• 31 affiliates of Blackwater helped them get CIA contracts source

• » Why this is bad: Blackwater is still managing to get federal money despite their rep cemented by that incident where a bunch of Iraqi civilians got killed. They’ve made $600 million from classified contracts, according to one government official, and just got another $100 million to provide security at Afghan bases. And they’re doing it in such a way as to stay low profile in hopes that nobody notices it’s the same company. Guess that didn’t work.

• good Tropical Storm Earl is no longer bearing down on U.S. soil, with relatively little damage.
• better It’s headed towards Canada, which means we don’t have to care anymore! source

• It’s that time again. After some soul-searching and a little talking over cat food, we’ve decided to bring back Catstravaganza, our popular cat feature last year. We’re teaming up with our good friends at Cavalcade of Schlock this year in ensuring total cat saturation. We’ll be bringing you tons of cat photos and cat-related news, and Micah and company will be bringing you lots of cat movie reviews. It’s win-win. (Are you a blogger who wants to saturate your site with cats next Thursday? Bug us. We’d love another sponsor.) Anyway, we want your cats. Here’s what you need to do to submit us cat photos:

• oneTweet them to us! Send us your cat photos via Twitpic or Yfrog. Then send us a tweet. Be sure to hashtag them as #catstravaganza.
• twoPost them to Facebook! Our Facebook page (like us yet?) accepts photos and videos, so feel free to submit your fancy feasts over there.
• threePrefer to keep them a little more private? Send them to us via our official e-mail address, [email protected]. We’ll throw them up.

• » And a footnote to readers: We’re aware that there are two kinds of people – cat people and people annoyed by cats. To people annoyed by cats, we promise that your regularly scheduled programming will be back on the tenth. And we’ll also set up a non-cat version of the blog for you guys. Promise. 🙂

• In front of a backbeat that we can best describe as “underwater reggae,” Deerhunter’s new song, “Helicopter,” doesn’t blaze like the band’s most well-known hits (“Strange Lights,” “Never Stops,” “Nothing Ever Happened”), but if nothing else seems to suggest that the band might have yet another artistic breakthrough in them. It’s them and Animal Collective at the top of the indie game, and based on this, they deserve it.

• NO but that’s what they say; start conspiracy theories now source

• 37% Sarah Palin’s approval rating in Alaska
• 44% Barack Obama’s approval rating in Alaska source

• » Who would have thought that abandoning your state halfway through your term as Governor might make your constituents dislike you? Also in that poll: Only 6% of Alaskans like Levi Johnston, and residents with positive feelings about Palin are twice as likely to believe they can see Russia from their houses as those who dislike her.

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• To give you an idea of how bad this could be, Christchurch is the second largest city in the country. Fingers crossed. source

• 67% of New Yorkers
  think that Park51 should be built elsewhere
• 27% of New Yorkers think it should be built near Ground Zero

• 6% undecided ↑

• This post style is a little experimental, so if it breaks your browser, sorry. But let’s just say that the thought was there. But that said, this new New York Times poll definitely suggests the idea of the “Ground Zero Mosque” isn’t popular even in NYC. source

• If you want to predict the demise of Netflix, go ahead—but somewhere there’s a hat for you, ready to be eaten.
• Slate writer James Ledbetter • Reminding all you jerks not to count out Netflix, because they’ve actually been hugely successful over the years. Ledbetter suggests it might be because the model at launch seemed so simple – they did one thing (rent movies via mail) and did it really well. Despite the many naysayers, the company’s currently trading at $130 and has a very successful digital video platform that even Apple’s bowing to. As a wise man once said time and time again: Haters gonna hate. source