TPM Reader LA gives us more details on that suit against WWE and senate candidate Linda McMahon brought by the widow of Owen Hart, the wrestler killed in the WWE accident in 1999 …
The complaint is up and posted here. It appears actually to be much worse than your blurb of it. Not only are they using him without her permission (and rights apparently reverted, under his contract, at the time of his death, to his estate), but *they haven’t paid the estate for the stuff they haven’t gotten permission for*– meaning that they’re in breach of even their interpretation of the contract.
Earlier this month, North Carolina Tea Party Republican candidate Bill Randall suggested that the Gulf Oil leak might have been an inside job between the US government and BP, conspiring for some reason to fill the Gulf with oil. (After all, it’s turned out so well for both parties. Why not?)
Tonight he won his primary in North Carolina’s 13th District.
I’m getting the sense that Sen. David Vitter, despite skating on being a habitual user of prostitutes, may be in for a rougher reelection ride than we’d expected. ABC is out this morning with what looks to be the first installment of an investigative series. This one reports that Vitter’s most trusted aide, the apparently aptly named Brent Furer, has a history of run-ins with the law, the most striking of which included a knife-wielding attack on his then-girlfriend in 2008. Read More
Gen. McChrystal this morning denied to an NBC reporter that he’d already offered to resign. “Come on, you know better than that. No!” he said when asked about the report in Time. Whether he has or hasn’t offered his resignation yet, McChrystal really doesn’t seem to get that he should really just stop talking to the press at this point and reserve his words for the President and Secretary of Defense. Anything he says is liable to be misconstrued, as that statement certainly is, and just tends to show more that he doesn’t get what’s going on.
Joe Barton will keep his post as senior Republican on the Energy committee.
We saw last year that if Social Security is the third rail of American politics, Rush Limbaugh is the third rail of Republican politics. Take a swipe at Rush and ritual apology and self-abnegation is sure to follow. We even repurposed the phrase ‘hang time‘ to measure the time between the first criticism of Rush and eventual, inevitable abject apology. But it seems Rush’s defense of Joe Barton’s apology to BP and his “shakedown” rhetoric is too much for several top Republicans. See which ones are cutting Rush loose over his BP/Barton comments.
Vitter aide Brent Furer has resigned following ABC report on him assaulting woman two years ago, according to the AP.
One would hope that intemperate remarks from one general would not be enough to change U.S. geopolitical strategy. So far the White House seems to be taking the long view here, understanding that the counterinsurgency strategy in Afghanistan is bigger than Gen. McChrystal or whoever else might be commander. McChrystal was indiscreet and bombastic. In the extreme view he was insubordinate. None of that is relevant to what long-term Afghanistan policy should be.
If you think counterinsurgency is the wrong strategy for Afghanistan, you have plenty of grounds for arguing that case independent of McChrystal’s comments. We have far worse problems than Afghanistan if a few too many Bud Light Limes can scuttle a mission and alter our long-term strategy.
TPM Reader RS sends in the (form?) response he received from Spirit Airlines to his complaint about its new “Check Out The Oil On Our Beaches” ad campaign: Read More