Morning News Round-Up

A confusing headline in the Huffington Post reads, "GOP Senators Threaten to Delay Obama Pick."  I'm sorry, I don't understand.  What do they mean, "threaten to"?  Actually, rather than a negative, this seems to be a huge positive, a big step in the right direction.  If they're only threatening to delay a pick, that's major progress.  Congrats, Republicans!

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In discussing frustration during the Romney presidential campaign on Fox News, the candidate's wife Ann Romney blamed campaign operatives for not letting "Mitt be Mitt," and added, "I believe it was the media's fault as well ... He was not being given a fair shake, that people weren't really allowed to see him for who he was."

Right-o, after campaigning first for the nomination, and then for the presidency, for well-over a year in full focus of dozens of televised debates, hundreds of millions of dollars spent on campaign ads, hundreds of interviews and more, the public still didn't get to see Mitt Romney for who he was. 

And it was the media's fault for that.  And the campaign operatives.  Everyone's fault -- except Mitt Romney's.

Of course, the reality is that time and again, polls showed that the more people saw of Mitt Romney, the less they liked him.  The reality is that the public got quite enough, thank you very much, of seeing who Mitt Romney was.  Including a behind-the-scenes look speaking to a fundraiser about 47% of the country.  And the country decided that for many reasons they didn't like the fellow enough to vote for him.

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The parents of a 5-year-old boy in Great Britain were being pestered by their child to play the free "Zombies vs. Ninjas" game app for their iPad.  So, they punched in their password for the Apple Store, downloaded the game and gave it to their child.  What could go wrong with that?  Not realizing that the game had the option for in-app upgrades and purchases, the password was left active, and they ended up with charges of $2,550.

Apple graciously said it would refund the charges.  And the parents said that their 5-year-old's iPad privileges had been revoked.  No word on what punishment the parents are giving themselves.

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The other day, I quipped here about how with President Obama tasked with cutting $85 billion from the budget because of the Sequester, wouldn't it be interesting if he started by cutting Congress's pay.  Well, newly-elected Congresswoman Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) announced that she will be taking an 8.4% pay cut and return the money to the U.S. treasury until the sequester issue is resolved.  (She reached the figure after talking with school superintendents. The figure is equivalent to cuts in discretionary programs.)  It's worth noting that Rep. Duckworth, an Iraq War Veteran who had lost both her legs, won election by defeating  the embarrassingly offensive Joe Walsh in the state's 8th District.  If she had done nothing more than that, she'd have earned her full paycheck.

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There was a very funny, juxtaposition of headlines on the Huffington Post.  The main Business section headline was -- "End of the 'Fat Cats?'"  And over on the "Green" section, they had -- "Animal Shelter Gets 37-pound Cat."  My immediate reaction was, hey, don't write off the fat cats just yet.