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10 Nov 2010 22:01

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U.S.: Social Security solvency suggestions draw tons of criticism

  • good Obama’s bipartisan fiscal committee wants to ensure Medicare and Social Security are around at least another 75 years, if not longer. We want to retire someday.
  • bad Their plan to do it involves pushing the retirement age back to 69, and cutting down on cost-of-living increases. Liberal groups are in a huge uproar over this. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

10 Nov 2010 21:53

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Politics: Obama’s fiscal commission: Outside groups have their fingers in it

  • Taxpayers fund the commission and they should work independently of Washington lobbyists and power brokers. This is the type of shenanigans that average Americans are so upset about right now – that money talks and everyone else is left out.
  • National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare founder Barbara B. Kennelly • Explaining why she’s upset about Obama’s fiscal commission. Simply put: it has a weird staffing structure. One out of every four members of its staff don’t get a paycheck from the government and instead get paid by outside groups. This has the effect of making the committee’s staff very diverse, but angers people like Kennelly, a former Democratic congresswoman from Connecticut. Democrats have been concerned the panel leans a little too close to the conservative side and influenced by special interests, something the group disputes. Either way, when it comes to cutting stuff, expect there to be constant debate and complaining. Lots of complaining. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

10 Nov 2010 21:34

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U.S.: Obama’s fiscal commission: Cut defense spending, lose the contractors

  • $4 billion in deficit cuts proposed over the next freaking decade
  • $3T the cost to keep the Bush tax cuts for households that make under $250,000 over the next decade
  • 3/4ths of the proposed cuts would be from the Defense Department; the rest would be from tax revenues
  • 250k number of contractors whose jobs would be eliminated under the proposal, saving $18.4 billion source
  • » How will Congress adopt these ideas? Don’t expect a wholesale adoption of these ideas pushed forward by a bipartisan team of Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles, but the ideas will definitely push Congress in a fiscally mindful direction.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

10 Nov 2010 21:06

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Culture: George W. Bush’s “Decision Points” does boffo book sales

  • 170,000 number of hardcover copies of “Decision Points” sold on Tuesday, its first day on shelves
  • 50,000 number of electronic copies the book sold; and most of the early sales weren’t pre-orders, either source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

10 Nov 2010 20:54

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Culture: “Wheel of Fortune” winner Caitlin Burke needs just one L to win

  • “There are a million things I’m not good at. But Wheel of Fortune, I can do.” Over the weekend, Caitlin Burke drew the attention of game show fans (and random YouTube users) by solving a lengthy puzzle with just a single letter. It left Pat Sajak speechless, and everyone else pretty much in disbelief. Apparently, she read the Esquire article about the guy who got the perfect Showcase Showdown score on “The Price is Right” and used that as her inspiration. Burke, who conveniently works for Esquire’s parent Hearst, explained that she would treat every word like a tiny puzzle within the puzzle, smallest words first. It worked wonders for her – she crushed the competition with $53,000 worth of cash and prizes. And left Pat Sajak without words. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

10 Nov 2010 20:30

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World: Finally? Maybe: Iraq appears to finally agree on its leadership

  • It’s been kinda like a soap opera with politics. Over the entire Spring and Summer and part of the Fall, Iraqi leaders have been in a huge debate over who the Prime Minister was going to be. And it appears that we’ve finally gotten to a point where Nouri al-Maliki will get his second term as Prime Minister. And second-place guy Ayad Allawi will get a little bit of power sharing but not much. Here’s how long it took to finally get everyone to get on the same page:
  • 248 number of days Iraq’s already-fragile leadership was in flux
  • eight number of months it took for Iraq to agree on its leadership
  • seven number of hours today’s meeting to decide Iraq’s leader lasted source
  • » Hurt feelings: In the time that Iraq’s leadership has remained contested, there were many points of contention. First off, Nouri al-Maliki’s party did not win the popular vote (Ayad Allawi’s party won two more seats in parliament), and both the prime minister and president are chosen by a parliamentary vote. Secondly, there were fraud allegations throughout the entire process. Thirdly, nearly 500 parliamentary candidates (mostly Sunnis) were banned from running for ties to the Ba’ath Party. Finally, it’s Iraq and there are terror attacks all over the place. Hopefully deciding on a leader will help encourage peace in the war-torn region. If we don’t get that, let’s hope the fight over Alaska’s Senate seat lasts nearly as long. (*Fingers crossed*)
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

10 Nov 2010 11:17

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Tech: That Facebook-Google fight over your friends gets nasty

  • The war over importing contacts escalates. The other day, Google decided to stop allowing Facebook to import their contacts, partly for competitive reasons. Facebook then devised a way around it that was actually pretty clever. Google has now put up this scare page to let people know that no, you shouldn’t offer your data to Facebook so quickly. So, why won’t Facebook bend on this issue again? And what does this mean for other services that aren’t Google? Well, a key Facebook engineer argues that Google doesn’t practice what it’s preaching. This is a pretty drama-laden fight that keeps getting bigger. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

10 Nov 2010 11:01

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Tech: Nokia’s cell phone share dipping as competitors catch up

  • 36.7% Nokia’s percentage of the overall cell phone market a year ago; they had the biggest share
  • 28.2% Nokia’s share of the  market now; they’re losing on smartphones AND dumbphones
  • 2004 the last time they fell below 30 percent in worldwide mobile market share source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

10 Nov 2010 10:48

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Politics: WTF argument of the day: Murkowski misspellings “protest votes”

  • The new policy makes no provision for the many voters who cast protest votes.
  • A line from the lawsuit filed on behalf of Alaska Senate candidate Joe Miller • Explaining that (stay with us, this gets confusing) write-in votes with Lisa Murkowski’s name spelled incorrectly are protest votes, intended to sabotage Murkowski’s widely-pushed campaign to get people to spell her name correctly on write-in votes. But Alaska doesn’t plan to consider them that way. “To the contrary,” the lawsuit states, “the state is indicating that it will now count a protest vote, deliberately cast with a misspelling as a vote for Murkowski. This effectively nullifies the protest and falsely inflates the vote for the write-in candidate. In short, the state has become a super-voter and will override voter intent and recast the votes for the candidate the state chooses.” Or perhaps people in fact aren’t as good at spelling as Miller’s lawyer gives them credit for. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

10 Nov 2010 10:36

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Politics: Republicans fight amongst themselves over killing earmarks

  • agree House Republican leaders want a moratorium on earmarks in the next Congressional cycle. Jim “started the recession” DeMint and other Senators also want them.
  • disagree Many Republicans, however, disagree, arguing that it wouldn’t actually save money. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is one of those guys. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
 
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