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12 Jun 2010 13:10

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Politics: Newsweek is obsessed with Sarah Palin. Here’s proof

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

12 Jun 2010 12:33

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U.S.: Alvin Greene case: Why is the filing fee so much, anyway?

  • 1% the percentage of your salary per year set aside for the filing fee in South Carolina
  • $10k the cost of filing for the Senate in South Carolina – the amount Alvin Greene paid
  • $3,480 the cost of filing for the House in South Carolina – less because it’s only two years source
  • » Is this the same everywhere? No. Most states charge a modest (less than $500) fee to get on the ballot. And three states (Arizona, New York and Michigan) don’t even have the fee at all. In fact, only one other state charges as much as South Carolina for their Senate filing fee – Florida, which charges 6 percent of the first year’s salary.
  • » A way out for Alvin: Pretty much because the Democrats think he’s in over his head, they’re willing to give him back his fee if he really wants to quit. And based on horribly uncomfortable interviews like this one, we can’t imagine why he wouldn’t want to quit.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

12 Jun 2010 11:33

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World: Post-coup, Kyrgyzstan falls into another state of emergency

  • 65+ number of people killed in a spate of ethnic violence between Uzbek and Kyrgyz youths that bubbled over Thursday night
  • 500+ number of people hospitalized; a curfew has been set and Roza Otunbayeva has asked Russia for assistance source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

12 Jun 2010 11:26

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World: Hamid Karzai has zero confidence in pretty much everybody

  • The president has lost his confidence in the capability of either the coalition or his own government to protect this country. President Karzai has never announced that NATO will lose, but the way that he does not proudly own the campaign shows that he doesn’t trust it is working.
  • Former Afghan intelligence director Amrullah Saleh • Explaining his feelings about Hamid Karzai’s take on the war. Essentially, he has no confidence in either his country or his coalition. He reportedly thinks the Americans were behind the attack (on a national peace conference, no less) that led to Saleh’s resignation. He and one other top security official resigned in the wake of the attack. A diplomat hiding behind anonymity agrees: “Karzai told me that he can’t trust the Americans to fix the situation here. He believes they stole his legitimacy during the elections last year. And then they said publicly that they were going to leave.” source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

11 Jun 2010 21:31

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Politics: Charles Schumer justifies Gaza blockade with straight-wrong facts

  • Yo, Charles, what happened? The New York Senator, who is Jewish, woefully misinformed a Orthodox Union crowd by saying that most Palestinians don’t support a two-state solution in Israel. Actually, they do. By using this train of thought, he gets to this conclusion: “Since the Palestinians in Gaza elected Hamas, while certainly there should be humanitarian aid and people not starving to death, to strangle them economically until they see that’s not the way to go, makes sense.” It’s no Helen Thomas-level gaffe, sure, but what an awful justification. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

11 Jun 2010 21:09

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Tech: Dear Phil Corbett: Shut up and let us tweet in peace. OK?

  • Some social-media fans may disagree, but outside of ornithological contexts, ‘tweet’ has not yet achieved the status of standard English. And standard English is what we should use in news articles.
  • New York Times standards editor Phil Corbett • For some reason fighting the flow of the English language, which has already decided to call Twitter posts “tweets” (lowercase). Corbett calls the word “inherently silly” and says it’s possible people may not even be using the site in a year. OK, this would be fine if he had any good recommendations. But what does he come up with? “But let’s look for deft, English alternatives: use Twitter, post to or on Twitter, write on Twitter, a Twitter message, a Twitter update. Or, once you’ve established that Twitter is the medium, simply use ‘say’ or ‘write.’ ” In other words, he has no good ideas for what to call this thing that he’s railing against. How about we call it “tweet,” Phil? Seems like a reasonable name. It also seems dumb for a guy who uses “ornithological” to complain about the clarity of language.  source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 2 Comments • Permalink

11 Jun 2010 20:50

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Biz, U.S.: Fun oil spill fact: BP is just as much American as it is British

  • 40% the amount of the company owned by British shareholders; another 40 percent is owned by Americans
  • 7.3% the amount BP’s stock went up in the U.K. after the British government gave them a show of support today
  • 3.5% the amount the stock went up in the U.S. after the announcement; it’s been sucking in recent weeks source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

11 Jun 2010 20:42

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Biz: Own a home in the Gulf? To put it simply, you’re screwed. *sigh*

  • 10%
    decline     the amount the oil spill could depress home prices in the Gulf region
  • $4.3
    billion     the actual financial figure you could put on that total (holy crap) source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

11 Jun 2010 20:30

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U.S.: To our friends camping in Arkansas: Thoughts and prayers, guys

300 people were camping along the Caddo and Little Missouri Rivers when the floodwaters got insanely high. 16 people were killed and dozens are still missing. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 1 Comment • Permalink

11 Jun 2010 20:15

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Music: One-word album reviews: Christina Aguilera no Lady Gaga

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