Vincent Ferrari

Let me get this straight; I’m paying around $85/month taxes in. I’ve gotten the hottest phone on the network twice, only to find it nearly useless at the end of year one. And to add insult to injury, T-Mobile wants more from me to upgrade to a Nexus One than they do from a walk-in customer — and my contract expired 8 months ago.

Meanwhile, the iPod Touch I’m using was bought on the very same day as the G1 — right next door, in fact. There is little — if anything — in the current AppStore that iPod Touch won’t do.

It doesn’t take a Stanford grad to figure out that Android is already the most backwards incompatible and fragmented “open” OS in history, or why it’s only really popular with mobile carriers — rather than mobile customers.

To put it simply; Fail.

I tweeted something very similar yesterday. Glad to see I’m not the only one starting to see this as a problem for the robot OS crowd.

It was the big musical episode of Fringe last night, and you know what?  It wasn’t terrible!  I know, that surprised me too!  I would have bet good cash money that it’d be a train wreck, but it adhered to the spirit of the show, it was visually interesting, none of the cast looked too terribly mortified about participating in it, and the musical numbers were kept to a bare minimum.  I’m especially grateful about that last part.  Marvelous actors, those Fringe cast members, but for the most part, they’re not song-and-dance people.  Joshua Jackson, don’t think it passed unnoticed that you slunk your way through the whole show without ever once bursting into song.  You too, Blair Brown.

I was dreading that episode for this whole season. It didn’t suck, and in fact, I actually enjoyed it. Honestly, it made me realize just how talented the folks on this show really are.

It was a big risk. It buttressed the story nicely. It worked.

Color me surprised.

“The public would know nothing about the TARP escrow money being the source of the supposed repayment from simply watching G.M.’s TV commercials or reading Treasury’s press release,” Mr. Grassley said in a speech on the Senate floor last Wednesday, saying that “many billions” of federal dollars remained invested in G.M.

“Much of it will never be repaid,” Mr. Grassley added. “The Congressional Budget Office estimates that taxpayers will lose around $30 billion on G.M.”

(Taxpayers still own $2.1 billion in preferred stock of G.M. and almost 61 percent of its common equity.)

Greg Martin, a G.M. spokesman, said the company had made no misrepresentations about its repayment. “The bottom line is, our strong business performance has put us in the position that we don’t need these funds,” he said, referring to the cash in the escrow account. “G.M. is performing much better than anyone expected and that does represent a significant milestone for the company.”

And Ron Bloom, senior adviser to Mr. Geithner, bristled at Mr. Grassley’s criticism. “The Treasury Department has tried to be as straight as humanly possible,” he said in an interview. “We have never not been clear about exactly what we paid, exactly the terms of the investment. I’m finding it hard to find anyone obfuscating about this.”

Of course, there is much joy in Mudville when a recipient of government aid repays its obligations. And it is also natural that the administration is keenly interested in reassuring taxpayers that losses on their bailout billions will be smaller than expected. Still, employing spin and selective disclosure is no way to raise taxpayers’ trust in our nation’s leadership.

There is no trust in our leadership, and there shouldn’t be. They’re all liars.

Runners in the Pittsburgh Marathon were detoured as they approached the finish due to a suspected pipe bomb near a bus station near the end of the course.

KDKA’s Bob Allen observed the bomb squad at the Greyhound bus station at 11th Street and Liberty Avenue.

Allen observed bomb squad personnel getting into their special made suits and a robot being moved into position.

One officer at the scene said that the device was a microwave with a pipe bomb inside. The microwave was in a white box near the entrance of the building.

Gets a little more interesting every day, doesn’t it?

As with the Henry Louis Gates arrest last year, I think the bigger issue transcends race. Arizona has created a situation where it is easier for a police officer to detain you. Simple violations that would result in a ticket could lead to arrest if you don’t have identification on you. Let’s back up. Maybe that’s the case already. Maybe the Supreme Court already said cops can do this in Hiibel v. Sixth Judicial District Court of Nevada. In that case a cop claimed suspicion of a crime for the detainment. That’s exactly what SB1070 is doing. It’s even a little better because the cop has to have stopped you for some other violation. The disturbing part is that this law has just widened the justification for what is legitimate suspicion of a crime. Before something like a “disorderly conduct” charge or a bogus tip would have to be invented to detain a person; now it’s when “reasonable suspicion exists that the person is an alien who is unlawfully present in the United States”. I think that’s extremely vague and open for abuse. Not only that, with the added emphasis on immigration enforcement, I would suspect that police will have more incentive to go after minor violations with an eye toward using it to ask about a person’s immigration status.

I’ve been saying exactly this since day one. A police officer can detain you for any number of reasons. Once a police officer is detaining you, they can question you about your immigration status. That’s not theory; that’s a given.

Think about the law as it’s written, rather than what you think might happen in the best cases of its application.

Jeff is absolutely right; this is a disturbing law that sets a really bad precedent, and it has absolutely nothing to do with, as the right wing nutsos seems to think, me being an open-border advocate. I want the borders closed tight as a drum just like the rest of the smart world, but I don’t want to add racial profiling to the toolkit of police to solve that problem.

Considering the fact that Puerto Rico may soon become our 51st state, I say we drop Arizona from the union and keep Puerto Rico. It keeps the number at a nice even 50 and we get rid of a state dumb enough to pass this law and elect John McCain.

I call that a win-win.

A New York City college has launched a pilot program that allows undocumented Mexican restaurant workers to take classes.

New York City College of Technology in Brooklyn offers 15-week hospitality management training classes combined with English and math. Students will end up with a City Tech certificate that’s also recognized in Mexico.

City University of New York Vice Chancellor Jay Hershenson said the program aims to head off an “educational catastrophe” among Mexican immigrants.

CUNY said the program is funded by a $100,000 grant from the Mexican government.

I was kinda annoyed about this until I realized I wasn’t paying for it.

Holder said it is too early in the probe to say whether the incident was of foreign or domestic origin and that it was too early to designate it as a terrorist incident.

Nonetheless, whoever was behind the effort “intended to spread terror across New York” and if the device had exploded, “we certainly would have seen a substantial loss of life,” said Holder.

Holder said that the American people “should be assured that we are vigilant” and remain determined to stop any potential attack.

“That having been said, New York remains a target,” said the attorney general.

The crime which must not be named lest we have to admit that it happened under the watchful eye of the Great One^tm.

Honestly, an improvised explosive device in the busiest part of Manhattan on the night when it’s typically most crowded and we have to figure out if it’s terrorism? If you want to argue whether it’s of domestic or foreign origin, that’s one thing, but to not even admit it’s terrorism at all? You can’t defeat your enemy if you refuse to recognize it, sir.

Oh, and as for New York remaining a target? Thanks. We know that. That’s why we were so damn pissed when George W. Bush cut the anti-terrorism funding to New York by 40% and the Great One^tm hasn’t done anything to reinstate it. But hey, had this attack happened in Topeka Kansas, a hotbed of terrorist activity, they would’ve been caught.

The latest is this Socialist Realist full-cover ToryPorn shot of David Cameron’s Nostrils and Fist Vanquishing the Forces of Liberalness, in today’s Sun. Apparently, the Tories have invented something called a “Battlebus,” presumably some variant on the appropriately ancient and obsolete blunderbuss. (Thanks to commenters for pointing out that “Battlebus” is actually a time-honoured tradition and not a Tory invention)

Sure Cory; it’s not like you’ve been living in the UK for a few years and it’s not like you’ve seen any elections in that time.

Oh… Wait…

This is a book in itself. How one talks to umpires goes a long way toward getting favorable calls, or at least not getting thrown out of a game. (“That call was horse—-” is generally acceptable; “You’re horse—-” is never acceptable.) Some savvy teams go so far as to post headshots and bios in the clubhouse for the umps working that day’s game, so that players can butter them up a bit.

Still, there are ways to express anger without getting tossed. After umpire Shag Crawford called Dick Groat out on a play at second base, Groat told him, “You’re still the second best umpire in the league.” Then he added that the other 19 umpires were tied for first.

The other 9 are pretty good, also. Go read ‘em if you’re a baseball lover!

Though his agency was charged with coordinating the federal response to the major oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, Department of the Interior chief of staff Tom Strickland was in the Grand Canyon with his wife last week participating in activities that included white-water rafting, ABC News has learned.

Other leaders of the Interior Department were focused on the Gulf, joined by other agencies and literally thousands of other employees. But Strickland’s participation in a trip that administration officials insisted was “work-focused” raised eyebrows among other Obama administration officials and even within even his own department, sources told ABC News.

Strickland, who also serves as Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks, was in the Grand Canyon with his wife Beth for a total of three days, including one day of rafting. Beth Strickland paid her own way, Obama administration officials said.

The Stricklands departed for the Grand Canyon three days after the leaks in the Deepwater Horizon pipeline were discovered.  Ultimately, after the government realized that the spill was worse than had been previously thought, officials decided that Strickland was needed in the Gulf so Strickland was taken out of the Grand Canyon by a National Park Service helicopter.

Inept government response.

Gee, I wonder why people keep comparing this to Katrina?

Things are back to normal on the Robert F. Kennedy bridge after an abandoned rental truck caused a bomb scare last night.

Police say witnesses had reported seeing a man flee the vehicle on the span, also known as the Triborough bridge. Police X-rayed the truck and cut a hole in its side to discover it was empty.

New York City police investigated the abandoned truck several yards from a toll booth near the Manhattan side of the RFK/Triborough Bridge after witnesses reported seeing a man flee the vehicle sometime Wednesday night and a smell of gasoline was reported coming from the vehicle, which was described as a U-Haul or Ryder truck.

So let me get this straight… A man abandoned a truck on a bridge that’s busy 24 hours a day and monitored by cameras every few feet and we’re meant to feel like the police are doing their job and we’re being protected.

Okay, sure.

I mean, it’s not like a truck full of explosives would’ve done any damage.

Incidentally, you know what this was? A dry run. Just like the other piece of garbage who tried to blow up Times Square was doing. If it was a mechanical failure, the guy would’ve been waiting for help.

The joint just got cased.

I was thrilled to spot her at a table laughing uproariously with the man sitting to her right. “I know you’re having a good time and I’m sorry to interrupt,” I began. My next sentence didn’t come out because Sidibe shouted over the din, “Yeah, come back in five minutes!” Thinking she was joking, I laughed and pretended to walk away. When I noticed that the look in her eyes meant she was serious, I walked back to her and said, “I just wanted to congratulate you on your nomination. I thought your performance was spectacular. I even wrote a column about it.” After wishing her good luck, I rejoined my friends.

Back at the table, I sheepishly related the incident to my colleague Jo-Ann Armao. “Oh! She’s horrible,” Armao said in her wonderfully blunt way. She told me that she saw Sidibe at the pre-cocktails and told her that she’d seen “Precious” three times (an amazing emotional feat that only adds to my awe of Armao) and that she thought Sidibe’s performance was “incandescent.” What was Sidibe’s response? “I guess I should say, ‘Thank you.’”

At the MSNBC after party, the partner of a “Countdown with Keith Olbermann” producer said to me, “Look! There’s Gabby Sidibe. I’m going to ask her to take a picture with me.” I warned him, “She’s mean.” To which he said, “I don’t care. I just want a picture.” I didn’t see what went down, but the dejected fan came back and said incredulously, “She said no.” No doubt the constant interruptions and jostling are bothersome. Her ever-shrinking zone of privacy must be irksome, too. And there’s no law that says Sidibe has to show grace to her fans or appreciation for their kind words. But a true star would.

Yep. Real class act, isn’t she?

I’m so tired of hearing she should be a role model. Role models don’t act like this. If she wasn’t a fat black kid, you can bet your ass her shitty attitude would be the stuff of legend. Instead, everyone just talks about her brave and courageous she is.

Screw that.

Get your mind out of the gutter.

Furloughs: They’re not just for soldiers and prisoners! Starting next week, some 100,000 state workers could be required to take a one day, unpaid furlough from work. And as you can see from this photo of a massive protest outside the State Capitol yesterday, they are not happy about it.

Yesterday the Legislature voted to approve Paterson’s emergency spending bill, which extends funding to keep the state government running. The furloughs, which the Legislature would have to renew on a weekly basis until a budget deal is reached, are expected to save $30 million a week, which is a drop in the bucket compared to the state’s $9.2 billion deficit. Exempt from the furloughs are workers deemed “essential,” such as state troopers, correction officers, nurses, and—of course—employees of state lawmakers.

Yeah, because God knows employees of lawmakers are crucial to the function of the government. God forbid some dopey State Senator from the Catskills be without his secretary on a Friday.