Silvio Berlusconi (barely) survives no-confidence vote in Italy

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Last week, Foreign Policy Magazine held an event in honor of its 40th anniversary. The guest of honor was Richard Holbrooke, the Obama administration’s top diplomat in Afghanistan and Pakistan who was an early contributor and editor at the paper. A week later, he’s gone. This is how quickly life works sometimes, but the heartfelt remembrance of Holbrooke by the magazine is worth the read. And above is his final speech. (thanks thepoliticalnotebook) source

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25+ people were killed in a large garment factory fire in Bangladesh today
100+ more were injured; the blaze took more than five hours to put out source

» And it could’ve been way worse: See, the multi-story factory (located in the capital of Bangladesh, Dhaka) housed 10,000 workers, mostly women. Many of them, however, were out to lunch at the time. Whew. For those who weren’t so lucky, though, it was very bad. VERY bad.

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According to Twitter, this was the year’s “most powerful tweet.” It’s notable that so much of the year’s news directly affected Twitter in every way, shape and form, and Ann Curry’s moment of advocacy in the wake of this year’s Haiti earthquake really stood out. Other highlights? The president of Ecuador calling a state of emergency via a tweet, Prince William announcing his marriage, our boys @BPGlobalPR making fun of BP, and Conan O’Brien announcing his second-act tour. All this stuff happened on Twitter. Who cares if only six percent of people in the U.S. are using Twitter, guys? The other 94 percent appear to be missing out. source

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My convictions are unfaltering. I remain true to the ideals I have expressed. This circumstance shall not shake them. If anything, this process has increased my determination that they are true and correct.
Julian Assange • In a statement to his mother Christine while incarcerated in a British prison – his first since being jailed last week. There’s a lot of Assange news today: First, Assange is offering to wear a tracking device in hopes that will allow him to stay free and continue his work with Wikileaks. Second, he apparently has gotten none of his mail (including numerous fan letters) since being imprisoned – except a note telling him that his copy of “Time” was destroyed because his face was on the cover. Finally, his mom, Christine, has some not-nice things to say about the Australian government. “There’s Julia Gillard opening for Oprah … and my Julian is sitting here in prison,” she says. “Is it more important to suck up to the Yanks than to look after your own people?” Are you sure that wasn’t Tilda Swinton, Christine? source

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first Two other courts have already ruled that it’s constitutional. The difference here? The judge this time was a Bush appointee and partly owns a campaign consulting firm that fought against the bill. (Conflict of interest?)
second The only part of the law that Judge Henry E. Hudson overturned? The individual mandate, which forces people to buy insurance. He turned over nothing else in the bill, even though that’s what opponents wanted.
third And, the most alarming part for those against the bill? He wrote his decision very narrowly, ensuring that only the one section would be affected. And he didn’t stop the health care bill from being enacted, either. source

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14 Dec 2010 11:01