It may be a holiday here in the US, but the show must go on! This isn't a traditional episode -- instead, we're just talking PAX Prime 2010, answering some questions from Twitter and addressing some fanmail. We're trying to keep it casual, you know, so pull up a chair, grab a frosty beverage and kick it with your X3F buddies below. Enjoy!

Oh, and we'd like to thank @_misterd_ for releasing the butterflies in the wonderful chop above.

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Hosts: Alexander Sliwinski (Sli Xander, @xandersliwinski) and Dave Hinkle (KnifefightYaDad, @davehinkle)

Music: Intro/Outro: "Electromooq" by Uma Floresta. Break: "Bandages" by Hot Hot Heat.

Xbox 360 Fancast 179.5 -- PAX Prime 2010 originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 06 Sep 2010 18:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading NintendoWare Weekly: Fenimore Fillmore, Samurai Shodown 3

NintendoWare Weekly: Fenimore Fillmore, Samurai Shodown 3 originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 06 Sep 2010 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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While the latest polls indicate Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) has a commanding lead on his Democratic opponent Rep. Charlie Melancon (D-LA), the top Republican in the state — Gov. Bobby Jindal — still refuses to give the scandal-plauged incumbent Senator his endorsement:

“Voters can make up their own minds,” Jindal said.

The Republican governor said he does not get involved in federal races.

However, Jindal was a special guest at a 2008 fundraiser for Baton Rouge Rep. Bill Cassidy’s campaign.

The governor also endorsed Woody Jenkins in his failed bid for Congress.

Last week, the Louisiana Democratic Party produced a five-and-a-half minute video documenting Vitter’s prostitution scandals. (HT: Political Wire)

On September 11, 2010, the extremist evangelical Dove World Church ? whose pastor, Terry Jones, has written a book called ?Islam Is Of The Devil? ? plans to host ?International Burn a Quran Day,? when it will burn Islam’s sacred text and encourage others across the world to do so as well. Church member Wayne Sapp has even posted an instructional video that explains how and why to burn the Quran.

But today the Wall Street Journal reports that Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, said the planned burning of Qurans “could put the lives of American troops in danger and damage the war effort“:

Petraeus said the Taliban would exploit the demonstration for propaganda purposes, drumming up anger toward the U.S. and making it harder for allied troops to carry out their mission of protecting Afghan civilians.

“It could endanger troops and it could endanger the overall effort,” Gen. Petraeus said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. “It is precisely the kind of action the Taliban uses and could cause significant problems. Not just here [in Afghanistan], but everywhere in the world we are engaged with the Islamic community.”

Just because you didn't attend PAX this year doesn't mean you can't tell your friends and loved ones that you totally did. Just click through our gallery and memorize every nook and cranny of the expansive show floor. Then you'll be ready when your friends and family try to test your story. "Ricky, when you were at PAX, did you see a giant dinosaur statue, Phoenix Wright cosplayers and Jonathan Blow working on a laptop?" You bet your sweet ass I did, grandma.

But enough with the words, let the images commence!

PAX 2010: A visual tour originally appeared on Joystiq on Sun, 05 Sep 2010 20:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Since Congress passed its health care legislation expanding health insurance to tens of millions of Americans earlier this year, leading conservatives have debated about the best way to oppose it. Some have advocated for simply repealing the entire bill wholesale, while others have argued for a “repeal and replace” strategy that would replace the legislation with a yet-to-be-determined conservative plan for health care.

Scott Tipton, the Republican candidate for Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District, is advocating for a third option: rather than repealing the legislation or replacing it with something else, he wants to “choke off funding” for the legislation, effectively stifling its effectiveness without doing anything to improve the U.S. health care system:

The Republican candidate for the 3rd Congressional District called for reductions in the size of the federal government and said he would vote to ?choke off funding? for health-care legislation passed by the current Congress. Scott Tipton spoke to about 110 people, most of them supporters, Thursday night in a town-hall meeting in the Grand Junction City Council chambers. [...]

Health-care legislation will cost $2.2 trillion over the next 10 years, Tipton said, and the only way to bring those costs under control is to cut them in the House, which controls the nation?s purse strings.

Tipton’s desire to “defund” health reform has previously been floated by Rep. Michael Burgess (R-TX) and Newt Gingrich.

Purely on the facts, Tipton is wrong to imply that cutting off funding for the recently passed health care bill would rein in the deficit. The bill already serves to cut the deficit, and repealing certain provisions or denying them the funds to be utilized would only end up costing the country more in the long run.

Putting deficit concerns aside, a far greater cost to denying funding for the legislation would be borne by the 3rd District Coloradans that Tipton is running to represent. As of estimates made in 2009, a quarter of the people in the district lacked any sort of health care coverage whatsoever. Hospitals in the district who have to care for these uninsured residents without compensation have calculated that they’ve paid “$94 million in annual uncompensated care costs in recent years.” When a surgery center in the district offered free care to residents one day late last year, people were so desperate to be able to be one of the few the center was able to take care of that some of them slept in its parking lot (less than half were actually offered care).

Thanks to Congress’s recently passed bill, an additional 106,000 district residents will be able to get insured and hospitals will be able to reduce the funds they spend on uninsured residents by $84 million annually. That is, if the legislation is fully funded. If Tipton gets his way, more than a hundred thousand people in his district will be unable to get health insurance, and hospitals will continue to expend countless tens of millions of dollars on caring for the uninsured.

Months after initially making the claim say that undocumented immigrants were beheading people in the Arizona desert, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer (R) has finally admitted that she was wrong. Brewer first raised the spectre of beheadings on June 16 during an interview with Greta Van Susteren on Fox News, when she said: “We cannot afford all this illegal immigration and everything that comes with it, everything from the crime and to the drugs and the kidnappings and the extortion and the beheadings and the fact that people can’t feel safe in their community.” She doubled down when questioned on the claim by an Arizona reporter two weeks later. Brewer said, “Our law enforcement agencies have found bodies in the desert, either buried or just lying out there, that have been beheaded.”

Brewer’s most awkward defense of her false claims came this week, when she was challenged by her Democratic opponent about the alleged beheadings during the gubernatorial debate, and was then questioned by the Arizona press corps afterward. Brewer refused to answer their questions, and then walked away.

Now, Brewer has finally (mostly) come clean, in an interview yesterday with the Associated Press:

“That was an error, if I said that,” the Republican told The Associated Press on Friday. “I misspoke, but you know, let me be clear, I am concerned about the border region because it continues to be reported in Mexico that there’s a lot of violence going on and we don’t want that going into Arizona.”

She said she was referring to beheadings and other cartel-related violence in Mexico in comments she made earlier this summer about decapitated bodies found in the state’s southern region.

Watch a compilation of Brewer’s evolving statements:

It’s unlikely Brewer would have been forced to correct herself if pressure had not been put on her during the debate about her misstatements. In related news, Brewer has announced she will not be doing any more debates.

Two weeks ago, Amanda Terkel signed off for the last time as deputy editor at ThinkProgress. You may have already seen some of her articles at the Huffington Post, where she is now a senior politics reporter. After approximately six years at the Center for American Progress, Amanda was ready to tackle a new challenge. While it?s sad not having her around the office, we?re excited to see her incredible creative talents being put towards a good cause.

Amanda was the most prolific blogger in ThinkProgress history, authoring literally thousands of posts for us. She started as a junior researcher on the team over five years ago, and worked her way up to become one of the top progressive bloggers on the web ? in addition to being one of its leading female writers.

Though small in stature, Amanda had a towering presence that we’ve all looked up to throughout the years. Around the office, Amanda was a close friend and mentor to both staff and interns. She always had a smile on her face, a story to tell, and a blog post idea to write up. Here?s a sampling of our favorite Amanda posts (though our long-time readers will probably have others to share in the comments section):

I Was Followed, Harassed, And Ambushed By Bill O?Reilly?s Producer [Link]

O?Reilly Attacks Me As A ?Villain? For Highlighting His Rape Comments [Link]

Taking Advantage Of Citizens United, Dirty Coal Groups Form 527 To Elect Industry-Friendly Republicans [Link]

Cantor Says Federal Spending Doesn?t ?Create Jobs? ? At Job Fair With Companies Funded By The Stimulus [Link]

State Rep: In Oklahoma, There?s A ?Feeling That Women Aren?t Capable Of Making Reproductive Decisions? [Link]

Right-Wing Radio Host On NY Mosque: ?I Hope Somebody Blows It Up? [Link]

Bush wipes his hand on Clinton?s shirt after shaking hands with Haitian residents. [Link]

Malkin On Detainee Suicides: ?Boo-Freakin-Hoo? [Link]

Pimp My Congressional Office [Link]

No Mention Of Iraq In Bush?s Presidential Library Bio [Link]

NBC Censors Sexual Orientation Of Openly Gay Gold Medalist Diver [Link]

Bush Stimulates The Porn Industry With His Economic Package [Link]

DC Madam Customer David Vitter Is Outraged By The ACORN Prostitution Scandal [Link]

Hannity?s Hypocrisy: Criticizing Colleges For Taking Money From Saudi Prince Who Funds Fox [Link]

Why The ?Professional Left? Continues To Hold Obama Accountable [Link]

Did Palin write the answers to Tea Party Convention questions on her hand? [Link]

Texas lawmaker: Asians should change their names to make them ?easier for Americans to deal with.? [Link]

Though she’ll kill us for revealing that she shed a few tears during her goodbye, we’re pretty sure we miss her more. We?ll be rooting for your success, Amanda! Best wishes.

If you’d like to send Amanda a goodbye note, drop her a line at byebyeamanda@gmail.com.

National tea party organizer and profiteer Eric Odom recently launched Liberty.com, a conservative website meant to “eclipse the influence of MoveOn.org in campaigns across the country.” Partnering with an umbrella group, the site launched with a formidable $700,000 budget and 70,000 members, and has the “intention of becoming an all-encompassing conservative grass-roots organization that weighs in on federal and state political races and issue-oriented movements.” The site features multi-media news and opinion content, along with fundraising and action components, supporting its mission ?to keep the right honest, the press nervous, and the left unpopular and out of power.?

?We?re looking to compete directly with MoveOn.org. We?re looking to be a player for a long time. No one else on the right is doing what we?re doing,? said Liberty.com spokesman Yates Walker, who served as a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne, and until recently was a consultant for the campaign of Christine O?Donnell, a tea party-backed U.S. Senate candidate from Delaware. Yates also worked for the special election campaign of Doug Hoffman, who ran for a House seat from New York’s 23rd district last year.

In a video posted on Liberty.com yesterday, the site baselessly accuses O’Donnell’s moderate Republican primary challenger, Rep. Mike Castle (R-DE), of having an extramarital affair with a man. During a video podcast about the race, a voice off screen can be heard asking, “Isn’t Mike Castle cheating on his wife with a man?” “That’s the rumor,” the woman on camera responds with a sly smile. Watch the exchange:

When asked for comment about the unsubstantiated charge, Walker — who is listed as the media contact for Liberty.com and is described in numerous articles as its spokesperson — told Politico’s Ben Smith, “We asked the question, we didn’t specifically say it,” adding that the supposed gay affair is “common knowledge” in Delaware. “We thought we’d throw it out there,” Walker said, explaining that he has no qualms about propagating the empty rumor because Castle is a “a threat to American sovereignty.” Walker “didn’t offer any evidence for the claim,” Smith notes.

It’s ironic that Walker would so casually throw groundless rumors about people’s purported sexual impropriety “out there,” considering that he himself has been accused — and acquitted — of serious sexual misconduct. ThinkProgress has learned that, as a student at Cincinnati’s Xavier University in 2006, Michael “Yates” Walker was indicted on rape charges and held on a $250,000 bond, quietly leaving the school shortly thereafter. The Xavier Newswire reported on November 13, 2006:

Xavier University senior Michael ?Yates? Walker was released on $250,000 bond Tuesday evening after being indicted on three counts of sexual misconduct and two charges of rape. Walker could face up to 35 years in jail if convicted.

Walker, a 27-year-old resident of Norwood, is formally accused of the Oct. 12 rape of two Xavier University freshmen girls. According to the Assistant Hamilton County Prosecutor Seth Tieger, Walker invited the two women to his off-campus apartment where he proceeded to serve alcohol to the minors until they lost consciousness. One of the women reported waking up naked the next morning, unable to recall the previous night. The second woman suspected nothing, and accompanied Walker on a date the following evening where Walker attacked her again.

When contacted by ThinkProgress, Walker told us, “I was falsely accused. Most of the charges were thrown out of court and I was found not guilty on the rest.” He also defended Liberty’s campaign against Castle by referring us to other right-wing blogs who have pushed the rumor.

Walker was never convicted. For this reason, Walker should know better than to toss sensational accusations about someone else’s sexual history in light of his own experience.

Other than a teaser image and a fall release window, we've heard little to nothing on the next Bit.Trip title from Gaijin Games, Fate. That all changed this past week with the reveal of the game's premise and its first gameplay trailer on the developer's website.

Fate will have players guiding CommanderVideo on a guided path (in 2D), aiming and firing his various weapons by pointing the Wiimote at the screen. The game also features "appearances from Super Meat Boy and Mr. Robotube," as well as a kickin' dubstep soundtrack that, frankly, we've been jamming too since we first found out about. Bit.Trip Fate may not be out until sometime this fall, but you can pick up its jams right now.

Continue reading Bit.Trip Fate is an on-rails shmup, Super Meat Boy to make guest appearance

Bit.Trip Fate is an on-rails shmup, Super Meat Boy to make guest appearance originally appeared on Joystiq on Sun, 05 Sep 2010 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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