Watching Washington

Even June Cleaver would get all Jive in the GOP’s face over this nonsense.

cognitivedissonance:

Oh, capitalism. You’re so ghoulish:

A mere 30 minutes after the announcement of Houston’s death became widespread, the price of her 2007 album “The Ultimate Collection” nearly doubled on iTunes from £4.99 ($7.87) to £7.99 ($12.61) as reported by Digital Spy. By Sunday evening, the album had dropped back to its original price. Initially, ire was directed at iTunes, but it has since been reported that the price change was caused by Sony who adjusted the wholesale price of the album causing iTunes to process an automatic adjustment.

What reason could Sony have for this adjustment besides trying to make bank on the singer’s death? Sony argues that it was all a mistake, and that the original price was inaccurate. According to Sony, Houston’s album had been under-priced for a while now, her death simply called attention to the mistake, which was promptly fixed.

Translation: We realized the album was under-priced compared to how many people were going to be downloading the shit out of Whitney’s greatest hits. Of course, Sony was only doing what capitalism would suggest - pay attention to supply and demand. 

cognitivedissonance:

Yikes:

Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer was robbed last week by an intruder armed with a machete while Breyer was vacationing on the Caribbean island of Nevis, court officials said Monday.

Breyer, his wife and two other guests were in the justice’s vacation home at the time, but officials said no one was hurt in the incident.

The male assailant took $1,000 in cash and fled the scene, according to court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg. The robbery was reported to local authorities shortly after it happened last Thursday night, and local media said no arrests had been made as of Monday.

It was unclear whether the intruder knew Breyer’s professional identity.

The U.S. Marshals Service provides protection for members of the high court when they are traveling, and agency spokesman Jeff Carter said Monday that the marshals service “is aware of the incident involving Justice Breyer on the Caribbean island of Nevis and is assisting the Supreme Court Police and local law enforcement authorities with the investigation as needed.” He did not elaborate.

I wonder if his identity would have made a difference. Thank goodness nothing happened to Justice Breyer or his family. Apparently, the U.S. Marshals have protected justices on their travels since 1982 after Justice Byron White was attacked while giving a speech in Utah.

The Times tracked donors to “super PACs” as they filed reports detailing their activities in the final three months of 2011.