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05 Jul 2010 21:34

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U.S.: Twitter (and the city of Oakland) on edge over Oscar Grant case



Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

05 Jul 2010 21:28

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Politics: Paul Krugman: What’s the point of punishing the jobless?

  • As I and others have been arguing at length, penny-pinching in the midst of a severely depressed economy is no way to deal with our long-run budget problems. And penny-pinching at the expense of the unemployed is cruel as well as misguided.
  • New York Times columnist (and “Get Him To the Greek” co-star) Paul Krugman • Discussing the bizarre situation which led to the lack of unemployment extensions. He’s pushes hard on the issue, saying that the solution is worse than the problem. “Cutting off benefits to the unemployed,” he writes, “will make them even more desperate for work — but they can’t take jobs that aren’t there.” source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

05 Jul 2010 21:05

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Music: The “Sound Strike” Arizona boycott list gets a little more diverse

  • Also: Conor Oberst wrote a pretty killer letter. A few weeks back, we criticized the Rage Against the Machine-led boycott of the state of Arizona for having a fairly weak deck of cards. Now, it’s a little bit better, having added a number of A-list artists, including Nine Inch Nails, Pitbull (who is Cuban-American), Maroon 5 and Chris Rock. No Coldplay yet, but Maroon 5 is kind of a biggie. In other news, Oberst (he of Bright Eyes and Monsters of Folk) wrote a passionate open letter to powerful tour promoter Charlie Levy, with this key statement: “We cannot play on as if nothing is wrong.  This is not just about Arizona.  I am not just skipping a tour date.  This is not going to be easy for anyone.” Well-put. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 4 Comments • Permalink

05 Jul 2010 20:46

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World: Israel (partly) expands the list of things that can go into Gaza

  • <200 number of things that were allowed on the old list
  • 1,000’s number of things that are banned on the new list source
  • » Notable omissions: While food and household cleaning items made the cut, building supplies did not. Lumber, concrete, steel and other supplies necessary for Gaza to rebuild its infrastructure did not make the list. Why? Because Israel wants to ensure they can’t build bunkers or rockets. Or, you know, buildings, roads and basic infrastructure.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

05 Jul 2010 12:53

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Politics: “Yup, I’m a racist”: Mind-bending conservative shirt hurts brain

  • So, let’s get this straight: A bunch of conservatives are frustrated with being called racist because of their ideologies. So, what do they do? They create a shirt with the phrase, “Yup, I’m a racist” emblazoned on it. Because that’s not stupid or controversial. Look, this kind of rage-filled idiocy gets us nowhere. So why push it at all? source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 6 Comments • Permalink

05 Jul 2010 10:37

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Politics: Is ABC blowing a golden opportunity with Jake Tapper?

  • He topped “Meet the Press” in the ratings on Sunday. Months ago, ABC decided to take their political roundtable show, “This Week,” and give it to Christiane Amanpour, a solid international journalist who might be a questionable choice for hosting a national political show. In that time, Jake Tapper, the interim host, has grown ever-more popular thanks to his fresh, social-media-friendly approach to the program. Now, his show, which ends in August, is topping even “Meet the Press” among political shows. Mediaite says they should just give him his own show. We agree. It seems like he could do a lot with it. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 2 Comments • Permalink

05 Jul 2010 10:19

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World: India basically shut down in fuel price protests

These unlucky people had to wait for a train the middle of this mess, which led to thousands of arrests over a fuel price increase caused by a subsidy cut. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

05 Jul 2010 10:12

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World: Does Israel plan to apologize to Turkey for the flotilla incident?

  • NO even though it might cost them diplomatic ties source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 2 Comments • Permalink

05 Jul 2010 10:08

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Tech: Lenovo: Apple is totally letting us have the Chinese market

  • We are lucky that Steve Jobs has such a bad temper and doesn’t care about China. If Apple were to spend the same effort on the Chinese consumer as we do, we would be in trouble.
  • Lenovo founder and chairman Liu Chuanzhi • Suggesting Apple isn’t interested in the Chinese market very much, making it easier for the ThinkPad maker to gain a foothold. (He does say, though, that he thinks Jobs is a genius.) Apple, while not offering a direct rebuttal to the comments, notes that they plan on opening a bunch of stores in China by the end of the year. Is that codeword for “playing catch-up”? We think it is. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 2 Comments • Permalink

05 Jul 2010 09:57

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Music: Justin Bieber may have met his match with 4chan (thank God)

  • cause Justin Bieber’s people put up a poll on his Web site asking people where they think he should tour next.
  • reaction 4chan decided to vote it up, pushing the teen pop singer to communist foothold North Korea (ahahaha). source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
 
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