Kerry bought some flip flops for $2.44 at Wal Mart. After wearing them for a while, she noticed a tingling sensation on her feet. She immediately stopped wearing the flip flops. Soon after, her skin turned red and blistery.

When she took the matter up with Wal Mart, they told her to take it up with the Chinese manufacturer.

Apparently, Wal Mart is still selling the flip flops.

ARRGFGHGHGHHGHGHGH!

I'm glad the Kerry in this story is not this Kerry. This Kerry doesn't roll with Wal Mart.

Boing Boing: Wal Mart flip flops cause nasty chemical burn

Shows how much time each candidate, as well as the moderator, got to talk in tonight's debate (and a few past ones too).

Anderson Cooper spent more time talking than anyone other than Clinton and Obama.

Chris Dodd's Talk Clock

I understand the companies wanting to ensure they have as much control over the process as possible and a preference to not dilute the brand, but my burger-jonesing self needs a Goddamn Whataburger and In-N-Out Burger in New York City.

I don't require an In-N-Out Burger or Whataburger on every single block like McDonald's. I'd even settle for one or two in the whole city. Could you imagine if either one of these delicious restaurants came to Manhattan?

This Is What We Do Now

There are two big schools of thought about what the U.S. should do next in Iraq, and both schools are almost certainly wrong.

I guess I have, traditionally, thought of Time as a fluff mag, but this is actually a pretty good article.

How to Leave Iraq - TIME

On August 10, 2005, President George W. Bush signed the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU). SAFETEA-LU authorizes the Federal surface transportation programs for highways, highway safety, and transit for the 5-year period 2005-2009

Not surprisingly, passenger trains are mentioned nowhere. Fuck US Transportation policy.

For further information, see the Transportation Research, Development and Technology Strategic Plan for 2006 - 2010. I'll highlight the following from the framework :

To support DOT goals and RD&T strategies, the RD&T Planning Council has also identified six emerging research priority areas to guide the Department ’s RD&T investments. These priorities represent areas where the Department would make greater investments over the next five years and beyond should it have greater flexibility in RD&T program funding. In addition, these six research areas meet the following criteria: (1) they support identified Departmental goals and priorities; (2) they offer the greatest potential return on investment; and (3) they are areas where Federal RD&T is most appropriate and not likely to be duplicated by other efforts. The Department ’s emerging research priorities are:

* Human–Automation Interaction. Conduct and support research leading to an increased understanding of human-machine interactions related to safety performance.
* Application of Enhanced Transportation Safety Data and Knowledge. Conduct and support efforts to convert the large quantities of data produced by applications of digital technology into useful knowledge that can improve transportation safety.
* Congestion Reduction Policy Research and Technologies. Strengthen policy research and analysis on congestion reduction, congestion pricing, and innovative financing, and conduct RD&T to evaluate the effectiveness and market acceptance of traveler and traffic information technologies, products, and services.
* System Resilience and Global Logistics. Conduct and support RD&T to identify freight bottlenecks and changing transportation patterns and to develop and implement technologies to enhance the efficiency of cargo flows.
* Next Generation Air Transportation System. Provide the knowledge base to achieve greater aviation throughput and capacity; reduce user and service costs, including congestion; increase service productivity; and ensure a safe, secure, and environmentally compatible aviation system.
* Energy Efficiency and Alternative Fuels. Conduct and support research to understand the impact of fuel prices and fuel efficiency on mobility, opportunities to improve fuel efficiency, transportation requirements associated with alternative fue... [ Read More (0.1k in body) ]

US Transportation Policy can Straight Suck It

putting accusations aside, there are real consequences in basing war policy on mistaken premises.

First, you simply can’t -- in a democracy -- have a meaningful debate or make an informed decision if you’re using the wrong facts. Same deal with our policymakers. It’s a sad day when we must hope Bush and McCain are lying because otherwise they are implementing war plans on the basis of gross factual errors (or fantasies).

Second, the transformation of the war into “us vs. al Qaeda” leads to the idea that either victory or defeat is possible in Iraq. Neither is possible. That’s because it’s not a Blue/Grey war in the sense that McCain is implying.

Obsidian Wings: The Frankenstein Next Time

The WSJ has come in for a lot of justified ridicule over this graph, which purports to show that the US is "on the wrong side of the Laffer Curve: We could collect more revenues with a lower corporate tax rate."

Kevin Drum notes this delightful aspect of the WSJ's graph:

"Even the Journal's editorial writers, normally a pretty barefaced bunch, were apparently too embarrassed about this economic singularity to follow the right side of their graph to its logical conclusion, but we can: at a rate of about 33% corporate taxes produce no revenue at all. An increase of a mere four percentage points destroys tax revenue entirely! Mirabile dictu!"

Nice job WSJ. Way to print a data plot that's a) meaningless on it's face and b) wrong, even assuming it wasn't meaningless.

The comments are priceless.

Obsidian Wings: The WSJ: Twenty-Odd Data Points On A Mission

When Trojan introduced the condom commercial last month, it was rejected as national advertising by both CBS and Fox. Fox said it objected to the message that condoms can prevent pregnancy, while CBS said it was not “appropriate,” drawing a firestorm of criticism from public health advocates and bloggers.

Ugh. I hate people sometimes.

On “The O’Reilly Factor” on Fox, Bill O’Reilly argued the ad was inappropriate to show on television — after he broadcast the ad nearly in its entirety.

With Condoms in Particular, Local Stations Can Say No - New York Times

And which one of you isn’t all for some smoking chicapie lamenting about how she is wet for our only female presidential hopeful? If you say no, you’re lying. This Presidential music video thing is new and performed by fans of the candidates.

I'm 99% sure my brain just gave up completely and went for a smoothie.

White House Menage ‘a’ Twat at Fatback and Collards

It is hard enough to run the hurdles posed by a bicameral system where, unlike many countries around the world, each House has an absolute veto on the other. It is, I believe, indefensible to give a single individual, who has no conceivable claim to greater legitimacy than the collective House and Senate, the power to set aside their expressed political judgment. As noted above, I am willing to support a presidential veto based on constitutional doubts about legislation; this is why I refused to join in criticizing the Bush Administration for the very idea of issuing signing statements or arguing that the President has no duty to enforce laws that would, in his view, violate the Constitution. But none of this justifies the countermajoritarian policy-based presidential veto that contributes to the ever-increasing, well-merited, view of the American public that nothing really can get done through our present political system.

Balkinization