Drudge Retort

What Bain Capital Really Does

tonyroma — Tue, 22 May 2012 20:32:39 -0400

A reader of Andrew Sullivan's blog explains private equity and how Bain Capital functioned under Mitt Romney: "Financial engineering is the alchemy that drives the entire private equity industry -- by rejiggering a company's capital structure, a private equity firm purports to 'create value' that previously didn't exist. Unfortunately, the processes that create that value for the private equity firm -- levering the company's balance sheet with borrowed money, reducing headcount, cutting costs and, yes, tax arbitrage -- tend to whipsaw a company by depriving it of any margin of error (because it has to spend its cash flow on interest payments) while also diverting resources away from future profit-maximizing initiatives (because all of its cash is being spent on interest payments)."

Commercial Age of Space Takes Off

donnerboy — Tue, 22 May 2012 20:08:22 -0400

An unmanned rocket owned by SpaceX blasted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Tuesday for a mission designed to be the first commercial flight to the International Space Station. The 178-foot tall Falcon 9 rocket lifted off at 3:44 a.m. from a refurbished launch pad just south of where NASA launched its now-retired space shuttles. "Every launch into space is a thrilling event, but this one is especially exciting because it represents the potential of a new era in American spaceflight," said John Holdren, President Barack Obama's chief science adviser.

NRDC: Keystone Would Raise Gas Prices

nullifidian — Tue, 22 May 2012 18:30:45 -0400

The Natural Resources Defense Council on Tuesday released a report dispelling the myth that the proposed Keystone XL tar sands pipeline would lower gas prices. Rather, the opposite is true, findings show. On a conference call with reporters on Tuesday, report author and NRDC attorney Anthony Swift called the pipeline's impact on gasoline prices "one of the most misunderstood issues surrounding the proposed Keystone XL," adding that when TransCanada originally proposed the pipeline, they pitched it as a way to increase the cost of oil in the United States, providing increased revenue for Canadian producers. Since then, proponents of the pipeline in the United States have pitched it as a means of decreasing U.S. gasoline prices.

Cops Kill Santa Monica Cougar

LetUsPrey — Tue, 22 May 2012 16:59:39 -0400

California fish and game officers killed a mountain lion Tuesday that had wandered into the courtyard of a Santa Monica office building. The officers killed the cat out of concern for public safety, according to KTLA News. The animal was originally spotted about 6 a.m. on Arizona Avenue in downtown Santa Monica. The animal was believed to be a juvenile female, weighing less than 100 pounds. It had wandered into the courtyard and was discovered by a janitor.

Some Dems Slam Bain Attacks

ExpsRedemption — Tue, 22 May 2012 15:18:08 -0400

The Obama campaign has been dealing with comments by Newark Mayor (and Obama supporter) Cory Booker (D) criticizing the attacks on Mitt Romney's record at Bain Capital. After Booker said the Bain ads are part of "nauseating" political discource, top Obama strategist David Axelrod publicly rebuked Booker and said, "on this particular instance he was just wrong."

Man Survives Plunge Over Niagara

rcade — Tue, 22 May 2012 14:35:36 -0400

A man survived a 180-foot plunge over Niagara Falls on Monday, becoming only the fourth person to do so without any protective devices. The man, believed to be in his 30s or 40s, suffered life-threatening injuries to his chest and head and collapsed in waist-high water below the falls before being rescued. He's now being treated in a Hamilton, Canada, hospital.

Gingrich Ventures Are Going Bankrupt

rcade — Tue, 22 May 2012 13:40:14 -0400

When he entered the race for president in May 2011, Newt Gingrich was the head of ventures that pulled in more than $110 million over the past decade. Now the vestiges of this empire are mired in debt, as is Gingrich's campaign fund. A bankruptcy proceeding under way in Atlanta will determine whether the one company still owned by Callista Gingrich, Gingrich Productions, will lose an expected payout that now constitutes the bulk of the Gingriches' net worth.

8 Shot Outside Thunder Game

rcade — Tue, 22 May 2012 11:57:44 -0400

Eight people were wounded, one critically, by gun shots fired as thousands of sports fans left the NBA playoff game in Oklahoma City between the hometown Thunder and the Los Angeles Lakers. The shots followed a confrontation outside Chesapeake Arena between a group of women and a group of men. "At least one guy pulled out a gun and started shooting," Captain Dexter Nelson. "We don't know why it happened."

Pastor: Fence Off All the 'Queers'

yav — Tue, 22 May 2012 11:44:30 -0400

Pastor Charles Worley of Providence Road Baptist Church in Maiden, N.C., made this suggestion during a May 13 sermon, according to a video posted Monday on YouTube: "I figured a way to get rid of all the lesbians and queers. Build a great, big, large fence -- 150- or 100-mile long -- put all the lesbians in there ... do the same thing for the queers and the homosexuals, and have that fence electrified so they can't get out. ... After a few years they'll all die out."

You Could Own Reagan's Blood

Monstman — Mon, 21 May 2012 22:01:56 -0400

Online bids are racking up for what appears to be the remains of a vial of blood from former president Ronald Reagan after a failed assassination attempt. A five-inch vial with "dried blood residue" drawn from Reagan after the 1981 assassination attempt by John Hinckley Jr. is on the auction block by British house PFC Auctions.

Baseball Announcer's Greatest Call

rcade — Mon, 21 May 2012 22:01:14 -0400

David McGowan, the longtime stadium announcer for the Baltimore Orioles, made another kind of call last week. He was working his new job as a 911 operator in Prince George's County, Md., when a frantic woman dialed in to say her granddaughter was found in the pool and wasn't breathing. With a calm, steady baritone, McGowan told her how to do CPR on the two-year-old. It worked. "David has a great voice. He has a great calming technique," said trainer Ray Delano.

Bankers Blamed as Facebook Flops

L_E_Light — Mon, 21 May 2012 21:59:05 -0400

Facebook shares skidded on their second day on the stock market to well below their offer price, leaving some investors who bought in the social network's public offering in the red and raising questions about whether the company and its lead banker, Morgan Stanley, botched the deal. The shares opened Friday at $38, closed at $38.23 and fell 11 percent Monday to $34.03. "This has been a train wreck," said one hedge fund manager who learned Friday that he was allotted 500,000 more Facebook shares than he expected.

Boy Can't Do Blackface MLK

Eddie — Mon, 21 May 2012 16:33:15 -0400

A second-grader at a Colorado Springs elementary school was pulled out of class on Wednesday for painting his face black to do a presentation as Martin Luther King, Jr. "It was wax museum day for the second-graders and each one dressed up as a historical figure they were assigned," said Sean King's mother, Michelle King-Roca. "He said, 'Mom, I want to wear a black suit because that's what he wore, a black tie, a white shirt and also I want to do my face black and wear a mustache." School officials said Sean had to remove the face makeup before the presentation, but his mother refused.

Pakistan Blocks Twitter

soheifox — Mon, 21 May 2012 15:31:27 -0400

The government of Pakistan has blocked Twitter because the service refuses to pull links to a Facebook contest inviting users to create works including Mohammed. "The government is in contact with Twitter and had asked them to remove the material. When they didn't, it was decided that the site would be blocked," said Naveed Ahmed of the Ministry of Information Technology.