Midday open thread

• Go figure:

  Gov. Rick Perry received a tepid response when he addressed the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials on Thursday, joking about the pronunciation of a Hispanic appointee's last name and frequently staring blankly at the audience when they failed to respond to his conservative applause lines. ...

  But a joke about how perfect it was to appoint Jose Cuevas to the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission because his name sounds like Jose Cuervo - a brand of tequila - fell flat. Perry struggled to regain his confidence as he described Texas as a land of opportunity.

• A good time will be had by all:
  

  Word that a retreat hosted by conservative mega-donors Charles and David Koch is coming to Colorado has spurred activists across the state into action. Colorado Common Cause, ProgressNow, Moveon.org, and others plan to meet and protest in Beaver Creek, Sunday morning.

  The news first broke Wednesday that the brothers would be hosting their twice-yearly event in the Vail area after Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell released his schedule, which noted he would be attending the Koch seminar Sunday.

  Upon hearing the news, progressive groups, environmental organizations and numerous other groups immediately began an effort to both mobilize their membership and determine the location of the secretive gathering.

• Yeah, poor marketing is their problem:

  As Osama bin Laden watched his terrorist organization get picked apart, he lamented in his final writings that al Qaeda was suffering from a marketing problem. His group was killing too many Muslims and that was bad for business. The West was winning the public relations fight. All his old comrades were dead and he barely knew their replacements.

  Faced with these challenges, bin Laden, who hated the United States and decried capitalism, considered a most American of business strategies. Like Blackwater, ValuJet and Philip Morris, perhaps what al Qaeda really needed was a fresh start under a new name.

• Must-see T.V.?

  Hollywood tends to "depict conservatives and traditionalists and people of faith as halfwits," says founder of Colony Bay, which will debut its first project, a drama set in Colonial America, at a premiere on Sunday.

  Those who belong to the conservative movement known as the Tea Party are acutely aware of the power of popular culture, so they have been cautiously delving into the creation of entertainment that promotes their values. It usually manifests itself in snippets of online political parody. Coming Sunday, though, is perhaps the most ambitious effort yet: A ?TV show? created by a couple of Tea Partiers who have formed their own production company.

  Courage has the pacing and feel of a soap opera, though its set in Colonial America.
  

  Too. Many. Jokes.
• The head lunatic at World Net Daily never gives up:
  

  Hitler was ineligible for presidency, too

  Says Farah:

  I can almost visualize the reaction to what I am saying here: "Farah is comparing Obama to Hitler!"

  No, I am not.

  Uh, yeah, you are.
• Bipartisanship at its worst:

  By the time obsessive C-SPAN viewers spotted their third senator in striped pastel cotton Thursday, a mild confusion set in. Coincidence? No ? conspiracy! It was Seersucker Thursday, the Senate?s annual bipartisan celebration of southern summer style.

• Good news about your used car:

  So your home is worth half of what it used to be, the stock market makes you jittery, and gold is far too expensive to buy. Don?t fret! There may still be something tangible in your life gaining value: Your used, fuel-efficient car.

  Yes, experience says that an automobile is not an asset ? most start declining in value as soon they?re driven off the lot. But with new demand for fuel-efficient automobiles, used ?gas-sipping? cars are actually worth 30% more than they were six months ago, reports the New York Times

• Considering what we saw in Japan this year, seems like a good reason to be concerned:

  The biggest reason cited by the Pueblo County commissioners recently when they rejected a rezoning request to accommodate a proposed nuclear power plant was their collective concern about a lack of water to cool the plant.
  

• This will make you feel old:

  A few weeks ago, electronic mail, or email as it?s now affectionately known, hit the respectable age of 40. When Ray Tomlinson, a young computer engineer, sent the first email in 1971, he could only have guessed how it would impact the way we communicate in both our business and personal lives.

  Email has transformed the way people shop, bank, communicate with family members and do business. Now an essential tool for approximately one billion mobile workers across the globe, email continues to dominate the way in which we communicate.

• Condolences to his family and friends:

  Legendary "Columbo" star Peter Falk has died at the age of 83.

Source: http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/amaAa5St2a4/-Midday-open-thread

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