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27 Feb 2011 23:01

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Biz: GaoPeng’s Deal of the day: Groupon has a Chinese site now

 

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27 Feb 2011 22:40

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Culture: Did Charlie Sheen’s sidelining expose a double-standard?

  • So the message from CBS and Warner Brothers seems clear: abuse yourself and the women around you to your heart’s content, but do not attack the golden goose.
  • New York Times columnist David Carr • Pointing out the elephant in the room with the Charlie Sheen/”Two and a Half Men” situation, which is that Sheen did a number of things arguably worse than any of his current drama – and to women, even – but insulting his boss ended up being the thing that got him fired. It’s a good point, and one that shouldn’t get overlooked as CBS attempts to figure out what happens next.  source
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27 Feb 2011 22:15

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U.S.: Have you traveled lately? Bad news; there’s a measles threat, guys.

  • one New Mexico woman with a possible case of measles
  • three big-city airports she went through last week after leaving London
  • 1000’s of people could’ve gotten measles from her (yikes!) source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

27 Feb 2011 21:00

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Politics: Michelle Obama’s healthy food fight has some bipartisan support

  • It’s not all Rush Limbaugh inexplicably calling Michelle Obama fat over on the right. For some reason completely confusing to anyone with half a brain, Michelle Obama has gotten criticism from some conservatives, who somehow have equated “the First Lady encouraging good dieting and exercise” to “forcing people be healthy.” But not everyone is going crazy about what is pretty much the stupidest controversy ever – especially one in an era when there’s a government shutdown and insane unrest in the Middle East. Here are a couple of examples we can get behind:
  • supporter New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who has struggled with weight, supports her campaign. “I think it’s a really good goal to encourage kids to eat better,” he said. If a kid can avoid that in his adult years or her adult years, more power to them, and I think the first lady’s speaking out well.”
  • supporter Mike Huckabee, who famously lost a ton of weight while in office, says that while he doesn’t think the government should tell us what to eat, “I think Mrs. Obama being out there. encouraging people in a positive way to eat well and to exercise and to be healthy, I don’t have a problem with that.” source
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27 Feb 2011 20:02

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World: Is John Boehner backing off government shutdown stance entirely?

  • Americans want the government to stay open, and they want it to spend less money. We don’t need to shut down the government to accomplish that. We just need to do what the American people are asking of us.
  • John Boehner (in expected statements) • Discussing the next steps his party plans to help encourage spending cuts. Note that he appears to be backing away from the idea of a government shutdown. Perhaps hard-line stances are proving a little too, uh, risky for the GOP right now?  source
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27 Feb 2011 12:12

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Culture: Razzies: Of course “The Last Airbender” won big. We mean, really.

  • The big Razzie superstar: M. Night Shyamalan kept up with his track record of producing reliable Razzie “winners” and scored five trophies last night, including “Worst Picture,” for his widely-criticized live-action version of “The Last Airbender,” a popular Nickelodeon toon. Beyond the usual crapfest that might follow a film like this, it wins a little extra because the characters are largely Asian but the lead actors chosen to play them were mostly white – a decision made all the stranger because Shyamalan is Asian himself. source
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27 Feb 2011 11:47

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Politics: Government shutdown: Will 2011’s GOP ploy be like 1995?

  • If Gingrich couldn’t control his hard-line freshman class of 73 members in 1995 — he jokingly referred to them then as ‘a third party’ — it’s hard to imagine how the kinder, gentler Boehner will control his 87 freshmen, many of them lacking government or legislative experience, let alone the gene for compromise.
  • New York Times columnist Frank Rich • Offering the assessment of why the GOP should avoid playing the government shutdown game. It’s something that Rich says a number of GOPers are trying to argue doesn’t match the political playing field of 1995, where a defiant Newt Gingrich overplayed his hand too much and caused much embarrassment for the Republican party in the process. However, Gingrich doesn’t remember it that way, strangely enough. In a Washington Post column, he claims that he, on the other hand, plowed the way for much larger cuts in the ensuing years. Nice revisionist history, Newt. source
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27 Feb 2011 11:28

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World: Next on the list of popular Middle East uprisings? Oman

  • Protests in the country turned deadly today. The country, situated between Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Yemen on the Mideast pie chart, has seen its share of anti-government protests pop up. Today, two anti-government protesters in the industrial town of Sohar were killed in clashes with police. State media claimed that the protesters were trying to storm a police station. “Police and anti-riot squads confronted this group of wreckers in a bid to protect people and their properties, which caused casualties,” the report said. The protests in the country are a little different, by the way, because they have largely emphasized loyalty with Sultan Qaboos, one of the world’s longest-serving political leaders. The sultan, in response to a prior protest, recently reshuffled his cabinet. source
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27 Feb 2011 11:11

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World: Middle East: Tunisia’s prime minister exits right behind Ben Ali

Ben Ali wasn’t the end of the unrest in Tunisia by a long shot. Now, Prime Minister Mohammed Ghannouchi has left under the wave of popular unrest. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

27 Feb 2011 10:46

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Politics: It gets worse: Scott Walker, GOP in position to turn Wisconsin red

  • This is a multi-front assault aimed at putting Republicans in a commanding position, and it will come as close as you can come to turning Wisconsin into a Republican state. And this is not a red state or a blue state; it’s a purple state.
  • Wisconsin Democracy Campaign executive director Mike McCabe • Suggesting that Wisconsin’s GOP is attempting to use its position to reorganize the state’s political structure to make it a red state. (In case you’re wondering, the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign is a nonpartisan group not affiliated with another party.) And beyond the collective bargaining thing, Walker’s law is designed to cut union funding from the source – blocking unions from grabbing the money directly from paychecks, and then forcing people to vote on the union’s very existence each year. (People would also not be required to join a union, which is probably a good part of the bill.) Oh, and it gets worse – the GOP is in a position to redraw Congressional district lines as they see fit, and to force people to show IDs at the voting booth – both techniques used to hurt Democrats. Look, the union mess is one thing, but do you guys see what voters dragged into Wisconsin? That tinge you feel? Regret. source
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