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03 Oct 2010 22:43

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Politics: Max Headroom: In memoriam of Rick Sanchez, a really weird anchor

  • look, CNN’s covering it!Gotta love Howard Kurtz’s comment at the beginning here, mentioning how he had to tear up his programming plans to cover Rick Sanchez’s firing from CNN. Kurtz goes over the Rick’s history with the network, including that bit where our boy got tased.
  • Mr. Twitter himselfOK, while the often-showy Sanchez probably made a lot of mistakes on the air at CNN, one really good thing he did was basically own Twitter before any other major news personality tried. Here, he discusses his experience hosting the tweet-obsessed 2009 Shorty Awards.
  • Behind the scenesEver wonder how “Rick’s List” was made? Neither did we. But in case you were wondering how the low-rated CNN show was created, here’s a clip. As you can see, Rick wears a chef’s hat and says, “I’m a big guy. I can take it.” If that were true, he wouldn’t be in this mess.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 2 Comments • Permalink

03 Oct 2010 21:37

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Politics: Americans for Prosperity creates anti-socialism scare video

  • As a follow-up to last night’s post, it’s probably good to point out that when you’re building propaganda pieces, the tone is everything. So, showing images of supporters of socialism at a Democratic Party rally doesn’t seem so bad on its own. But when you add the Russian National Anthem like our friends at the Koch-brothers-funded Americans for Prosperity, it takes a sinister tone. We’d say “disagree with socialism, don’t demonize it,” but we know that Americans for Prosperity receive so much money that they can pretty much do whatever they want. Oh wait, according to the rules on 501(c)(3) nonprofits, they shouldn’t be making videos like this at all. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 1 Comment • Permalink

03 Oct 2010 20:46

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Politics: So, Rahm Emanuel hired Obama’s design firm for mayoral run

  • Something looks familiar. We don’t know what it is. There’s something about the colors. The fonts. The shading. The simple boldness of the design. We feel like we’ve seen this before. What do you guys think? Is our boy Rahm a big fan of Gotham, or is it something else? source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

03 Oct 2010 20:36

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Tech: Here’s six bucks: Verizon sorry for all those “accidental” data charges

  • $90
    million     the amount Verizon agreed to pay consumers affected by overcharging
  • just six bucks the amount consumers will actually see in the end – laaaaaaaame
  • what Verizon agreed to refund its customers for overcharging them for data usage. The FCC twisted their arm.
  • why Verizon designed their phones in such a way that you could use data by accident – and get billed for it.
  • who Credit the NYT’s David Pogue for this one – he brought the issue to the attention of a larger audience. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

03 Oct 2010 20:24

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Politics: Newsweek thinks that “angry voters” are pretty overhyped

  • 23% of all voters describe themselves as “angry”
  • 42% support the pretty darn angry Tea Party
  • 52% of angry voters identify as Republicans
  • 14% are Democrats; 29 percent are indies source
  • » Other things to note: Is this just a hype issue? That’s Newsweek’s conclusion. They say that the chances of angry voters voting in the 2010 elections is roughly the same as normal voters, and there’s a lot more of those. And they note that Obama’s approval rating, currently at 48 percent. is way above where both George W. Bush and Bill Clinton were during their 2006 and 1994 midterms, respectively.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

03 Oct 2010 20:08

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Politics: Kentucky Senate race: Paul vs. Conway = national vs. regional

  • I’m not saying Dr. Paul is crazy. I think some of his ideas are outside the mainstream … He doesn’t understand Kentucky.
  • Democratic Kentucky Senate candidate Jack Conway • Sizing up opponent Rand Paul in a debate aired on “Fox News Sunday” this morning. While Conway was emphasizing Kentucky in the debate, Paul was trying to make it a broader debate on the Obama administration’s success and failure rate. “This is really about the president’s agenda,” he said. “Do you support it or oppose it?” Perhaps Paul should start focusing on those local issues – he lost a huge lead and is only up on Conway by a couple of points right now. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

03 Oct 2010 16:36

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Politics: Top Republican “confused” about national debt

  • claim House Republican Eric Cantor stated yesterday that the US has acquired more debt in the last two years than the last 200 years combined.
  • fact The US accumulated $2.8 trillion in debt over the last two years. It was at $10.6 trillion prior to that; Cantor’s estimate was off by about $7.8 trillion.  source
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

03 Oct 2010 15:36

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About: Our latest project (in beta): ShortFormBlog comes to Tumblr

  • Our latest big project? We’ve been working on a presence on Tumblr, for a few reasons. First, we think that what we do is a good fit with what Tumblr does. Second, Tumblr has a growing presence as a platform, and we think their community is pretty cool. Third, we also think that the current site might benefit from a reconsideration of its approach. Finally, we think that it’s not important that you come here to read us, but that you see what we read. If you prefer reading here, it’ll still be here. If you want a “lite” version with fewer bells and whistles, that’s over there. So that’s where we are here. We think it’s pretty cool. We hope you agree. And if you see any bugs, of which there are some, please let us know. (Oh yeah, follow us!) source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

03 Oct 2010 11:59

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Politics: Police nail CBS reporter for growing pot in his yard

  • On the sliding career scale, 11 pot plants is really nothing. It beats suggesting that the media is run by Jews. Or being completely unable to take a joke made by Jon Stewart. But CBS Radio reporter Howard Arenstein and his wife, Orly Azoulay (a correspondent for Israel’s most popular newspaper) were arrested yesterday for having 11 pot plants growing in their yard. Arenstein, by the way, has covered some really big stories, including 9/11 and the DC sniper incident. Will a little pot do his entire career in? Good question. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

03 Oct 2010 11:45

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Tech: Case porn: Moleskine has a line of iPhone, iPad cases coming out

Yeah yeah, we know, Hemingway used Moleskine notebooks. But Hemingway didn’t have an iPad. Now all of a sudden, we care. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 1 Comment • Permalink
 
 
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