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29 Nov 2010 20:40

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Politics: George W. Bush invades Facebook; world stops dead in tracks

The two things that define the naughts more than anything else, together at last. Bush openly admitted he was there because he was “trying to sell books.” source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

29 Nov 2010 20:31

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Politics: Could Wikileaks’ collateral damage be Hillary Clinton?

  • She’s become the issue. She’ll never be an effective negotiator with diplomats who refuse to forgive her exuberances, and even foreign diplomats who do forgive her will still regard her as the symbol of an overreaching United States. Diplomacy is about face, and the only way for other nations to save face will be to give them Clinton’s scalp.
  • Slate’s Jack Shafer • Arguing that the Wikileaks report on the diplomatic cables may be enough to do her in as Secretary of State. Why? Because, according to Wikileaks documents, she ordered her diplomats to spy on the people they were talking to. Even if she did nothing illegal, it’s going to be tough for other countries to trust someone they think is spying on them. If it does kill her career as Secretary of State, though, we don’t think it kills her political career. She’s too good to go away that quickly. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

29 Nov 2010 19:48

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U.S.: What happens if there’s a school hostage situation, but no media?

  • Well, that’s what appears to be happening in Marinette, Wisconsin. Granted, the town of around 11,000 isn’t big or anything, but it’s within shouting distance of Green Bay, and police have been on the scene for somewhere around three hours, yet this is all the coverage we appear to have. Small-town Wisconsin is small-town Wisconsin, but it’s weird that a hostage situation has been going on for somewhere in the neighborhood of three hours, yet all we seemingly have is the lead paragraph. (In the case of the Green Bay Press-Gazette, a reporter is driving out there now.) Have we gotten that lax about paying small-town reporters or having comprehensive coverage? source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

29 Nov 2010 11:22

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U.S.: A federal pay freeze might halt out-of-whack wage increases

  • 3% the yearly increase in pay rates above inflation for public-sector workers
  • 0.8% the increase of the same measure for private-sector workers source
  • » Also worth noting: As of 2010, 82,000 federal workers make over $150,000 – a huge leap from even five years earlier. And had Obama not ordered the pay freeze, federal pay would’ve gone up by 1.4 percent across the board. Federal workers are getting paid out of whack with the private sector as-is. To stop this now, as he’s getting hit on all sides, seems like a very smart move on Obama’s part, though we’ll see as the story develops.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 1 Comment • Permalink

29 Nov 2010 11:02

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U.S.: RIAA lawsuits’ last stand: SCOTUS won’t hear downloader’s appeal

  • good The recording industry has moved away from suing the crap out of copyright infringers. About time; who did that help, anyway?
  • bad One of the people sued in such a fashion, Whitney Harper, lost her case – and the Supreme Court wouldn’t hear her appeal. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

29 Nov 2010 10:53

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Biz: Massmart deal: Wal-Mart looks to buy way into South African market

  • 51% the amount of Massmart Wal-Mart wants to make its own
  • $2.3B the amount they’re willing to pay for the South African chain
  • no the unions aren’t quite on board with this decision as of yet source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

29 Nov 2010 10:35

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U.S.: Obama announcing federal employee pay freeze

  • This is gonna hurt federal workers en masse. Obama will offer details in a press conference in a little while, but expect DC residents to feel the hurt, as 600,000 federal workers reside in this little out-of-the-way villa. Hey, Obama, could we make a suggestion for you, as outside observers? Cut the pay of the highest-paid federal workers – the bureaucrats with random non-public-facing jobs, but raise it for TSA staffers, because they’re not getting paid enough to take their arguably more important job seriously. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

29 Nov 2010 10:23

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World: Rogue Afghan police officer plays turncoat, kills NATO soldiers

  • 6 NATO troops killed by an Afghan policeman who went rogue source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

29 Nov 2010 10:14

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Culture: Spider-Man musical: Big budget, rocky production, rockier first show

  • $65
    million     the amount the “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark” cost to produce – easily the biggest ever for a Broadway show
  • $4
    million     the cost of a two-week delay in getting things up and running; it finally got a performance in last night
  • five number of times the play had to stop during due to technical problems that still plagued it
  • 10′ number of feet Spidey was hanging above the stage after the shortened first act
  • one number of embarrassing catcalls the play had – during a break in the action in act two source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

29 Nov 2010 10:00

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U.S.: Wikileaks: Wow, there’s a lot of espionage in these cables

  • Is it a natural part of diplomatic activity to have diplomats collecting biometric data? … [It’s] a contravention of how diplomats are supposed to conduct business.
  • Wikileaks spokesperson Kristinn Hrafnsson • Expressing the organization’s level of surprise at the extent of the espionage they found. The State Department claimed that its diplomats were in fact not spying.  “Contrary to some Wikileaks’ reporting,” wrote State Department spokesperson P.J. Crowley, “our diplomats are diplomats. They are not intelligence assets.” source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
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