 4 at Marshall Park, where she will decry "the out-of-control spending in Washington" — you know, the kind of spending she voted for during the entire Bush administration.
News Gov. Perdue tells UNC president to shut it
Posted By Rhiannon Fionn-Bowman on Fri, Mar 27, 2009 at 10:30 AM
OK, not exactly. But, she did have a little chat with him after he publicly chastised her budget, calling it "ludicrous."
Gov. Bev Perdue is miffed at some of the comments that University of North Carolina president Erskine Bowles made about her budget proposal and has called him to let him know.At a legislative meeting this week, Bowles described as “ludicrous” some of the governor's suggestions that the UNC system could get by with eliminating just 73 jobs during the budget crisis.
“I thought his comments were harsh and I called him and told him that,” Perdue told reporters Thursday after speaking to a business conference in Raleigh.
Read the rest of this Charlotte Observer article here.
News Utility companies eye stimulus money
Posted By Rhiannon Fionn-Bowman on Fri, Mar 27, 2009 at 10:00 AM
Of course, the story ends with the companies promising that the government's infusion of funds will lead to cost savings for consumers in the future. Um hum.
The $787 billion stimulus package includes an estimated $150 billion over the next 10 years on energy projects from biofuels to hybrid vehicles to energy efficiency.Duke estimates about $40 billion of that will go to the power industry, says spokesman Dave Scanzoni.
Piedmont Natural Gas Co. Inc. also has a team looking at the potential for projects that could qualify for stimulus funds. But spokesman David Trusty says the utility is in the early phases of its analysis and does not know how much money — or jobs — might be involved.
There is less available in the stimulus package for natural gas than for electricity. But conservation and efficiency programs could be among the projects that qualify, Trusty says. “The package is 1,100 pages, so it’s going to take some wading through,” he says.
Read the rest of this Charlotte Business Journal article here.
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Lunch Break (9/1/16): Organizers unveil "People, Not Polluters" platform in Charlotte as McCrory officials testify in Raleigh
The morning already passed us by. What the hell happened?
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Jigsaw, Dating App That Hides Users’ Faces, launches in Charlotte, NCTo Fight Superficial Dating App Culture 3
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Knight and Day: Plot eclipsed by stars 1
Cruise and Diaz are main reasons to consider seeing mindless action flick.
