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16 Feb 2011 15:01

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Politics: Lara Logan released from hospital, in “remarkably good spirits”

  • good news on the lara logan front. It’s being reported that Logan has been dismissed from the hospital following her “brutal and sustained sexual assault” in Cairo. While an unnamed source claims that, fortunately, Logan’s assault was “not a rape,” we can hardly imagine of the terror of it, especially in the context of a wild, tumultuous scene in Tahrir Square. Logan is reportedly in surprisingly good spirits, and is home with her family. Best wishes for her, and for her recovery. Relatedly, though, film critic Roger Ebert had this to say: “The attack on Lara Logan brings Middle East attitudes toward women into sad focus.” We’re all for somberly analyzing the broad implications of specific events, but really? Unless you can’t imagine a woman in America being sexually assaulted in a chaotic mob, it seems a little cheap and easy to paint a whole part of the world with the brush of this horrible event. Still, better than Nir Rosen’s analysis was. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

16 Feb 2011 14:03

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World: Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni plays the robocall game

  • This is Y.K. Museveni. I greet you. Vote for the old man with a hat.
  • Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni • In a phone call to potential voters. With elections looming on Friday, the longtime President’s voice was racing across phone lines everywhere as robocalls, unheard of in African politics, went out to the Ugandan citizenry, referencing his iconic hat. A win Friday would mean his fourth term in office (with no limits), amidst concerns about repression of democratic opposition. Of additional note, as it’s probably what Uganda is most known for internationally right now, the American evangelical group “The Family,” heinously tied to Uganda’s anti-gay (seriously) legislation, is led by a man named Doug Coe. As reported by Jeff Sharlet, Coe has referred to President Museveni as the group’s “key man in Africa.” Take that for what you will. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

16 Feb 2011 13:26

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U.S.: Judge throws the book at pirate from Maersk Alabama hijack

  • 34 years in jail for Abdiwali Abdiqadir Muse, Somalian former pirate source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

16 Feb 2011 13:13

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World: Another year, another absurdly lavish party for Kim Jong-Il

  • yay birthday For Kim Jong-Il, that is. The “1984”-esque ruler was feted with figure skating, an elaborate festival, and blossoming “Kimjongilia” flowers, which are seeded to bloom on his birthday every year. Of course, North Korea is one of the world’s foremost users of concentration camps, so perhaps the party lacked spontaneity.
  • boo birthday In one of the rare South Korean rituals of open antagonism to the North, balloons were released into the sky, drifting into North Korea bearing anti-Kim Jong-Il messages, and information about the uprising in Egypt. But with a society literally focused entirely around reverence of the Dear Leader, Hosni Mubarak never had it so good. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

16 Feb 2011 11:12

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Politics: Nir Rosen loses NYU job, really sorry for Lara Logan comments

  • Mr. Rosen tells me that he misunderstood the severity of the attack on her in Cairo. He has apologized, withdrawn his remarks, and submitted his resignation as a fellow, which I have accepted. However, this in no way compensates for the harm his comments have inflicted.
  • NYU Center on Law and Security Executive Director Karen J. Greenberg • In accepting Nir Rosen’s resignation over his comments on Twitter criticizing Lara Logan in the wake of reports of her sexual assault in Egypt. “I am deeply distressed by what he wrote about Ms. Logan and strongly denounce his comments,” Greenberg wrote in a statement. “They were cruel and insensitive and completely unacceptable.” Rosen, a journalist who has been featured in a number of publications in the past and is noted for his Iraq War coverage, profusely apologized for what he said on Twitter: “There is no point following me, i am done tweeting. Too ashamed of how i have hurt others and the false impression i gave of who i am.” source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

16 Feb 2011 10:46

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U.S., World: More details on the Lara Logan case: What happened?

  • egypt The Wall Street Journal reports that CBS’ Logan was separated from her crew from 20 to 30 minutes. While she was beaten and sexually assaulted, she was not raped.
  • hospital The Daily Beast’s Howard Kurtz reports that Logan, who is staying in an NYC hospital, will likely be let out today. Her injuries have not been disclosed. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

16 Feb 2011 10:33

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U.S.: Why Jerry Brown’s California state hiring freeze likely means nothing

  • Davis The recalled governor pushed a hiring freeze on the state in 2001, but made some exceptions for certain departments. Those departments hired 6,500 more people in just six months. Oops.
  • Ah-nold During his time in office, he also enforced a hiring freeze, but allowed exceptions for state workers approved by the governor’s office – around 10,000 of them in his final year of office.
  • Brown Now, Jerry Brown plans to do the same thing – with the same loophole as Schwarzenegger. Stop us if you think you’ve heard this one before. Actually, we’ll just stop ourselves. source
  • » One thing Brown won’t be doing, though: The California governor quietly killed a lawsuit put in by Schwarzenegger that would have cut state worker pay to minimum wage during unresolved budget crises. Brown’s office, however, didn’t make a big deal about this. It’s also worth noting that the hiring freeze contains no specifics in terms of how much it’ll actually save.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

16 Feb 2011 10:04

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Offbeat: Guy holds onto winning lottery ticket way too freaking long

  • Let’s say you had a winning lottery ticket. What would you do with it? Would you turn it in as soon as possible, knowing that you’d have to deal with the glow of the spotlight? Would you sit on it? Or would you go in on the last day to accept your prize, creating an unusual situation that draws as much, if not more attention, than accepting the prize in the first place would have? If you’re North Carolina resident Raleigh Hill, you choose the latter. Hill, even though he know he had the winning lottery ticket, waited a few weeks to even tell his wife Erin, then proceded to procrastinate on the ticket to the point where he lost the thing in a shoebox. Finally – finally – he came forward a day before it expired. Hey, if you don’t want the $680,000 after taxes, we’ll take it, Raleigh. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

16 Feb 2011 09:41

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World: Middle Eastern unrest reaches Libya, but will it go any further?

  • Last night was a bad night. … There were about 500 or 600 people involved. They went to the revolutionary committee (local government headquarters) in Sabri district, and they tried to go to the central revolutionary committee … They threw stones.
  • An anonymous Benghazi, Libya resident • Describing the scene during the riots that took place in the city the night before. Leader Muammar Gaddafi has been in power for over 40 years, and his country neighbors Egypt and Tunisia, so he’s obviously a key target for protests in the current spate of them. However, Libya is different from those countries in that their oil revenues are so significant that they could just throw money at the problem to placate unhappy citizens. Still though, this is obviously a huge issue for Gaddafi’s government. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

16 Feb 2011 08:34

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World: Kim Jong-Il’s son: Huge Eric Clapton fan, apparently

Middle child Kim Jong-chol was reportedly seen at a Clapton concert in Singapore. We imagine he mouthed all the words to “Layla.” source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
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