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20 Jul 2010 22:49

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Politics: Shirley Sherrod: USDA’s political football switches sides twice

  • right Andrew Breitbart’s Big Government ran a video of this unknown USDA worker who claimed that she denied a white person help. The right gets angry.
  • left Fearing a political backlash in the wake of the whole NAACP/Tea Party thing, the USDA quickly fires her. Sherrod says the White House pulled the trigger.
  • right It comes out that the video was heavily edited by Breitbart’s folks, giving the right ammunition to attack the White House for firing her. They just can’t win. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

20 Jul 2010 20:50

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U.S.: Oil spill sketchiness: BP is buying silence from Gulf scientists

  • We told them there was no way we would agree to any kind of restrictions on the data we collect. It was pretty clear we wouldn’t be hearing from them again after that. We didn’t like the perception of the university representing BP in any fashion.
  • University of South Alabama head of marine sciences Bob Shipp • On BP’s desire to work with the university. Work with the university? For what, you ask? Well, they wanted to offer lucrative pay – and a big contract – to the school’s marine scientists. But at a major cost. Basically, the scientists could not publish or even speak about any of their data for the next three years. Long story short: They said no. But not every scientist was willing to bend – scientists at Louisiana State University, the University of Southern Mississippi and Texas A&M reportedly said yes. Unbelievable. And right after this mess. (Thanks Charles Apple – again!) source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

20 Jul 2010 20:39

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Tech: Does Facebook’s lawyer know if Paul Ceglia owns 84% of Facebook?

  • NO well that’s just great; do you even do your job, dude? source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

20 Jul 2010 14:55

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Politics: When The Onion plays it subtle, Tea Partiers get fooled

  • You’d think that the Onion logo on this years-old video would hint to people that this is actually a satire. Or the fact that keeps repeating the word “classified.” Or the fact that he’s clearly talking about flesh-eating zombies. But no. In fact, this clip has been repeatedly posted on Facebook as if it’s actually real and confirming the Modern Tea Party’s greatest nightmare. Too subtle?
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

20 Jul 2010 13:18

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U.S.: Elena Kagan’s nomination out of committee, on way to confirmation

  • 13-6 the vote by the Senate Judiciary Committee to back Kagan
  • one Republican, Lindsey Graham, broke ranks to support her source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

20 Jul 2010 11:02

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Biz: Crappy housing numbers remain pretty crappy, guys

  • 5% decline in housing starts in June, an 8-month low source
  • » Silver lining: On the plus side, there was a very modest 2.1 percent increase in new permits, an early indicator of how the housing market is going. After the rough month or two the housing market has faced, at least that’s something.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

20 Jul 2010 10:53

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Biz: Goldman Sachs’ post-SEC profits fall precipitously, laughably

  • 86% decline in Goldman Sachs’ profits during the second quarter of 2010 – in other words, from a huge number to a very large one
  • $613M the size of their profits in the first quarter after paying a massive SEC fine and getting nicked by British taxes source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

20 Jul 2010 10:36

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U.S.: BP: Whoops! We’re sorry about that crappy Photoshop, guys

  • We will replace the Photoshopped version currently on bp.com with the original image tonight. We’ve instructed our post-production team to refrain from doing this in the future.
  • BP spokesman Scott Dean • Describing the issue with the Photoshopped image that we posted about last night (and based on tweets and traffic, drew a lot of attention this morning). Dean says that there wasn’t anything outwardly sinister in the photo deception, just an ethically weak photo editor who inserted three images in spots where the screens were blank. Which doesn’t explain, you know, the fact that the photo’s meta data has a 2001 creation date. But we’ll let that one slide, because the PR guy says it wasn’t sinister. Oh yeah, our boy Charles Apple posted an update. Check it out. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 2 Comments • Permalink

20 Jul 2010 03:01

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Offbeat: Mexican monkey smuggler no match for airline security

  • 18 monkeys around this dude’s freaking waist source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

20 Jul 2010 02:00

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U.S.: Protip to BP: Don’t upload high-res images of terrible Photoshops

  • Houston, we have a problem. And that problem is exacerbated by the fact that, um, it’s the worst Photoshop job we’ve ever seen. And the photo they uploaded is 4,800 pixels wide, and is probably going to be viewed in a Web browser, where you can see every painstaking detail of this image. Especially the detail over to the right that we pulled out for you guys – the most obvious one. AMERICAblog has many, many more, and they’re all about as blatant as this. The worst one? The meta info says the photo was taken in 2001 (!?!). source
  • » Update: BP couldn’t let a PR disaster last this long, could it? (Oh wait.) So, of course, BP apologized for its actions. Here’s our update, and our buddy Charles Apple has more.
  • » Second update: AMERICAblog has found another jacked photo. Where there’s smoke, there’s fire, it seems. Kudos for the great work, guys.
  • » Third update: Charles Apple sent this story along, and we just have to say … BP is really making themselves out to be an evil corporation, aren’t they?
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
 
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