philly

Profits for Oil Companies

Saw this over at Suburban Guerrilla:

No comment:

Bulletin: Exxon Mobil's quarterly net profit rises 44% to $7.86B.

And then I found the actual stock news. And in the comments I found that BP had a nice quarter too, BP had a nice $4.95B profit. Aren't we all happy for those hard working oil execs?

18th Solo Conference

He took seventeen questions by my count in the forty-five minutes or so he was up there. Here's the full text of the speech / press conference for those who didn't see it.

He opened his eighteenth solo press conference [Billy had 40+, GHWB had 80+] with a little over ten minutes of a prepared speech. He spoke about Social Security and the crisis — there is no crisis — we/it face/s. He kept smirking after every single sentence which is what he normally does, but is especially disheartening when he says something with some heft to it.

by 2041, Social Security will be bankrupt [smirk]

Isn't the real crisis with Medicare / Medicaid?

Some things he said throughout the night, paraphrased...

Q3 - "Faith is a personal issue"

Q4 - He said that we need to be better conservers of energy but says that we must push nations who produce crude oil to produce more of it - that that was what he feels is what can solve things. He also mentioned some longer term measures like more liquid natural gas usage in the U.S. and that we need more LNG plants. Would you like to learn more about LNG? I point you to this PW article from November 10^th. He also mentioned nukleear [sic] energy and that we should invest more time into looking into those options. In response to Q4, he did not mention hydro, electric or bio energy, but he did mention them in his prepared opening remarks.

Q7 - He said he wants to reform the United Nations, but he didn't say how nor why, but did say that the U.N. has problems and has to clean up its act perhaps alluding the the recent oil-for-food scandal. He feels that Bolton is the man to lead the charge, you could say, in reforming the U.N.

Q9 - In answering a question on North Korea and their nukleear [sic] weapons potential, he brought up Star Wars, the missile defense system. He said that if North Korea were to launch a nukleear [sic] weapon, wouldn't we be happy to have a way to shoot it down? How about not even getting to that point.

Q10 - On the issue of the poisonous political climate in the District and across America, W said I think when it's all said and done, we're going to get a lot done. And then named some bills he's signed into law. Thanks for clearing that up.

Q13 - On the question of renditioning, W said that the administration does all it can to prevent the torture of detainees. Yeah, right. Why send them to countries that perform torture. W said that the countries assure him that the detainees won't be tortured. Word is bond, right?

Q14 - On the horrible economic conditions we are experiencing now, W felt that things could be helped if there were MORE tax reform. He said that there is $330B in unpaid taxes each year and that people should be held responsible. HA. Why doesn't he look at Tricky Dick Cheney's tax return and how much he got back. Loophole bullshit.

Q15 - And then he had the gall to say that No Child Left Behind is working. HA. He didn't mention how he's not funding it. And by not funding it he's now seeing just how many kids were caught slipping through the cracks. But what to do with those kids who can't read? When the schools find out they have these illiterate kids and they have less money in the next school year what the hell are they supposed to do? Cuts in afterschool activities are helping a ton, yeah, who needs them? Why not just join the army instead?

All in all, he disgusts me. But that's old news. He was smarmy as ever during this press conference. Your thoughts?

Volunteering For Seth Williams

The primary draws near. May 17^th is "D-Day" if you will for us Philadelphians. Seth Williams is running against Lynne Abraham for the position of District Attorney and he needs our help. If you have some extra cash to spare, they need it. If you have an hour or two or few here and there, they need it. WE need it.

More info from other Philly blogs:

• Philly Future
• Young Philly Politics
• Rowhouse Logic
• Above Average Jane
• Attytood [not an endorsement]
• Swing State Project
• America's Hometown
• on dKos recommend it if you're a member!

Logan Square Fair

The Logan Square Fair is Saturday the 30^th by... Logan Square. I guess the're going to clear out all the homeless folk for the day? But it may rain. There's no word on their site for a possible raindate that I saw.

The Friends of the Free Library will be holding a huge booksale from Friday through Sunday. They'll be offering thousands of books for $1 - $2. Books are fun. Books are good. Pick up a book at the fair. I know I'll be rummaging through the stacks.

Always the Last One Up

I've almost always been the one in my group of friends who is up the latest. Whether it was late night phone calls to sleepy friends, knocking on the doors of already asleep dormmates or the last one on IM while everyone else has an away message up for the night and have been idle for at least an hour.

I wonder when or if that'll ever change.

CBOP

Interesting thing about CBOP that I noticed while I was in there putting in an order for ten "test" prints: they use Dells. Not a Mac in sight?! Whaa?! I was... relieved. There, I said it. I have nothing against Macs. I've used them in the past and will continue to use them when I need to, but I have not been convinced as to just why one MUST use one for artsy things.

I will probably never own a Mac. Why? They're too expensive. Unreasonably expensive at that. Yes, they do look very nice [except for those HIDEOUS eMacs], but is that what you're really looking for in a computer?

And their peripherals are too expensive as well. And here's a direct comparison of the Apple 20" Cinema Display and the Dell 2005fpw which both use the SAME EXACT LG.Philips LCD screen. The Dell can be found for about $350 and the Apple $800 or so.

And now, let's see if the Mac addicts out there will find this post and send me hate mail.

Less Abortions, the Wrong Way

From the AP Wire:

The House passed a bill Wednesday that would make it illegal to dodge parental-consent laws by taking minors across state lines for abortions, the latest effort to chip away at abortion rights after Republican gains in the November elections.

By 270-157, the House sent the bill to the Senate, where the policy has new momentum as an item on the Republicans' top 10 list of legislative priorities.

The search for the full text of H.R. 748 here.

Can't find the roll call vote for it though. Can't see if my Rep Chaka Fattah voted yay or nay either, but Fattah is pro-choice

Congressman Fattah is pro-choice and views abortion as a deeply personal decision that is entirely beyond the reach of the government.

So I hope he voted against this bill.

Pennacchio Video From Western PA

I've seen Chuck Pennacchio speak, but have you? He's a great speaker in person, a trait from his years of being a professor, I'm sure. He's very comfortable to be around. When I saw him at the First Unitarian Church earlier this month in a group of about fifteen or so I felt very comfortable. And now I've jsut watched two minute-long videos from the campaign's Western Pennsylvania tour. Take a click and see for yourself what he's like in front of what it seems is a large crowd.

At the Library

Ed Conlon
Joe Pistone

The author event at the Free Library was great. Ed Conlon and Joe Pistone both told some stories from their colorful pasts which continue on into their colorful futures. I knew both of them were NYers, but had only heard Pistone speak before. Conlon is a Bronx native, but spoke more like a Brooklynite. How'd a kid with that accent get into the hallowed halls of Hhhhhhavahd?

Conlon read some passages from his book. Stories of an alleged crazed "Jewish" cat in a lady's apartment; sitting in a dead man's apartment waiting for the medical examiner to show up and an insurance salesman calls trying to sell insurance first to the dead guy and then to Conlon; and a murder suspect who tries to set Conlon up with a nurse while in the hospital. He reads his work very well, not something all writers can do. Lady, who read Blue Blood, was very interested in hearing his voice after reading his book.

Pistone walked to the podium and went right into telling some stories from his F.B.I. days. Many stories from Donnie Brasco and lots of littler side stories. He was pretty graphic in his language, something I don't think the usual Free Library attendees were used to. Talk of whacking this guy or cutting another guy up with a chainsaw [not a hacksaw]. He also spoke of the Italian-American mob and how they differed from the Jamaicans, Russians, Albanians and Sicilians. The mob here won't go after a person's family he said. He said that someone ratted his family out after the Feds told the mob about his past. Someone Pistone grew up with told the mob bosses where his family lived, but the mob said that their beef was with Joe Pistone and Joe Pistone only. He also said that the mob is at about 50% of what it was when he was undercover. The mob will never be what it once was because of drugs. Don Corleone was right!

But the funniest story of the night came after the talk. As Lady and I walked outside to the car [which was right in front of the library in a primo spot] and I started the car, it wouldn't start. Luckily, there were tons of cops there so I flagged one down [from the Philly CSU] and asked him for a jump. Two of his partners stayed in their Expedition while we connected the cables. And as I'm connecting the black cable, one of them honks the horn. Me and the cop outside both jumped. And we all started laughing. It was pretty shocking and hilarious. I was just standing there laughing at myself and the two in the car were yukking it up for a good five minutes. They're probably telling their buddies right now.

The shots above were taken by me and from pretty far back in the auditorium @70mm; f/4.5, 1/90 sec; ISO-1600. Not the ideal conditions, but whatevs. I wish I was up close with a 50mm f/1.8 but hey. We got there a little late because of issues at the parking garage, they took about 20 minutes to get the car. Arg.

CVS Prints

I've been to the CVS at Chestnut/19^th a couple of times to get some 4"x6" prints in the past without any problems. I went back Monday afternoon to get a couple more, but it was a no go. It wouldn't read the SD card I had transferred the ten files to. I tried a couple of times and then the photo lady came over and tried too, no go. Arg.

I'm gonna see if evil Ritz will get the job done.