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15 Mar 2010 10:30

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Biz: Tommy Hilfiger’s clothing brand apparently still worth money

  • $3 billion paid by Phillips-Van Heusen
    for the lame-@$$ brand source

15 Mar 2010 10:22

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World: Georgian TV station has never heard of “War of the Worlds”

  • Want to panic your country? Simple. Simulate war conditions on a news broadcast and say that the president has been killed. And just watch the ratings roll in! This actually happened in Georgia, when they claimed under the guise of a “simulation” that the Russian army was invading and the president had been killed. Great public service, guys. Part two is here, by the way. source

15 Mar 2010 10:08

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Politics: Rielle Hunter to GQ: She calls him “Johnny.” Ulgh, yuck.

  • He… always said that he would support whatever decision I made. But I believe on some level he was hoping that I would get an abortion. Because he didn’t – he wasn’t happy about the timing. Which is understandable. He was married and running for president.
  • Rielle Hunter • Speaking in an interview with GQ Magazine in her first statement of any kind since the scandal first broke. Hunter seems delusional – she talks about their relationship in terms that make it seem like he’s gonna be there forever. And the photos are cheesecake. Regarding her “Johnny” references, it turns out she’s right. “You know, when I first met him, the first week of our relationship,” she said, “I said to him, ‘For some reason I cannot call you John, it doesn’t come out. Could I call you Johnny?’ And he said, ‘That’s my name.’ And I didn’t know that, but that’s his actual birth name.” Shoot us now. source

14 Mar 2010 23:08

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Politics: Max Headroom: Jesse Ventura crazy conspiracy lightning round!

  • The former Minnesota governor is a 9/11 truther. Great. Jesse Ventura made the media rounds this week promoting a book where he analyzes pretty much every conspiracy ever, and calls it a lie. The book, “American Conspiracies: Lies, Lies, and More Dirty Lies that the Government Tells Us,” is bound to be a lightning rod (how ’bout that title?), but is it all just a crock of @(&!? Judge for yourself from these clips.

  • On “The View” On “The View,” it gets downright heated, especially when he discusses 9/11. We like how Whoopi looks like she just doesn’t want to be there at all. The JFK assassination conspiracies are also quite silly, too. Ventura looks crazy with that nest of gray hair.

  • on “The Today Show”Ventura notes that he didn’t give the book its name. “The title scared my wife,” he starts out. He suggests that the CIA is the key to the conspiracy. Ann Curry makes a major factual error in this clip, claiming that Sirhan Sirhan and James Earl Ray killed presidents.

  • On “Larry King Live” King spent a whole hour interviewing the former governor (worth watching in whole), but this clip on Afghanistan is choice, because he suggests George W. Bush and Dick Cheney essentially let Osama bin Laden get away in Afghanistan. Sigh. Whatta loon.

14 Mar 2010 22:21

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Offbeat: When Rex Roland grades papers, he calls your kid a LOSER

  • -20% for being a LOSER; we grade like this too source

14 Mar 2010 22:13

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14 Mar 2010 22:03

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U.S.: Obama’s presidency talks transparency, but doesn’t walk the walk

  • One year is too early to render a final judgment on how far President Obama can move the government toward openness, but this Audit finds that much more pressure and leadership will be necessary, both inside and outside the government.
  • National Security Archive general counsel Meredith Fuchs • Regarding the findings of the private group during the first year of the Obama administration. While the president claimed that his administration would focus on transparency, an audit by the organization finds that the various portions of the government are very slow in processing FOIA requests (some requests are 18 years old!), and most government agencies haven’t increased the number of information releases during Obama’s presidency. Interesting. source
 

14 Mar 2010 21:46

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Biz: Two thresholds for Chris Dodd’s new bank-regulation plan

  • $10
    billion
    the amount of assets a bank would have to have to be sanctioned for a consumer-rules violation
  • $50
    billion
    the amount of assets a company would have to have to fall under the U.S.’s regulatory watch source

14 Mar 2010 21:39

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Culture: Protip: If you build an effective propaganda poster, Conan will pay you

  • Nice deal, dude! One guy who definitely deserves a payday is artist Mike Mitchell, whose “I’m With Coco” illustration is up there with Shepard Fairey’s oft-litigated Obama “Hope” poster in terms of iconic status. Mitchell licensed rights to Conan’s people for the image (currently getting used on O’Brien’s tour), and he made out with a pretty hefty payday. It’s like he won the lottery. source

14 Mar 2010 20:56

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Biz: EMI could be pulled in half by two different suitors

  • music Warner Music Group wants a
    piece of EMI’s recorded output,
    which includes such archive artists
    as the Beatles and such current
    artists as Coldplay.
  • lyrics KKR, a private equity group,
    would much prefer the half of EMI’s
    songs which are worth more in
    royalties, the publishing arm. EMI is
    broke, by the way. source