RandySF
RandySF's JournalSeahawks block NFC Title Game ticket sales to California and 43 other states
The good feelings between the 49ers and Seahawks could never last.
Last week, fans from both teams decided to donate money to children’s hospitals in Seattle and San Francisco. Now, the Seahawks are limiting ticket sales to just six states and the Canadian Provinces.
Only credit cards with addresses from Oregon, Washington, Montana, Idaho, Alaska and Hawaii will be allowed to buy tickets to Sunday’s NFC Championship between the 49ers and Seahawks at CenturyLink Field in Seattle. That’s it.
Please notice that California was not on that list. The move will help preference tickets to Seahawks fans and, the team hopes, eliminate scalpers.
Niner fans are known for traveling. This season, several road stadiums were packed with 49ers fans, and 49ers’ play-by-play voice Ted Robinson said there were droves of 49ers fans in Charlotte for Sunday’s 23-10 road win over the Panthers.
The restriction means 49ers fans will have to go to the secondary market to buy tickets. According to CBS Sports, the cheapest seats are going for $330. So 49ers fans: Good luck, bring your wallet and, by the way, the fan rivalry is back on.
http://blog.sfgate.com/49ers/2014/01/12/seahawks-block-nfc-title-game-ticket-sales-to-california-and-43-other-states/
ESPN Quick Take: 49ers at Seahawks
1.The rubber match: This is the game most people expected to see when the season began, bitter NFC West rivals going head-to-head for a trip to the Super Bowl. They split in the regular season, with the Seahawks winning 29-3 in Seattle and the 49ers winning 19-17 at Candlestick Park in December. The 49ers have been the big boys on the NFC West block in recent years, but the Seahawks took that crown in the regular season. Now they want to prove they can do it in the playoffs. Playing on the road has not been a problem for San Francisco the past two months. The 49ers have won five consecutive road games, including the past three.
2. An honest hatred: This is the best rivalry in the NFL today and one of the best in professional sports. Most players on both teams will deny it all week, but the truth is these teams can’t stand each other, and that goes for the head coaches, as well. The two fan bases do everything they can to berate each other, and all of that animosity adds to the intrigue and hype for a title game. These are two of the most physical teams in the league. They are going to pop each other right in the mouth on every snap. It won’t be an easy game to officiate, having to find a balance between letting them play with so much on the line and knowing when a player’s actions get out of hand.
3. Dominant defenses: They say defense wins championships, and you certainly can make that argument with both of these teams. Seattle, the No. 1 defense in the NFL this season, has not allowed more than 19 points in any of its past six games, averaging only 11.2 points per game over that stretch. The 49ers, the No. 5 defense in the league, have allowed only 15.2 points per game in its past 11 games.
http://espn.go.com/blog/nflnation/post/_/id/112690/quick-take-49ers-at-seahawks
Seahawks open up as three-point favorite at home over 49ers
After the San Francisco 49ers‘ win in their NFC Divisional Playoff game against the Carolina Panthers on Sunday afternoon, the 2014 NFC Championship Game is now set as Jim Harbaugh and the Niners will go on the road once again to take on the division rival Seattle Seahawks inside CenturyLink Field, one of the toughest places to play in all of the NFL.
Because of that fact, early oddsmakers in Las Vegas have given the home team the nod as the Seahawks have already opened up as three-point favorites over the 49ers, according to Pregame.com as well as numerous other outlets.
These two faced each other in Seattle very early this season in the second week, a game which was won in overwhelming fashion by the Seahawks, 29-3.
But as we’ve seen throughout the season, with the defense a little healthier and the return of Michael Crabtree to the offense, this is a different 49ers team than the one that played in CenturyLink the first time.
Still, given how tough it is to play there, the three-point nod makes sense.
http://fansided.com/2014/01/12/2014-nfc-championship-game-odds-seahawks-open-three-point-favorite-home-49ers/
On Daily Kos: David Gregory provides cover for Christie's staff
I have been watching Meet the Press with David Gregory, and am troubled by something Gregory asserted in his interview with Fort Lee, NJ mayor Mark Sokolich. He asked the mayor to comment on the fact that Governor Christie's people were, in fact, trying to find out what really happened with the GW Bridge fiasco, by introducing an email that he claimed was written by Bill Baroni to Regina Egea and quoted, "I will get to the bottom of this abusive decision which violated everything this agency stands for." The graphics on the screen showed a copy of the "To" and "From" portion of the email, which was as he asserted. But he then simply put the disembodied quote up on the screen, without showing the actual e-mail.
I am not a journalist but I have been following this story avidly. I would think anyone who claims to be a real journalist as Gregory does, and who is interviewing someone directly connected to the story, would be well-enough versed in the background material to know that the particular email Gregory was referring to was originally sent to Baroni, as well as others overseeing the Port Authority, by Executive Director of the PA Pat Foy, and that Baroni was simply forwarding the email to Egea for her information.
To Mayor Sokolich's credit, he immediately corrected Gregory and went on with his answer. Gregory said nothing and continued his show. My reaction was "WTF?" Maybe he was truly confused, in which case he is as bad a journalist as we think, or he was deliberately misleading his viewers, in which case he is an even worse journalist than we thought. In any event, he has sunk to Fox News lows in his desire to manipulate the facts.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/01/12/1269079/-David-Gregory-Misdirection-or-Outright-Lie
In 2013, Christie diverted $2 million in Sandy Relief to promote himself on TV.
Gov. Chris Christie’s habit of using his public office to promote his presidential ambitions has reached a new low.
We’ve seen him do it before. He closed down six Planned Parenthood clinics to appease right-wing primary voters. He’s dragged his feet relentlessly over medical marijuana and dismissed concerns over climate change for the same reason. This fall he is wasting taxpayer money by holding an election in October, in addition to the regularly scheduled November election, solely to protect the large victory margin he expects for his party.
But this time, he’s outdone himself. This time, he siphoned off money that was intended for victims of Sandy to promote himself in a series of TV ads. That is a new low, one that should play prominently in his campaign for re-election.
Here’s what’s new: It turns out the Christie administration turned away a qualified low-bidder seeking to produce the series of TV commercials promoting tourism at the Shore, titled “Stronger Than the Storm.”
Instead, Christie’s appointed cronies chose to spend $2 million more for a campaign produced by MWW, a public relations firm based in East Rutherford that’s known for its abundant political connections in both parties.
http://blog.nj.com/njv_editorial_page/2013/08/gov_christies_shamless_2m_self.html
More mayors in New Jersey say they're starting to consider foul play
Mayors in New Jersey say they're starting to consider foul play on behalf of the Christie administration in light of the George Washington Bridge lane closure controversy.
Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer says she had a face to face visit with Governor Christie in the Spring, when he asked her to endorse him for re-election.
She told him she would be remaining neutral.
“He was quite disappointed, but I wouldn't say that he was angry. He was disappointed and said he would keep asking,” Zimmer said. "And I said, 'We can keep the conversation going but I don't expect to be changing my position.’ And I didn't.”
She had applied for a Hazard Mitigation Grant to protect Hoboken from flooding. During Sandy, 80 percent of the city was under water.
Zimmer says she asked the state for $100 million in grants. She got $300,000 — a fraction of 1 percent.
http://www.wnyc.org/story/nj-mayors-was-christie-getting-revenge-me-too/
Fort Lee Emergency Responders Were Forced to Move on Foot
Those involved were hardly upset at the trouble they were causing. One text message to David Wildstein, Christie's Port Authority official who carried out the closures, read, "Is it wrong that I'm smiling." The sender is unknown because the message was redacted.
But the closures caused real issues. Children and teachers were late to school, and there was even a minor accident involving a school bus.
The Fort Lee Police Department was also furious that it was never informed that the lanes would be closed. At 1:13 p.m. on Sept. 9, Cedrick Fulton, the director of tunnels, bridges and terminals, emailed Durando and let him know that police officers were having to play traffic cops instead of "attending to public safety issues".
The Bergen Record later reported that emergency personnel were delayed in responding to four incidents, including one in which a 91-year-old woman later died.
On Sept. 10, Port Authority Director of Government and Community Relations Tina Lado wrote to Bill Baroni -- who was then Christie's top official at the agency, but resigned last month -- about a disturbing situation: Ambulance attendants had to leave their vehicles and respond to an emergency on foot because traffic was so bad.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/10/fort-lee-traffic_n_4577487.html
Idaho exchange: Enrollees blossom to 20,000
BOISE, IDAHO — Enrollment in Idaho's insurance exchange has blossomed after the federal government in December fixed the website that residents use to sign up for health insurance coverage, with roughly 20,000 people buying individual and family coverage in time for it to begin Jan. 1.
That's up from 1,730 people who purchased coverage available via Your Health Idaho through Nov. 30.
The new total was announced Friday by Your Health Idaho spokeswoman Jody Olson. Insurance exchanges were envisioned by President Barack Obama's 2010 health care overhaul as online marketplaces for individuals and small businesses to compare and shop for coverage — and receive subsidies based on their income.
"We do not have any official numbers," Olson told Your Health Idaho board members at a meeting in Boise, calling the latest tally "anecdotal." She said she hopes to have concrete numbers from the federal government in a few days.
According to initial estimates by the federal government, Idaho is aiming to have at least 40,000 people enrolled in exchange coverage during 2014.
http://www.kentucky.com/2014/01/10/3027191/idaho-exchange-enrollees-blossom.html#storylink=cpy
Sharon destroyed entire cities and presided over the killing of countless civilians.
A central player in Israeli affairs since the state’s inception, Ariel Sharon molded history according to his own stark vision. He won consent for his plans through ruthlessness and guile, and resorted to force when he could not find any. An accused war criminal who presided over the killing of thousands of civilians, his foes referred to him as “The Bulldozer.” To those who revered him as a strong-armed protector and patron saint of the settlements, he was “The King of Israel.” In a life acted out in three parts, Sharon destroyed entire cities, wasted countless lives and sabotaged careers to shape the reality on the ground.
The first act of Sharon’s career began after the 1948 war that established Israel at the expense of 750,000 Palestinians who were driven away in a campaign of mass expulsion. Badly wounded in the battle of Latrun, where the Israeli army suffered a bitter defeat at the hands of the Royal Jordanian Army, Sharon momentarily retired from army life. He looked back in anger at the failure to take Latrun, a strategic swath of land containing three Palestinian towns seemingly obstructing the new Jewish state’s demographic continuity. Spineless politicians and feckless commanders had tied the hands of Israel’s troops, he claimed, leaving the Jewish state exposed from within. Sharon yearned to finish 1948—to complete the expulsion project he viewed as deficient.
In 1953, Sharon was plucked out of retirement by Prime Minister David Ben Gurion and appointed the head of a secret commando unit tasked with carrying out brutal acts of reprisal and sabotage. Following a lethal Palestinian assault on an Israeli kibbutz, Sharon led his men into the West Bank town of Qibya with orders from Ben Gurion’s Central Command to “carry out destruction and cause maximum damage.” By the time they were done, sixty-nine civilians—mostly Palestinian women and children—lay dead.
In the years after that scandal, Sharon carried out bloody raids on Egyptian and Syrian territory that inflamed relations with Israel’s neighbors and led them to seek urgent military assistance from the Soviet Union. In the 1956 Sinai Campaign, Sharon was accused by one of his commanders, Arye Biro, of overseeing the massacre of forty-nine Egyptian quarry workers who had been taken prisoner and had no role in the fighting (official censorship kept the details from the public for decades). In the 1967 Six Day War, Sharon ran up the body count on encircled Egyptian tank units, converting unprecedented kill ratios into national fame. With the Gaza Strip now under Israeli control, Sharon orchestrated the razing of Palestinian citrus orchards to make way for Jewish colonization.
http://www.thenation.com/article/177883/how-ariel-sharon-shaped-israels-destiny
Suggestion that parents not force their kids to smooch relatives on the cheek leads to "outcry"
It’s a scene often played for laughs and revulsion: An elderly relative leaning down with arms outstretched, demanding of a squirming child, “Gimme a kiss!” Sometimes it’s a toothless grandma, other times it’s a creepy uncle. Either way, a sex educator in the United Kingdom recently warned that forcing a reluctant child into doling out that cheek peck is harmful — and that it might make them more vulnerable to sexual abuse.
In a dispatch for the Sex Education Forum, Lucy Emmerson argued that learning about consent “starts from age zero” and that ”much is learned by young children from everyday experiences about whether or not their opinion is valued, and if they have any control over physical contact with others.” For a child showing discomfort with a cheek kiss, she recommends “suggesting alternatives to the child such as a high-five, a hug, blowing a kiss or a wave.”
This advice has apparently led to an “outcry,” the only immediate evidence of which was two quotes from critics in the Daily Mail, an illustrious publication with a thing for pseudo-dramz. One critic told the Mail, “The Sex Education Forum is trying to take any kind of human feeling and kindness out of the way we bring up children and that’s really sad.” Soon the Mail had another critic jump in with an angry op-ed: A sex abuse campaigner went so far as to suggest that Emmerson was attempting to “ban” or “dissuade” grandmothers from kissing their own grandchildren. War on grandma kisses! It’s like the new war on Christmas.
Beyond the dominant storyline of “political correctness run amok,” there is the bad-mom angle (at least in the way Emmerson’s words are being warped by various media outlets). It’s just the kind of “you’re doing it wrong” parenting story that does gangbusters on Facebook. The sort akin to, “Child chokes to death on popular toy” or “Cozy kid-pajamas spontaneously combust.” That thing you think is good and normal is harming your child!
http://www.salon.com/2014/01/12/the_fake_war_on_grandma_kisses/
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Gender: MaleHometown: Detroit Area, MI
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Current location: San Francisco, CA
Member since: Wed Oct 29, 2008, 02:53 PM
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