That's what us slob Amurkns do after dinner....
"Time Warner, CBS spar over fees" Associated Press, August 05, 2013
NEW YORK — Three million Time Warner Cable customers in New York, Los Angeles, Dallas, and other cities remained without access to CBS for a third day on Sunday, after the cable provider dropped the network in a spat over fees.
The blackout meant affected customers weren’t able to watch Tiger Woods win the Bridgestone Invitational on their home screens, or shows including ‘‘60 Minutes.’’
I didn't watch anyway, so....
Also at stake was preseason National Football League coverage starting next week....
Awright, awright, I'm picking up the phone.
In the meantime, the two New York-based companies have been taking their cases to the public, with full-page print ads.
Do you really think that is the be$t way to reach the public?
A CBS ad on Sunday, for example, showed a TV screen with shots of the shows people wouldn’t be able to watch, including ‘‘The Big Bang Theory’’ and ‘‘Big Brother.’’
Oh, I'm crushed.
‘‘Call Time Warner Cable now,’’ the ad urged. ‘‘Tell them you want your CBS 2 back!’’
Time Warner Cable customers who turned to CBS this weekend were greeted by a message on white screen saying the network had made ‘‘outrageous demands’’ for fees. It advised viewers that they could still see their favorite shows through several ways, including ‘‘using an antenna to get CBS free over the air.’’
Although CBS sends its signal out over the airwaves for free to anyone with an antenna, about 85 percent of CBS viewers watch TV through a pay TV provider.
Time Warner cut off CBS for viewers in select markets on Friday, saying the network is demanding retransmission fees that are out of line with what it pays other broadcasters. CBS said it had asked the cable provider to continue negotiating while its programming was still on the air. But it said Time Warner rejected the request.
CBS is trying to gain revenue from retransmission fees as a buffer against swings in advertising revenue. Analysts say earning revenue from pay TV subscribers is crucial to the network’s growth prospects.
Oh, no, network TV is going the way of newspapers.
Time Warner, meanwhile, says giving in to demands for higher fees would result in skyrocketing bills for customers. DirecTV came to the defense of its competitor, saying it applauded Time Warner for ‘‘fighting back against exorbitant programming cost increases.’’
Time Warner is trying to hold down costs as it fights to keep subscribers. In the most recent quarter, it lost 191,000 cable TV subscribers, ending with 11.7 million at the end of June.
--more--"
Related: CBS calls ‘a la carte’ cable offer a sham
Just thought I'd get you a dessert while you are watching TV:
"Drake’s cakes heading back to stores" by Candice Choi | Associated Press, August 06, 2013
NEW YORK — Twinkies are already back on shelves and now the new owners of Drake’s cakes say Coffee Cakes, Devil Dogs, Ring Dings, and Yodels will return next month.
A spokesman for McKee Foods Corp. said the company plans to bring back the snack cakes in the third week of September. The company is still deciding whether to bring back Funny Bones.
McKee, which makes Little Debbie snack cakes, snapped up Drake’s cakes from rival Hostess Brands after the company went out of business last year. Twinkies, CupCakes, and other snacks were purchased by a pair of investment firms.
McKee makes a number of snack cakes that competed with Hostess. For example, its Devil Cremes look a lot like Devil Dogs and its Swiss Rolls resemble Yodels. But McKee spokesman Mike Gloekler said the company doesn’t have any plans to phase out any products yet.
Gloekler said distribution for Drake’s cakes will be in the same Northeast markets where they were previously sold.
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You want a beer or something?
"Separately, Obama came to the rescue of members of Congress and their aides Friday, saying the federal government would continue paying a large share of their health insurance premiums. Ambiguous provisions of the health care law had created serious doubts about whether such contributions would continue."
Ambiguous? All that time getting it written and passed and the law is ambiguous? What did you expect when you let the insurers and pharmaceuticals write the thing?
Yeah, Obamacare will be good for you; those opposed are just mean!
Too bad you aren't a "member" of the "party," taxpayers!
Click:
"Despite increased scrutiny of mortgage lending practices, many banks are still violating basic legal requirements when foreclosing on properties in Massachusetts, according to housing attorneys who represent borrowers fighting to save their homes. Jon Skarin, senior vice president of the Massachusetts Bankers Association, said some courts interpret Massachusetts law differently than banks do."
Well, in this case the courts prevail because that is their function, to INTERPRET the LAW!! I may not always agree with them, but God damn!! The stinkin' banks really do think they own everything! What ARROGANCE! They think THEY MAKE THEIR OWN LAWS, and why wouldn't they considering all the politicians they have bought?!
Click:
"Last month a US Senate committee held a hearing into whether banks should be allowed to control power plants, warehouses, and oil refineries."
I guess they already do. So in addition to the MBS swindle that brought down the world economy, the foreclosure fraud that seized people's property, the rotten credit default swap system, and the LIBOR rate-rigging scandal, we now have the LME looting!
Click:
"Scott Anderson, chief economist at Bank of the West, said he thinks concerns about the rise in part-time work are overblown. The government’s figures on part-time jobs are highly volatile, Anderson said. The big gain this year could quickly reverse, he said."
Then why am I watching this crap?
Click:
"A series of slides describing XKeyscore, dated 2008, make it clear that the security agency system is collecting a huge amount of data on Internet activity around the globe, from chats on social networks to browsing of websites and searches on Google Maps. The volume of data is so vast that most of it is stored for only three days, the presentation said, although metadata — information showing logins and server activity, but not content — is stored for a month.
Folks, they are collecting everything, they are even listening to the content of your phone calls. This pos paper doesn't say it, but they are! And they are not throwing it away, they are saving it like they save every scrap of everything these days.
Several of the pages were redacted by The Guardian. Some of the servers the agency uses are run by foreign intelligence services of friendly nations, including Britain, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand, but other servers may be on the soil of countries unaware that the agency is mining Internet “pipes” on their soil.
It's the OLD ECHELON SYSTEM EXPANDED, and this information HAS TO PISS OFF the WHOLE PLANET!
Some of the harvesting of data takes place on the coasts of the United States and along the Mexican border. Most sites are in Europe, the Middle East, and along the borders of India, Pakistan, and China. The analysts search for terrorist cells by looking at “anomalous events” — someone searching in German from Pakistani sites, or an Iranian sending an encrypted Microsoft Word file. But one slide says the system can be used to identify anyone “searching the Web for suspicious stuff.”
Like this blog?
This must be how the government got received the chatter, huh?
Click:
"Also Monday, New Zealand Defense Minister Jonathan Coleman acknowledged the existence of an embarrassing confidential order that lists investigative journalists alongside spies and terrorists as potential threats to New Zealand’s military."
I wish you pudding-heads in the corporate pre$$ would stop falling asleep!
Click:
"Next month, Senator Lindsey Graham plans to file a bill seeking authorization for the use of military force. The more Americans talk of war, the faster the Iranians build their centrifuges. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand why. We invaded Iraq, a country that didn’t have a bomb, but left nuclear-armed North Korea alone.
Wow, someone finally figured out the villain's mode of operation!
Every time I hear talk of military strikes on Iran, I think of the 15th annual Press and Media Festival. I wonder how the people I met there are faring, now that their currency lost half its value.
Ah, a HUMAN FACE of the "ENEMY!"
I think of the day I visited the Milad Tower, one of the tallest buildings in the world. Tehran, a megacity of 18 million people, sprawled out to the horizon. Down below, mothers and fathers sat in traffic, teenagers drank non-alcoholic lemon beer in hookah bars. They were ordinary people, not so different than you and me, living their lives and hoping for a better future."
Too bad you couldn't talk to them now.
Time for bed, click.
