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James Foley's Mother Speaks Out: "We Have Never Been Prouder of Our Son"

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James Foley's Mother Speaks Out: "We Have Never Been Prouder of Our Son"

The mother of American photojournalist James Foley—reportedly the subject of a brutal beheading video released today by the militant group ISIS—spoke out Tuesday night to praise her son and request mercy for the remaining hostages.

Foley's mother, Diane, posted the message on the "Free James Foley" Facebook page around 9:30 pm.

We have never been prouder of our son Jim. He gave his life trying to expose the world to the suffering of the Syrian people.

We implore the kidnappers to spare the lives of the remaining hostages. Like Jim, they are innocents. They have no control over American government policy in Iraq, Syria or anywhere in the world.

We thank Jim for all the joy he gave us. He was an extraordinary son, brother, journalist and person. Please respect our privacy in the days ahead as we mourn and cherish Jim.

US officials have not yet confirmed the authenticity of the video.

A National Security Council spokeswoman said in a statement that, "The intelligence community is working as quickly as possible to determine its authenticity. If genuine, we are appalled by the brutal murder of an innocent American journalist and we express our deepest condolences to his family and friends. We will provide more information when it is available."

[image via AP]


Protesters and Police Reach Uneasy Truce in Ferguson

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Protesters and Police Reach Uneasy Truce in Ferguson

Although tensions remained high in Ferguson Tuesday, police and protesters were able to reach an uneasy truce for most of the night.

After a tear-gas-filled night Monday, reporters also noted a somewhat "different vibe" on the ground Tuesday evening.

"Two guys got in a scuffle earlier. Otherwise, still have seen no violence or aggression or clashes between protesters and police," the Washington Post's Wesley Lowery wrote around 8:30 pm.

"Peaceful and mellow vibe out here, but, you know. Tinderbox," the LA Times' Matt Pearce reported.

"A young man and a couple of cops are having a discussion about reasonable suspicion and probable cause," the Huffington Post's Ryan J. Reilly wrote.

Although there were still reports of agitators, people on the scene noted that protest leaders were largely able to defuse the situation from escalating:

"It has been a relatively peaceful night here in Ferguson. It's good because the protesters needed a break," Mashable's Amanda Wills wrote on Twitter.

Around midnight, Lowery wrote on Twitter, organizers had succeeded "in clearing bulk of the crowd. More than half have left." At the same time, demonstrators were peacefully dispersing on the KARG Argus Radio live stream.

But not long after, he reported that police were demanding the crowd disperse. Lowery and other reporters also said they'd heard reports of protesters throwing objects at police officers.

Update 1:15 am

Around 1 am, reporters began posting about clashes with protesters.



Update 1:30

Police reportedly began making dozens of arrests—including someone serving as a National Lawyer's Guild Legal Observe and an unidentified reporter—around 1:30 am. The Daily Banter's Chez Pazienza was also reportedly maced.

According to CNN's Eliott C. McLaughlin, police are saying the conflict began when a demonstrator threw a water bottle.


[image via KARG Argus Radio live stream]

Israel Launches Series of Airstrikes, Kills Hamas Chief's Wife and Son

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Israel Launches Series of Airstrikes, Kills Hamas Chief's Wife and Son

Just hours after rockets fired from Gaza broke Israel and Palestine's cease-fire agreement, the Israeli military has claimed to have killed the wife and young son of Hamas military commander Mohammed Deif in a torrent of airstrikes on Gaza. Reuters is reporting Israel has launched 60 airstrikes on Gaza and Hamas has fired more than 80 rocket salvoes since yesterday.

Dief is believed to be coordinating Hamas' attacks from underground bunkers, and per the New York Times, "is considered to be the designer of Hamas's signature Qassam rockets." According to the BBC's Kevin Connolly, who's on the ground in Jerusalem, Israel's targeting of Deif "may explain the intensity of the rocket fire:"

Israeli Interior Minister Gideon Saar said the attack was justified because Mohammed Deif was "personally responsible" for dozens of deaths.

Yaakov Perry, Israel's science minister and former security service chief, said he was "convinced that if there was intelligence that Mohammed Deif was not inside the home, then we would not have bombed it".

Initial reports said the body of a third person was pulled from the rubble, but medics later said only two people had died.

Dief's whereabouts remain unknown.

Talks being held between Israel and Palestine in Cairo fell apart Tuesday, with both delegations walking out. "Israel thwarted the contacts that could have brought peace," Palestinian negotiator Azzam al-Ahmed said.

"The Cairo process was built on a total and complete cessation of all hostilities and so when rockets were fired from Gaza, not only was it a clear violation of the ceasefire but it also destroyed the premise upon which the talks were based," Mark Regev, spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, told Reuters.

[Image via AP]

A Hurricane Is Coming

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A Hurricane Is Coming

How do you know when to trust someone when they say "a hurricane is coming?" Should you only trust the NWS? Television weatherpeople? Your favorite Gawker weather blogger? All too often, people don't care where they get their weather information, and that's a huge problem.

We are hypocrites. We preach to each other from our moral pedestals only to do exactly that against which we preach. Telling people not to trust everything they read or hear makes for a great moral lesson — especially in the age of daily celebrity death hoaxes on Twitter and cheap Onion ripoffs on Facebook — but for all of these enlightened people who are allegedly immune from the BS, there sure are a lot of folks who still get taken for a ride.

This goes for politics, entertainment, sports, and of course, the weather.

A Hurricane Is Coming

One of the most well-known sources of weather foolery is a California man named Kevin Martin, the infamous stony gallbladder of the weather community who sues and threatens and bullies people who challenge his particularly ugly form of internet bull. He made his name on writing fake weather stories in order to get them to spread virally on social media, and sadly he's pretty successful. His latest steaming pile of viral nonsense is seen above in a screenshot posted to famed meteorologist James Spann's page, where Martin urges people to share a post that a major hurricane threatens the Gulf of Mexico next week.

Something almost worse than a K-Mart wannabe is a person who has a large reach, good intentions, and knows just enough to convince a layperson but too little to grasp the nuance of the topic at hand. The stereotype weather enthusiasts frequently discuss is the weather geek who's still in high school, but they range from teenagers to the elderly. This is a person who has a limited understanding of meteorology and loves to pore over weather models looking for that next blizzard or hurricane. When they spot something, they'll take to social media and proudly post it in order to be the first one to alert people of the coming storm.

The thing is, they're usually wrong.

This week's major social weather screw-up revolves around the GFS (American global) model, which shows a potential tropical system entering the Gulf of Mexico late next week. Meteorology is an inexact science, and that's especially true for weather models. For as technologically advanced as they've become, models beyond five days aren't very reliable. Sometimes they get it right, but more often than not they get it really, really wrong. Forecasts beyond five days are often called "la la land" because they're so far off.

When talk exploded about a possible hurricane last night, the storm was still almost 200 hours out on the weather model runs — eight days away. Eight!

When a weather model forecasts a large and potentially disruptive hurricane in eight days — which is firmly in the model's "la la land" territory — how much should weather enthusiasts discuss it out in the open, so to speak? This is the largest point of contention that pops up when we have this debate every couple of weeks. In 24 hours the discussion went from "hey look at what the model is showing" to damage control because laymen and bomb-throwers are taking it out of context. If you think I'm exaggerating, just look at what Kevin Martin posted. On top of that, the wildly popular conservative website Drudge Report linked to a blog post yesterday afternoon titled "New Orleans Hurricane Exactly 9 Years After Katrina?" It offered no useful context, no cautions, nothing...just the aforementioned model image and the Cavuto Marked headline.

The kicker is that the system hasn't even developed yet! There is no system right now. There is just a small group of disorganized clouds where the "invest" center is located. Models are terrible at forecasting systems that literally do not exist, let alone ones that are forecast to exist more than a week from now.

How do we solve the problem of nuanced weather information falling into uninformed (or even malicious) hands? We really can't. Model data will always be freely available on the internet, and as the years go on the number of sources providing such data will continue to grow. The only thing we can do — writers, social media users, television meteorologists, teachers, anyone — is work like crazy to not only discount bad information but replace it with good, solid data. When someone says "the models are showing a blizzard next week!," don't just say "it's wrong," explain why it's wrong. Explain why the situation might not play out like the model is suggesting.

In this case, explain why it's ludicrous to put too much stock in a weather model showing a hurricane eight days from now. The forecast tracks for hurricanes in the Atlantic basin are more than 200 miles off at five days out, and that's a professional forecast. Forecasting is more than looking at the models; it takes skill and experience, knowing when to use and add value to some models and when to throw out others.

When someone says "a hurricane is coming," you need to know which sources you can trust. If something sounds too astounding to be true, it probably is. Check the source's Twitter bio or look for an "about me" page on their site. Television meteorologists are mostly trustworthy. National Weather Service meteorologists are (for the most part) the cream of the crop. You can trust well-known blogs like the Capital Weather Gang or the Facebook pages of well-respected meteorologists like James Spann or Dr. Greg Forbes.

Do some research into the person posting the doomsday forecast. Do they have experience in meteorology? What's their track record? Do other professionals vouch for their validity by linking to them or voicing their approval? Doing some research beyond what's in a headline and the first few sentences is hard work, I know!, but it's necessary in order to not look like a fool and potentially harm other people with bad information.

With regard to the potential, and I stress potential, storm next week, it's worth watching since we're quickly approaching the peak of hurricane season. The models are still keeping the storm more than seven days away from the United States, and that's forever in weather time. The model spread currently shows the potential storm ("potential" because it hasn't even developed yet!) tracking anywhere from Mexico to the open Atlantic Ocean. We can't completely rule it out yet, but when the weather model is showing something eight days away and people are talking it up, take that talk with a grain of salt. Wait until the storm enters the period when scientific forecasting can replace speculation.

It's far too early to say when, where, or even if a storm will happen. Coastal residents from Brownsville to Bar Harbor know the drill — we're coming up on the end of August. This is the prime time for hurricanes. Regardless of the threat, pay attention to the forecasts, and know which sources to trust when someone screams "a hurricane is coming!"

[Images: author / screenshot by James Spann]


You can follow the author on Twitter or send him an email.

George W. Bush Did the Ice Bucket Challenge

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The Ice Bucket Challenge, America's favorite (wasteful) viral water dumping campaign to raise money for ALS research, can now include a former president amongst the soaked.

Jenna Bush Hager challenged her father, George W. Bush, and her mother Laura to pour cold water on themselves on the Today Show, where she apparently has a recurring gig where she embarrasses her parents on national television.http://gawker.com/you-can-all-stop-doing-the-ice-bucket-challenge-now-1622303642

"To you all that challenged me, I do not think it's presidential for me to be splashed with ice water, so I'm simply going to write you a check," Bush says before Laura Bush douses him. She looks into the camera, grins, and says, "That check is for me. I wouldn't ruin my hairstyle."

Bush goes on to nominate Bill Clinton to also dump a bucket of ice on himself. "Yesterday was Bill's birthday and my gift to Bill is a bucket of cold water."

[Video via Today]

"Kansas City's urban core has become known as a cool place to live."

Sorority Sisters Manhandle Virgin's New Fake Boobs on Virgin Territory

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MTV's Virgin Territory, a reality series about the ins and outs (or lack thereof) of being a virgin in today's society, touched on a subject rarely discussed: the need for a stronger etiquette in approaching someone with new boobs.

Shelby, a Texan sorority sister who is proud of being a virgin for reasons which become upsetting if you really stop and think about it, has augmented her body with some capsules of benign foreign matter as is her God-given right. Her excitable friend will not stop addressing, cupping, pinching and laughing hysterically at the new boobs.

I'm sure it's tempting to see a friend's new boobs and think "More friend!" but really, you should not assume familiarity with new physical elements attached to your friends' bodies, be they baby bumps, prosthetic limbs, or erogenous-zone implants. You should treat your friend's new boobs as you would any new acquaintance that your friend knows and you do not.

You would not go up to a relative stranger and start shouting about their fullness and bounce. You would not force a nickname on them. You would not bring a strange man with a big bushy beard over to them at the bar to motorboat them because he's honestly "so nice."

Her friends' enthusiasm quickly starts to feel like a passive aggressive attack on Shelby: you're clearly comfortable overtly sexualizing yourself, now we're all going to sexualize you. Nuh uh, Shelby's friends. Not cool. If you want to leverage boobs for attention, start with your own. Don't bully your sorority sister's boobs.

Also, good luck to everyone trying to lose their virginity! Let's make this weekend count!

[ Videos via MTV]

Morning After is a new home for television discussion online, brought to you by Gawker. What are you watching tonight? What are we missing out on? Recommendations and discussions down below.

Gov. Orders "Systematic" Withdrawal of National Guard From Ferguson

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Gov. Orders "Systematic" Withdrawal of National Guard From Ferguson

Missouri Governor Jay Nixon has called for a "systematic" recalling of the state's National Guard from policing protests in Ferguson. The order follows a night of relative peace in the St. Louis suburb, where tensions remain high, but violence appears to be diminishing.

"I greatly appreciate the men and women of the Missouri National Guard for successfully carrying out the specific, limited mission of protecting the Unified Command Center so that law enforcement officers could focus on the important work of increasing communication within the community, restoring trust, and protecting the people and property of Ferguson," Nixon said in his statement. "As we continue to see improvement, I have ordered the Missouri National Guard to begin a systematic process of withdrawing from the City of Ferguson."

According to Nixon's order, the Missouri State Highway Patrol, St. Louis County police, and St. Louis City police "will continue its mission to respond appropriately to incidents of lawlessness while protecting the rights of all peaceful citizens."

[Image via AP]


No Charges for "Nervous" Grandma Who Shot 7-Year-Old Grandson

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No Charges for "Nervous" Grandma Who Shot 7-Year-Old Grandson

What is a good reason to keep a loaded gun on a nightstand near your preteen grandkids and fire indiscriminately at one of them in the dark? According to the United States' legal consensus, being afraid is enough, because the United States is full of irrational, scared, armed citizens, and God bless 'em, huh?

Linda Maddox, 63, is one such citizen, according to the Tampa Bay Times:

Tyler Maddox, 7, was sleeping in his grandmother's room, next to his twin brother, Tyrique, when he got out of bed about 1 a.m. Tuesday and tried to move a chair that his grandmother had propped against the door for security. Hearing the chair scraping against the wood floor, Linda Maddox assumed that a burglar was trying to break into her Town 'N Country house. She grabbed her .22-caliber pistol from next to the bed and fired into the dark, authorities said.

Tyler suffered a gunshot wound to his upper body and was taken to St. Joseph's Hospital, where he underwent surgery. He remained hospitalized in critical but stable condition Wednesday.

But police say this is an honest mistake, there's no criminal culpability, nothing to see here, really. She's just a nice lady who was naturally "nervous" because her grown son was at work and she was home alone with the kids. So when one of those kids whom she'd naturally penned into a room did the natural thing and tried to get out, she did the natural thing and shot him with the gun she naturally keeps—loaded, naturally!—by her bed.

Thankfully it was a .22 and not a larger-caliber weapon, which would have liquefied some of 7-year-old Tyler's vital organs. Naturally.

But look, there's a consensus in this country. Not just among the cops, but the attorneys and the lawmakers:

"She thought there was an intruder. She had no way of knowing the intruder was only her grandson, so I think the decision not to press charges is justified," said Tampa criminal defense lawyer Bryant Camareno, who is not connected to the case. "The fact that she just fired into the darkness, that in and of itself is not a crime."

There was also no crime in leaving a loaded firearm within reach of her grandchildren. In Florida, adults can be charged with culpable negligence for storing a loaded gun near children only if a minor actually gets hold of the firearm and uses it to hurt himself or others.

Perhaps living with her series of unconscionable mistakes is sufficient punishment for Linda Maddox. Perhaps she now recognizes that the fear of harming oneself or one's family with a gun in the home is far more statistically rational than fear of intruders in the dark in the relatively pacific northwestern Tampa suburb of Town 'N Country. Perhaps she recognizes a host of additional precautions she could take, with a gun or without it, to avoid shooting her young grandson in the future.

But perhaps we could maybe also draft some public policy to help her and other gun owners come to that line of reasoning a little more quickly.

[Photo credit: Facebook]

How Many Excuse Do You Need to Watch Great Restaurant Commercial?

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Correct: None.

Troy, a new restaurant on Staten Island, had its grand opening last week. To commemorate the occasion, it served an opulent buffet of shrimp, stuffed crab, and a pig with little swords shoved through its back. Also on the menu, according to the masterpiece of a commercial above: raw meat, live fish, and screamin' birds. Remember: fridge was not invented yet. *Laser beam sound*

A call to Troy confirmed that the commercial is indeed real, but the restaurant's thickly accented owner didn't tell me much more than that (he seemed busy; it was the middle of lunch hour). When I asked about the restaurant itself, he said: "It's European style, what can I tell you."

I emailed Edward Izro, who directed the commercial, to ask whether the humor was intentional. His cryptic answer:

Troy is completely my idea as a restaurant and the commercial alone

my script my directing and actors casting

I deliberately took an actor with an accent and it made the audience interested in a restaurant

OK, so maybe that uncanny Tim and Eric feeling was a little intentional, which feels like a bit of a letdown. Still: Welcome to the Empire of Taste! Great commercial. Possibly the finest.

[h/t Eater]

The Huffington Post Crowdsources New Reporter’s Salary

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The Huffington Post Crowdsources New Reporter’s Salary

The Huffington Post today announced that it had chosen Mariah Stewart, a journalist based in St. Louis, as its inaugural "Ferguson Fellow" to investigate the August 9 killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo. over the next twelve months. One problem: Neither HuffPost nor its multi-millionaire namesake Arianna Huffington want to cough up the mere $40,000 for Stewart’s salary.

Instead, HuffPost is crowdsourcing Stewart’s compensation through the subscription journalism service Beacon Reader, and awarding various perks to top-tier donors. Backers who throw in $100, for example, will get “a thank-you note from Arianna Huffington on Facebook and a signed copy of her book, Thrive.” (Huffington may not want to pay her own employee, but she’ll throw in a few copies of her own self-help book.)

AOL is well-known for its tight purse strings. And Beacon Reader, which is a bit like Kickstarter, wants to offer an ad-free alternative to the present online journalism model, where outlets sell flashing banner ads against free content. But: The Huffington Post embodies that very model. The Huffington Post will place ads next to Stewart’s reporting. The Huffington Post will pay the rest of their employees with the money earned from those ads. Just not Stewart herself.

Huffington pocketed between $20 and $30 million from her website’s 2011 sale to AOL, which recently posted an annual profit of $9.3 million. Yet Stewart can’t even count on her job to exist twelve months from now. “After the first year, we’ll continue the fellowship if interest remains,” the fundraising campaign notes. If!

How online journalism will pay for itself is an ongoing debate. There are a lot of questions, and not many answers. But in this case the solution is simple and obvious. Arianna Huffington should pay for Mariah Stewart’s salary. All of it.


To contact the author of this post, email trotter@gawker.com

Photo credit: Associated Press

Hamas Admits to Kidnapping, Killing Three Israeli Teens

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Hamas Admits to Kidnapping, Killing Three Israeli Teens

Senior Hamas leader Salah Arouri said in a news conference yesterday that Hamas was indeed responsible for the kidnapping and killing of three Israeli teens that sparked the current crisis in Gaza. While Hamas has praised the act before, no Hamas official has explicitly taken credit for it.

The Associated Press reports:

Salah Arouri told a conference in Turkey on Wednesday that Hamas carried out the kidnapping with the broader goal of sparking a new Palestinian uprising. "It was an operation by your brothers from the al-Qassam Brigades," he said, referring to Hamas' military wing.

Meanwhile, Hamas says that Israeli killed three of its senior commanders in an airstrike last night. Over 2,000 Palestinians and at least 67 Israelis have been killed in the conflict during the last six weeks.

[Image via AP]

Someone Smeared Poop on Cop Cars in Greenwich Village

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Someone Smeared Poop on Cop Cars in Greenwich Village

Police officers returned to their cars outside an NYPD Athletic League building in Greenwich Village with human excrement smeared on the door handles. Someone (or multiple people!) really wanted to give the police some shit.

A source inside the NYPD told DNAinfo that they suspect a group of homeless youths that have been hanging around outside the building.

"They were near the police facility, camped out, first just in sleeping bags, and they would leave in the morning," a source told DNAinfo. "But then it was more a tent city and I guess it was too much and they were staying too long and they were told to move by Community Affairs."

But homeless teens are not the only people annoyed with police in the area. From DNAinfo:

The source explained that there has been some criticism from residents that Community Affairs officials take up too many parking spots on the street, painting lines for their vehicles and often placing wooden barricades in spaces to keep others from using them.

The same police source skillfully deduces, "No one knows."

[Image via Flickr/Maxine Sheppard]

Watch Don Lemon's Ferguson Talib Kweli Interview Go Horribly Wrong

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Today, CNN's Don Lemon interviewed Talib Kweli about why the rapper chose to travel to Ferguson and participate in protests there. It did not go very well.

Early on in the interview, Kweli says he came to Missouri partially because "the media has been doing a horrible job of making sure that the stories get out in the right way," which Lemon takes as an opportunity to defend CNN's coverage. From there, what could have been a productive conversation turns into the worst kind of petty argument.

Kweli takes issue with a particular CNN headline—"Ferguson streets were calm until bottles fly"—arguing that the police should have been pinpointed as the agitators of the situation, to which Lemon counters that Kweli can only speak for his own personal perspective. Then, they start fighting about who greeted whom:

KWELI: Let me explain something. I would listen to you if you had the decency—let me finish—if you had the decency to greet me.

LEMON: I do have the decency. I invited you to come on CNN.

KWELI: Let me tell you what happened. You didn't invite me. Nicole invited me, first of all. You came up—you didn't even say nothing to me. You were on your phone the whole time. You asked how to pronounce my name. You have no respect for who I am.

Talk briefly turns back to the protests, then Lemon tries to get the last word in:

LEMON: As far as you saying, me coming up—I have a job to do. What I'm doing on television is in this phone. I'm reading—hang on—I'm reading—

KWELI: I would have the respect to greet you if I had never met you before, brother. To say, "How are you doing? It's nice to meet you."

LEMON: I said, "How are you doing."

KWELI: No you did not.

LEMON: I did.

And so on. Everyone learned so much about Ferguson today!

Ur Boy Justin Bieber Got Rid of His Stash

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Ur Boy Justin Bieber Got Rid of His Stash

Bad news if you liked ur boy's stash, 'cause ur boy just got rid of it. (Also ur boy's stash was disgusting and u got bad taste in boys and stashes, sry).

Wealthy, broken-brained piss child Justin Bieber used to have a wispy, gross little mustache. Why? I don't know. Probably because he wouldn't know what "no" meant, even if he did ever hear it, which he certainly does not? Regardless, he doesn't have the mustache anymore, and posted an Instagram video of his shave to prove it:

And an Instagram photo to show off the result, explaining: "Ur boy got rid of his stash."

As Instagram commenter ibelievecx said in response, "Bring this hair back <3 <3 <3."

[image via Instagram]


Two Men, One Voice: Eric Holder in Ferguson

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Two Men, One Voice: Eric Holder in Ferguson

When rumors were swirling in February that Eric Holder, the U.S. Attorney General, planned to resign by the end of the year, it was clear that President Obama might be losing more than just his top justice official. Through six years of Obama's presidency, Holder has been not only a close confidant, but someone to be counted on, someone who has stepped to the plate when Obama could not. As Obama has grown into office, he has been decidedly less outspoken on matters of race in America. The attorney general has not. Holder, it's become clear, is Obama's unofficial spokesman.

When Holder was appointed attorney general he became the first black man to hold the seat. He vowed that things would be different, and his track record thus far has proven as much. He's fought to give same-sex couples equal rights under the federal legal system, supported comprehensive immigration reform, and has continued to heavily advocate and enforce federal voting rights laws.

But even before all of this, Holder made it clear that his job would be to wade through America's muddied waters and confront racial inequalities head on. In February 2009, two weeks into his tenure, he gave a speech at the Department of Justice's African American History Month program.

Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot, in things racial we have always been and continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards. Though race related issues continue to occupy a significant portion of our political discussion, and though there remain many unresolved racial issues in this nation, we, average Americans, simply do not talk enough with each other about race. It is an issue we have never been at ease with and given our nation's history this is in some ways understandable. And yet, if we are to make progress in this area we must feel comfortable enough with one another, and tolerant enough of each other, to have frank conversations about the racial matters that continue to divide us. But we must do more- and we in this room bear a special responsibility. Through its work and through its example this Department of Justice, as long as I am here, must—and will—lead the nation to the "new birth of freedom" so long ago promised by our greatest President.

We were "a nation of cowards" on matters of race, and Holder promised to light a new path forward.

The rumors of his stepping down, it turned out, were short-lived, and Holder later released a statement, saying, "I still have things I want to do... I'm going to be [here] for a while."

Two Men, One Voice: Eric Holder in Ferguson

On August 9, as the afternoon sun stirred above Ferguson's Canfield Green Apartments, Michael Brown was fatally shot. Hands raised, he asked that his life not be taken today, that he be granted some fraction of humanity. He wanted Officer Darren Wilson to see him in that moment, to—if nothing else—acknowledge his being for what it was: imperfect but worthy of life. Six shots rang out, cracking the still Missouri heat, and Brown's body collapsed to the concrete below, where it would lay for hours.

On August 14—after days of protests in Ferguson, where police clashed with civilians upset over Brown's killing and chants of "Hands Up! Don't Shoot!" became a national headline—Obama addressed the nation.

"Second," Obama began, "I want to address something that has been in the news the last couple of days—the situation in Ferguson, Missouri."

It was an interesting choice of words for a president whose candidacy, and whose early years in office, was marked by soul-stirring oratory. Because Obama, more than any president before him, should know what has happened in Ferguson, and what is happening across the nation, is more than something.

A black boy is dead. A community, perhaps irrevocably, further divided. The nation, again, finds itself at a crossroads. (Or, opens its eyes on the crossroads it's spent decades standing at.)

This, a youthful Illinois senator might have said, is a time when we should subscribe to the politics of hope. A time where bridging the racial divide in America's heartland, and clinging to the belief that things can and will be better, is possible.

Instead, once fiery declarations of "unity" and "yes we can" were replaced with sunken-eyed statements about "emotions" being "raw right now" and how we must bring "peace and calm" to Ferguson.

Days later, as conflict continued to surge, Obama again addressed the public about growing discord. He ended with this:

In too many communities, too many young men of color are left behind and seen only as objects of fear. Through initiatives like My Brother's Keeper, I'm personally committed to changing both perception and reality. And already we're making some significant progress as people of goodwill of all races are ready to chip in. But that requires that we build and not tear down. And that requires we listen and not just shout. That's how we're going to move forward together, by trying to unite each other and understand each other, and not simply divide ourselves from one another. We're going to have to hold tight to those values in the days ahead.

The speech was four minutes long, and Obama—who previously said "we can't forget how this started"—mentioned Brown's name twice. His remarks were measured and unconvincing at best, and lacked the passionate rhetoric much of America, particularly the black community that helped him reach office, hoped to hear.

It is no wonder, then, that Obama's statements on Ferguson have left many wondering. Where's the man we elected? Where is the man who, in the aftermath of Trayvon Martin's murder, said "[he] could have been me 35 years ago," the man who, in 2008, said "race is an issue that I believe this nation cannot afford to ignore right now…[and] a part of our union that we have yet to perfect"? Where is the man who once remarked:

In the white community, the path to a more perfect union means acknowledging that what ails the African-American community does not just exist in the minds of black people; that the legacy of discrimination—and current incidents of discrimination, while less overt than in the past—are real and must be addressed. Not just with words, but with deeds—by investing in our schools and our communities; by enforcing our civil rights laws and ensuring fairness in our criminal justice system; by providing this generation with ladders of opportunity that were unavailable for previous generations. It requires all Americans to realize that your dreams do not have to come at the expense of my dreams; that investing in the health, welfare, and education of black and brown and white children will ultimately help all of America prosper.

Where is that man?

Two Men, One Voice: Eric Holder in Ferguson

Since Brown was killed on August 9, family, residents, and concerned citizens have mainly asked for two things: that Officer Wilson be brought to justice, and that Obama visit Ferguson to help mitigate boiling tensions.

Neither, for now, has happened. Instead, Holder has stepped in and become the Emblem of Racial Justice many wished Obama would be.

Yesterday, Holder arrived in Ferguson and met with local police, the FBI, DOJ personnel, community leaders, and reporters. His editorial in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch promised that "the people of Ferguson can have confidence that the Justice Department intends to learn—in a fair and thorough manner—exactly what happened." Holder continued:

Over the years, we have made significant progress in ensuring that this is the case. But progress is not an endpoint; it is a measure of effort and of commitment. Constructive dialogue should continue — but it must also be converted into concrete action. And it is painfully clear, in cities and circumstances across our great nation, that more progress, more dialogue, and more action is needed.

This is my pledge to the people of Ferguson: Our investigation into this matter will be full, it will be fair, and it will be independent. And beyond the investigation itself, we will work with the police, civil rights leaders, and members of the public to ensure that this tragedy can give rise to new understanding — and robust action — aimed at bridging persistent gaps between law enforcement officials and the communities we serve. Long after the events of Aug. 9 have receded from the headlines, the Justice Department will continue to stand with this community.

History is watching, and Holder's words and actions have resounded much louder than Obama's tepid statements thus far. I do get it, though. I understand that the president has to take a tactical approach to Brown's death and the events transpiring in Ferguson, that he has two years left on his presidency and wants to accomplish a great deal, for which he will need the help of both Democrats and Republicans.

Yet I can't help but wonder: Here is a man who established his career by helping communities like Ferguson, a man who has been anything but conventional throughout his presidency, and, above all, a man who champions hope. Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Renisha McBride, Rekia Boyd, Jordan Davis, and so many other black men and women just like them, are much bigger than Washington politics. I want to believe Obama knows so.

Ferguson could very well haunt Obama's presidency after he leaves office in 2016. Perception, after all, is everything. It is likely that he and Holder have had dozens of private discussions about Ferguson, and for all we know Obama is more troubled by what has taken place than he puts on. But his actions continue to say, and mean, little in the public eye. The killing of Michael Brown, the protests, the nearly two-week long conflict, the nation's growing mistrust in law enforcement, the increasing racial friction: these are matters too important to the communities that uphold Obama for him to just have Holder speak and move on his behalf.

Valerie Jarrett, a longtime friend and senior advisor to Obama, has said that he and Holder believe in reshaping the justice system—a "shared vision" she called it. But such a belief must entail talking about and approaching racial injustices in new ways. Sometimes, too, this entails just showing up to hear out community members who are disproportionately affected by our justice system, listening to their concerns, and conveying that, just by being there, you too believe things can change.

As Holder met with residents Wednesday, he remarked to a small crowd, "Why would I be anywhere but right here and right now?"

[Photo via AP]

Here's an Incredible Time Lapse of a Monster Storm in St. Louis

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A resident of St. Louis took an awesome time lapse of a strong thunderstorm rolling across his neighborhood yesterday. The storm bubbled up on the horizon before racing towards the camera, developing an awesome shelf cloud along the way.

The line of thunderstorms produced a couple of instances of wind damage to the west of St. Louis, but thankfully they weakened below severe levels before entering the most heavily populated areas.

The gnarly-looking, wedge-shaped cloud that comes over the neighborhood shortly before the video ends is called a shelf cloud. Shelf clouds form when a cool "bubble" of air from a thunderstorm (called the "outflow") moves across the surface along and just ahead of the storm. Warm, moist air rises up along the leading edge of the outflow, condensing below the thunderstorm as a shelf cloud. Most shelf clouds are ragged in appearance, but others like the one shown in the video look incredible.

The storms around St. Louis got a little more airtime than usual on the news due to the immense media presence in nearby Ferguson. Huffington Post's Amanda Terkel sent out this photo of the shelf cloud as it came across a highway near Ferguson:

More severe thunderstorms are expected in the Midwest today thanks to the "ring of fire," or the arc-shaped unstable boundary that forms along the northern edge of a heat wave.

[Video by Tom Stolze]

Twitter Headquarters Has Painted #Ferguson On Its Office Wall

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Twitter Headquarters Has Painted #Ferguson On Its Office Wall

Twitter, a corporation with a market capitalization of $29 billion, has enjoyed some goodwill and good press this week because people successfully used the service to make the fatal shooting of Mike Brown an international issue.

Twitter created a graphic to demonstrate its strength as a tool for disseminating breaking news and social justice activism. The corporation's platform looked powerful, especially next to Facebook's rosy filter.


But the news spread because of the people who tweeted it, not because of anything Twitter did. It's not clear if the corporation understands that by the looks of what they "tagged" on their office wall.

Twitter took a while to release its diversity numbers and for an organization that takes pride in spreading information, it appeared to bury the news. According to its numbers, two percent of Twitter employees are black. #lovewhereyouwork.

Correction: An earlier version of this post mistook an electrical panel for a period. Valleywag regrets the error. Period.

To contact the author of this post, please email nitasha@gawker.com.

[Top image via @Elyssa; graph via CartoDB]

This Lazy Dog Hates Alarm Clocks With the Passion of 1,000 Lazy Suns

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Monday mornings, am I right? Or Thursday afternoons. Or just being awake in general. Oscar the Hungarian Vizsla is not having any of this.

Seriously. He really can't stand it. Even watching himself on video months later, he's like "Nope! Still h8 u, mom. Let me sleep."

Pretty good dog. Very relatable.

[H/T 22 Words, Reddit]

AMAZING video--this dog is doing squats!

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