quasi-blog

Batman is being sued by Batman.

Strange? Yes. True? Apparently.

According to Variety, Hüseyin Kalkan, the Mayor of Batman, Turkey, an oil producing city of some 250,000 in the Batman Provence of Turkey (which is nestled along the Batman River), is planning to sue the U.S. studio behind the blockbuster Batman film franchise and its director.

Warner Bros. and Christopher Nolan, the director of both ‘Batman Begins’ and ‘The Dark Knight,’ will reportedly be the target of legal action for infringement on the Batman name. Additionally, the suit is expected to blame Warner Bros. and Nolan for “a number of unsolved murders and a high female suicide rate on the psychological impact that the film’s success has had on the city’s inhabitants,” according to Variety.

Mayor Kalkan has said that, “there is only one Batman in the world. The American producers used the name of our city without informing us.”

View Variety’s article here

Lucius Fox in ‘The Dark Knight:’

Let me get this straight: You think that your client, one of the wealthiest, most powerful men in the world, is secretly a vigilante who spends his nights beating criminals to a pulp with his bare hands. And your plan is to blackmail this person? Good luck.

Video here

Tags: Barman Begins, Batman, Christopher Nolan, Hüseyin Kalkan, Lucius Fox, The Dark Knight, Turkey, Variety, Warner Bros.

From Politico’s David Paul Kuhn:

President-elect Barack Obama’s 34-point margin of victory with voters under 30 was the largest in a generation, cut across lines of class, color and education — and the most impressive youth mandate in modern American history, according to an exclusive Politico analysis.

Sixty-six percent of voters under age 30 preferred Obama while just 32 percent favored McCain — nearly four times the size of John F. Kennedy’s lead with the group in 1960, which led him to famously declare in his inaugural address that “the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans.”

While Lyndon Johnson also won the under-30 vote by a 2-to-1 ratio in 1964, he did so as a sitting president, who crushed Barry Goldwater by some 22 points in the national popular vote, which Obama won this year by just six points.

In other words, never in post-war American politics have youth voted so differently than older generations as they did in 2008.

Obama lead with the group this year is easily the largest of any newly elected president in the of modern polling.

Sixty percent of all new voters this year were under age 30, according to a report by Tuft’s Tisch College Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, or CIRCLE.

Until this election, no Democratic presidential nominee had won more than 45 percent of young whites in at least three decades. Obama won 54 percent of young white voters.

The youth vote made up 18 percent of the electorate this year, one point more than in the last three presidential elections. Young whites this year constituted 11 percent of the electorate, and young blacks and Hispanics 3 percent each.

Seventy-six percent of young Hispanic vote preferred Obama, as compared to 67 percent of the overall Hispanic vote. That marks a 14-point rise in young Hispanic support for the Democratic candidate since the previous election, and a 10-point improvement with the Hispanic population overall.

Fifty-two or 53 percent of eligible youth turned out to vote, marking at least a four percentage-point rise since 2004 by CIRCLE’s tally, continuing an upward trend in youth turnout since 2000 — and the highest percentage since 1992.

While during the primaries Obama’s white youth support was mostly limited to the college-educated, he bested McCain among white youth without a college degree by 52-45 percent, while winning those with a degree by 57-41 percent. Remarkably, he did this even while McCain won with whites of all ages without a degree by 58-40 percent.

Obama won precisely half of all young working-class white men, 10 points better than any Democrat since the Reagan era.

Obama won among young white women without a degree by 54 to 45 percent, the first time a Democrat had more than 50 percent support from this group in the post-Reagan era. His highest level of support from young whites came from college-educated women, who backed him by 61 to 38 percent.

While Obama won only 24 percent of white evangelicals, a slight improvement from Kerry’s 21 percent, 32 percent of young white evangelicals supported him, double the 16 percent who backed Kerrry.

View full text here

Tags: Barack Obama, David Paul Kuhn, election, John McCain, mandate, Politico, President-Elect, youth

This morning in Chicago, pool reporter P.J. Hufstutter of the Los Angeles Times observed President-Elect Obama’s Sevret Service detail draw their weapons while his motorcade was in transit.

Here is Hufstutter’s account:

The SUV cut the car off immediately, and the security team aimed their weapons at the car. The driver and passenger in the sedan stopped, and looked stunned — until the male driver appeared to understand what was happening (your pool reporter could see him mouth “Obama”).

The motorcade continued on.

The sedan remained stopped, near the side of the road….Some of the drivers here in Chicago do not seem to understand that a) the Chicago police car at the end of the president-elect’s motorcade is serious about having traffic pull over when the officers flash their lights and hit their sirens, and b) it’s not a great idea to jump ahead of traffic by trying to cut around the black SUV filled with five heavily-armed secret service CAT members.

Tags: Barack Obama, Chicago, Los Angeles Times, P.J. Hufstutter, President-Elect, Secret Service

During the press conference, the President-Elect took nine questions in less than half an hour. Questions regarding his first 100 days, Iran, and the new puppy were addressed. Sen. Obama also answered a question about speaking with former Presidents by saying, “I have spoken to all of them who are living. I didn’t want to get into a Nancy Regan thing about doing any seances.”

Here is video of the opening:

Here is video of the President-Elect taking questions:

President-Elect Obama’s prepared statement on the economy:

This morning, we woke to more sobering news about the state of our economy. The 240,000 jobs lost in October marks the 10th consecutive month that our economy has shed jobs. In total, we’ve lost nearly 1.2 million jobs this year, and more than 10 million Americans are now unemployed. Tens of millions of families are struggling to figure out how to pay the bills and stay in their homes. Their stories are an urgent reminder that we are facing the greatest economic challenge of our lifetime, and we must act swiftly to resolve them.

The United States has only one government and one President, and until January 20th of next year, that government is the current Administration. I have spoken to President Bush, and I appreciate his commitment to ensuring that his economic policy team keeps us fully informed as developments unfold.

Immediately after I become President, I will confront this economic crisis head-on by taking all necessary steps to ease the credit crisis, help hardworking families, and restore growth and prosperity. Continue Reading »

Tags: Barack Obama, Nancy Regan, President-Elect, press conference

From The Washington Post’s ‘The Fix:’

It’s not every day that the next president of the United States singles you out for praise during his victory speech.

But, that’s exactly what happened to David Plouffe, the quiet and unassuming political operative who steered Barack Obama to the Democratic nomination and, ultimately, the presidency.

After praising Vice President-elect Joe Biden, Obama quickly turned to laud Plouffe, who he called “the unsung hero of this campaign, who built the best political campaign, I think, in the history of the United States of America.”

The mention of Plouffe sent a roar through the crowd at Grant Park in Chicago — a sign that he has achieved folk hero status among Obama’s supporters in a manner not dissimilar to the way in which Joe Trippi, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean’s campaign manager, is viewed by many in the netroots.

Plouffe’s prominence begs the question: What’s next?

And, over the last few days, the political chattering class has been abuzz with the idea that Plouffe could well be in the mix to replace Biden in the Senate.

Biden will have to resign his seat before or on Jan. 20, 2009 when he is sworn in as the next vice president of the United States. That vacancy will be filled by an appointment — either by current Gov. Ruth Ann Minner (D) or incoming Gov. Jack Markell (D). The obvious choice to fill Biden’s shoes — his son Beau who is Delaware’s attorney general — may not be practicable as Beau is set to leave shortly for Iraq (he is in the Delaware National Guard) and is not expected back for a year.

Into the void left by Beau Biden then, some political operatives are pushing Plouffe, a Delaware native who graduated from St. Mark’s High School and attended the University of Delaware during the late 1980s.

Reached by email yesterday, Plouffe dismissed the talk of a move from staffer to politician — insisting he has not had a “single conversation” about the idea with anyone.

What will he do post-election then?

Plouffe said he has “no set plans yet” but that he will not be going into the White House — choosing rather to help the president-elect from the outside in “any way I can.”

In the near term, Plouffe will have his hands full as his wife — former California Gov. Gray Davis adviser Olivia Morgan — gave birth to a baby girl yesterday, the couple’s second child.

Tags: Barack Obama, David Plouffe, President-Elect, Senate, The Washington Post