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04 Mar 2012 20:00

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Politics: Gingrich predicts Big Oil will hand the election to the GOP

  • “That’s a pretty big burden while he’s waging war on the Catholic Church and apologizing to Islamic extremists”: In which Newt Gingrich tells CNN’s Candy Crowley that Big Oil will intentionally tank the American economy, placing an insurmountable obstacle on President Obama’s path to re-election. source

18 Feb 2012 20:12

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Politics: Gingrich claims fellow GOP candidates are too scared to debate him

  • Anybody who’s afraid of debating Newt Gingrich isn’t going to be in very good shape to debate Barack Obama.
  • Newt Gingrich • Campaigning in Peachtree City, the Atlanta suburb he represented in Congress for twenty years. The GOP presidential candidate mocked his rivals for pulling out of a CNN-hosted debate scheduled to occur just days before Super Tuesday. Both Mitt Romney’ and Rick Santorum’s campaigns announced that they would be skipping the debate, leading the network to drop their coverage. Ron Paul’s campaign announced that Dr. Paul would be withdrawing as well a short time later. Romney’s campaign cited a busy schedule as it’s reason for skipping the debate, but Gingrich challenged the assertion saying, “you can’t hide behind millions of dollars in negative ads and think you’re going to win the presidency.” Let’s be honest with ourselves, though, Newt — there have been so many debates that even the presidential candidates are getting sick of them. Make it stop! source

08 Feb 2012 20:04

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Politics: CNN suspends Roland Martin for offensive Super Bowl tweets

  • Roland Martin’s tweets were regrettable and offensive. Language that demeans is inconsistent with the values and culture of our organization, and is not tolerated. We have been giving careful consideration to this matter, and Roland will not be appearing on our air for the time being.
  • A statement issued by CNN • Explaining their decision to suspend Roland Martin from their network, following a series of Super Bowl tweets that landed Martin in hot water with GLAAD, among other LGBT advocacy groups. He said if you knew a guy who liked David Beckham’s underwear ad, you ought to “smack the ish out of him.” Martin insisted, while apologizing for the offense, that he was attempting to be disparaging of soccer fans, not a man  sexually attracted to Beckham, but these excuses fell in deaf ears when it came to his employer. source

21 Oct 2011 00:14

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Culture: Bad ideas: Five things parents probably shouldn’t do with their kids

  • We figure some of our readers have to have kids at this point, right? Have a young child that you’re looking to take care of? Making some stupid mistakes along the way, without realizing it? CNN’s got you covered — they threw together this list of ways to ensure your children are safe — a bunch of stuff that most parents normally tend to do without thinking about it. Do you catch yourself doing any of this?
  • one Moving their kid to a bigger car seat too soon. Not so fast, pediatricians say. Fish gotta swim, kids gotta grow.
  • two Letting their baby sleep in a swing. Though the motion lulls them asleep, they may not get enough oxygen in that position.
  • three Making them watch educational videos. Babies under two years old can’t even understand them at all yet.
  • four Putting the babies on their stomachs when sleeping — a SIDS rick. Just give them “tummy time” during the day instead.
  • five Microwaving their babies’ bottles. The bottles may be made with BPA — or could get too hot to handle. Yikes. source

20 Oct 2011 15:01

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Politics: Oops, that’s bad: Herman Cain implicitly makes pro-choice stance

  • So what I’m saying is it ultimately gets down to a choice that that family or that mother has to make. Not me as president, not some politician, not a bureaucrat. It gets down to that family. And whatever they decide, they decide. I shouldn’t have to tell them what decision to make for such a sensitive issue.
  • GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain • Expressing his views on abortion on Piers Morgan Tonight. We applaud Cain for being willing to split with his party’s orthodoxy, here, but in doing so he’s exposed himself to a damaging contradiction; he also said he believes life begins at conception, and that abortion was appropriate “under no circumstances.” What that means to a passionately anti-abortion GOP base is that Herman Cain, while believing a fertilized egg is in fact a human life, is not willing to defend that life through the law. And if he was striving for independent appeal (which wouldn’t work even if he supported abortion rights wholesale), his personal objection to abortion under any circumstance blunts that. Cain’s Twitter account has since said he is “100% pro-life,” which follows exactly with what he implied before; pro-life personally, but not legislating his opinion. This could be a critical blow to Cain’s recent success in GOP polling. source

18 Oct 2011 20:01

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Politics: Stumpin’ in Sin City: Three things to look for in tonight’s debate

  • Hello, and welcome to yet another GOP debate! YAY WE’RE SO EXCITED! Hopefully Anderson Cooper won’t screw this up (don’t take any tips from Wolf Blitzer, bro). Here are a few things to look for during tonight’s debate:
  • Herman Cain …has the most to gain, and the most to lose. He could solidify his standing as the co-frontrunner and anti-Romney candidate by giving thoughtful answers to substantive policy questions, but if he’s caught flat-footed, it’ll confirm to many that he is, in fact, the (pizza-toned) flavor of the week.
  • Mitt Romney …has so far been able to coast along simply by not screwing up, but this debate could be different. Given Cain’s momentum, Romney will have to go at least somewhat on the offensive, or risk getting flattened by The Cain Train. It’ll be interesting to see whether he goes all-out against Cain.
  • Rick Perry…could, in theory, make a comeback tonight. But that was true about the last debate, too, where he not only failed to capitalize on the opportunity, but didn’t even really seem to care about capitalizing on it. On the plus side, his performance will likely be hailed as a success if he doesn’t fall asleep at the podium.

20 Sep 2011 11:14

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Biz: Ted Turner: Rupert Murdoch may have to resign from News Corp.

  • From one rich mogul to another: Former Turner Broadcasting owner Ted Turner, who knows a thing or two about running his mouth, says that Murdoch has made tactical errors in his handling of the phone-hacking scandal, including his claim that he didn’t know anything about the hacking. “Well, he should have known,” Turner said. “He was chairman of the board. He’s responsible. I took responsibility when I ran my company. You never heard me say, ‘Well, I didn’t know.’” The two moguls once famously feuded, after Turner claimed Murdoch’s media outlets (including Fox News, a direct rival to the Turner-founded CNN) were largely behind the Iraq war, because it helped his company. Turner says they eventually buried the hatchet, however, after he bought Rupert a bison burger and praised the Wall Street Journal. Well, this may perhaps change that situation once again. Heh. source
 

13 Sep 2011 00:50

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Culture: Anderson Cooper goes full-Oprah with talk show debut

  • Daytime’s new icon? Anderson Cooper brought his silvery hair and serious demeanor to daytime television today, just in time for a TV landscape lacking a new Oprah. Why the change? Well, according to Business Insider, Anderson Cooper’s primetime ratings on CNN have severely fallen over the last two years; they say that his new daytime talk show could help save his career. A few clips from his first show are already online; some of his first guests were members of Amy Winehouse’s family (not a bad get, by the way, Anderson!). In this clip, they say that her death was not caused by illegal drugs. source

12 Sep 2011 19:56

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Politics: Three things we’re watching for during tonight’s Tea Party debate

  • CNN The network’s previous debate coverage has been atrocious, so tonight is a great opportunity for them to redeem themselves. They probably won’t.
  • Michele The once-triumphant Michele Bachmann is facing difficulties now that Rick Perry is in the race, quickly killing her momentum. She’s got to do well tonight.
  • Tea Tonight is a coming out party for Tea Party Express. We’ll see if they can prove to be a true force with tonight’s debate. Our guess: Possibly. source

25 May 2011 15:19

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World: In Soviet Russia, CNN competes with … uh, itself. Kinda.

  • A Russian fan went above and beyond, it seems. It seems like someone has taken the liberty to set up a CNN site for Russia — but the site is not officially associated with CNN in any way. In fact, the stories are just run through an online translator, so they often translate horribly. One story referenced the head of the IMF Dominique Strauss-Kahn as the head of a penis, not an organization. No one knows who’s running this thing, but a note on the website says that it only republishes parts of stories from CNN.com and links back to them. To do this, the site uses Joomla, a CMS system like similar to WordPress. A spokeswoman from CNN said that they’re “evaluating the next steps.” Hopefully they can get to the, er…head of the problem. (thanks to Mediaite for pointing us in the right direction with this one) source