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05 Nov 2010 23:18

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Tech: Steve Ballmer decides to cash out some Microsoft shares

  • $1.3 billion, or 12 percent, of Ballmer’s stake sold source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

05 Nov 2010 23:08

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World: Hurricane Tomas latest disaster to ruin Haiti’s year

Dear higher power…. can you find another group of people to royally screw over multiple times? Even a modest disaster like Tomas totally sucks for them. Thanks, rest of world. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

05 Nov 2010 21:54

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U.S.: Depressing proof of Gulf Oil Spill’s ecological destruction, right here

  • “I think we have the smoking gun.” The Gulf Oil Spill hasn’t been in the news too much lately, but we’ve been making an effort to post about it as often as we find stuff. In this case, a bunch of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration researchers happened to find evidence of environmental damage caused specifically by the Deepwater Horizon crapfest. See that thing wrapped around those ugly, blackened branches of coral? That’s a starfish. (In case you’re curious, you can find more photos from the research right here.) source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

05 Nov 2010 21:32

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Politics: Nancy Pelosi’s next House move, in historical perspective

  • 1998 Newt Gingrich steps down from his House leadership role after a particularly rough midterm; his party was still in the majority
  • 2006 Dennis Hastert leaves his House leadership role after his party lost the majority; he later left the House entirely without much fuss
  • 2010 Nancy Pelosi defies the logic set by previous House speakers and announces that she plans to run for House Minority Leader (oh boy) source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

05 Nov 2010 21:18

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U.S.: Light sentence in Oscar Grant case leaves Oakland on edge

  • 14 years the amount of jail time the mother of Oscar Grant, Wanda Johnson, wanted for BART officer Johannes Mehserle in the police brutality case where the unarmed Grant was killed
  • 2 years the amount of jail time Mehserle will get for his YouTube-spread actions, which have the entire city of Oakland on edge; he’ll also get credit for time already served source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

05 Nov 2010 21:08

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U.S.: Preliminary “Don’t Ask” ruling winds its way to Supreme Court

  • federal A federal judge in California ruled the military’s controversial “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy unconstitutional; Obama then appeals.
  • appeals After the appeal was filed, the 9th Circuit ruled that the policy should stay in place while the case goes to trial – a win for the Pentagon.
  • supreme The Log Cabin Republicans have now appealed that decision to the Supreme Court in hopes of getting it overturned again. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

05 Nov 2010 20:14

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Politics: Why MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann decision was a really bad idea

  • Keith Olbermann stepped in it when he donated to a political candidate. What happened next, though, was a really bad precedent for MSNBC that’ll prove more controversial than Olbermann’s original move was. While we don’t think Keith should’ve been donating to candidates immediately after talking to them on TV, we also think the punishment doesn’t fit the crime. It also opens NBC Universal up to double standards, especially if Gawker’s right, and MSNBC doesn’t actually have the standards that NBC News does. Some other points to come out of this whole mess:
  • one Even William Kristol, a conservative commentator who has no reason to support the ideologically opposed Olbermann, had his back, which was really nice of him.
  • two Salon offers up another relevant point: If CNBC were held to the same standards as Olbermann, most of their staff would have to be suspended. Oy vey. source
  • » Correction: An earlier version of this post noted The Nation’s Washington Editor, Chris L. Hayes, no longer doing a replacement MSNBC show because of campaign contributions of his own. This was based on a still-online Wall Street Journal article. Hayes himself denied the allegations: “OK: I’m not filling in on Countdown tonight because I didn’t feel comfortable doing it given the circumstances. My not hosting tonight has *nothing* to do with several donations I made to two friends *before* I ever signed an MSNBC contract.” Thanks to Ilya Gerner and Susan Pruden for tipping us off to this. (And for reading!)
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

05 Nov 2010 14:01

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Politics: MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann suspended for campaign donations

  • I became aware of Keith’s political contributions late last night. Mindful of NBC News policy and standards, I have suspended him indefinitely without pay.
  • MSNBC President Phil Griffin • Announcing that Keith Olbermann has been suspended for donating to three political campaigns, one of which happened immediately after he interviewed the candidate (Raul Grijalva of Arizona) on the show. While Olbermann noted that he “did not privately or publicly encourage anyone else to donate to these campaigns, nor to any others in this election or any previous ones, nor have I previously donated to any political campaign at any level,” clearly that wasn’t enough for MSNBC. On Tumblr, me and Mark Coatney (formerly of Newsweek, now of Tumblr) had a little bit of a debate on all this, and while I didn’t come on Keith’s side here for ethical reasons, I honestly thought he was untouchable (and that it wasn’t bad enough to force MSNBC’s hand). Guess not. The mighty fall, too. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

05 Nov 2010 11:52

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Politics: Republicans benefited from Democrats’ inaction on gay rights

  • 31% of gays went GOP, a big increase from 2008 source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

05 Nov 2010 11:17

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Politics: Obvious from a mile away: Bob Etheridge’s career killed by dirty trick

  • lame A few months back, Rep. Bob Etheridge was caught on camera accosting some kid who had “a question” for him. Liberals suspected it was a dirty trick.
  • lamer This week, after all has been said and done and Etheridge lost his seat, Republican operatives basically admit it was a setup designed to make him lose. source
  • » Best part? His opponent who eventually beat him, Renee Ellmers, used the clip in an attack ad against him, but did not have any prior knowledge that it was a trick. Also, we’d like to note that we correctly called this back in June when one of our regular commenters got us into a huge flamewar over the whole incident. We almost forgot about that.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 1 Comment • Permalink
 
 
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