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15 Apr 2011 11:34

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Politics: Three harsh criticisms Obama said into a hot mic last night

  • Say what you want about CBS’ Mark Knoller, but he gets stories. The dude may have a massive beard, but that beard is probably large enough to fit a high-quality tape recorder into. Which is why the White House correspondent was able to pretty much beat everyone else to a pretty killer Obama story this morning. (With audio!) See, Obama thought he was talking to donors. But he had an hot mic on that was accidentally pumping audio from the closed-door fundraiser into the press room, and Knoller caught it. Including the audio. While Obama said fairly harsh things about the White House IT department, like “We are like 30 years behind – we can’t get our phones to work,” the stuff he said about the budget situation and Paul Ryan had the strongest impact:
  • On health care “I said (to Republicans), ‘You want to repeal health care? Go at it. We’ll have that debate. You’re not going to be able to do that by nickel-and-diming me in the budget. … You think we’re stupid?'”
  • On Planned Parenthood He reportedly told Boehner and his staff, regarding the controversial riders: “Put it in a separate bill. We’ll call it up. And if you think you can overturn my veto, try it. But don’t try to sneak this through.”
  • On Paul Ryan “… the same guy that voted for two wars that were unpaid for, voted for the Bush tax cuts that were unpaid for, voted for the prescription drug bill that cost as much as my health care bill …” source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

14 Apr 2011 21:10

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U.S.: On the FAA, air traffic controllers and sudden media attention

  • Over the last few weeks we have seen examples of unprofessional conduct on the part of a few individuals that have rightly caused the traveling public to question our ability to ensure their safety. This conduct must stop immediately.
  • FAA chief administrator Randy Babbitt • Expressing anger and outrage over the reports that a number of their air-traffic controllers have been caught sleeping. The situation is the key reason why the FAA Air Traffic Organization’s leader, Hank Krakowski, no longer has a job. To us, to be completely honest, sleeping air traffic controllers are the new sharks. The fact of the matter is, air traffic controllers probably slept through a lot of incidents like these before the media started paying attention. Now that they are, it’s imperative to change things. But we bet that things are only changing because the media suddenly cares. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

14 Apr 2011 20:48

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Biz: Google’s shares drop precipitously after earnings announcement

  • $2.3 billon in profits this quarter, up 18 percent from last year
  • 6,000 number of new employees Google plans to add to its coffers by the end of 2011
  • 4¢ the amount (per share) Google missed its profit targets by … despite profits being up
  • 5% the decline in Google’s stock price today in after-hours trading —over $30 source
  • » A tough coming out party: New CEO Larry Page, who started in the position just a week ago, got to feel investors’ wrath the hard way. For what it’s worth, he’s totally optimistic about the changes he has in store. “We’ve really hit the ground running,” he said. “I’m tremendously excited about all of the things that lay before us as a company.”
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

14 Apr 2011 19:06

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Culture: Roger Ebert’s masterful one-star review of “Atlas Shrugged”

  • A man in black, always shot in shadow, is apparently John Galt. If you want to get a good look at him and find out why everybody is asking, I hope you can find out in Part 2. I don’t think you can hold out for Part 3.
  • Roger Ebert • In his one-star review of “Atlas Shrugged, Part 1.” Another sample of Ebert ripping apart the cash-in film adaptation of Ayn Rand’s masterwork: “There is also a love scene, which is shown not merely from the waist up but from the ears up. The man keeps his shirt on. This may be disappointing for libertarians, who I believe enjoy rumpy-pumpy as much as anyone.” It’s times like these that Roger Ebert works best — by, due to the nature of the subject material, changing from critic into comic. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

14 Apr 2011 15:20

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U.S.: House passes shutdown-averting budget deal easily

  • 260-167 the yays over the nays source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

14 Apr 2011 14:38

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Politics: New gig for Stanley McChrystal = Upsetting Pat Tillman’s mom

  • Mary Tillman furious at McChrystal’s new gig: President Obama appointed former General Stanley McChrystal to lead an advisory panel on military families, and the struggles they face when their kin are in combat. Mary Tillman, mother of Pat Tillman, the ex-NFL ranger famously killed by friendly fire (a fact the military, and allegedly McChrystal himself, had sought to hide) in Afghanistan, expressed outrage. “[McChrystal] deliberately helped cover up Pat’s death and he has never adequately apologized to us for doing that… I think it’s a slap in the face to all soldiers to appoint this man to be on this committee.” source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

14 Apr 2011 14:15

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Politics: Deficit commission heads endorse Obama’s plan

  • yesterday The budget plan pitched by the President Obama in his big speech was very similar to the proposal advanced by his bipartisan deficit reduction commission, under Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson.
  • today Bowles and Simpson met with the President earlier today, and after their meeting, the dynamic duo endorsed his twelve-year, $4 trillion reduction plan (their plan called for $4 trillion over just ten years). source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

14 Apr 2011 13:54

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World: Syria’s Assad orders detainee release; torture reports abound

  • Reports of torture coming from Syria: As the Assad government in Syria released some of the people arrested during the violent crackdown in the port city of Banias, many of the detainees accused their captors of torture. This shouldn’t come as a fantastic surprise, as Assad’s regime has been known to use tactics such as torture for a while now, but it’s yet another reminder of the basic, raw humanity that’s at stake in these political uprisings. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

14 Apr 2011 13:33

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World: Ugandan anti-gay movement still in full swing

  • David Kato was the first one who taught me to protect my human right… If I live or die, I am gay, and if I am buried, bury me gay.
  • Transgender Ugandan man George Oundo • Privately recanting his claims during a demonstration, just an hour earlier, that gay men recruited him into homosexuality at age twelve. He appeared in service of the Reverend Martin Ssempa, a virulently anti-gay crusader who goes around whipping up the Ugandan citizenry into a homophobic fervor. His preachings both fostered the current political environment that saw the brutal murder of David Kato, one of Uganda’s few openly homosexual advocates, come and go with little fanfare; he also directly influenced MP David Bahati’s legislation prescribing the death penalty for “serial homosexuality.” Oundo recanted in privacy after the event, praising David Kato and explaining that he’d been offered $42 dollars for the appearance. “I’ve always been gay, I didn’t choose it.” source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

14 Apr 2011 13:03

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Politics: Report makes GOP’s budget cut deal look a lot lamer

  • $38
    billion     the agreed-upon spending cuts in the budget compromise struck in a shutdown-preventing bipartisan deal late last week
  • $350
    million     the actual value of the immediate cuts, according to the CBO, since most of the real effect is stretched over future years source
  • » So, what the hell can John Boehner do now? This recent analysis, if it’s both correct and widely disseminated, could have huge implications for the GOP going forward. Since becoming Speaker of the House, the contortions Boehner has made to try to appease the Tea Party contingent have been obvious and striking — it’s clear that his fiscal conservatism is less their sort and more that of establishment Republicanism, by which I mean he doesn’t really care about spending cuts in any significant measure. The $38 billion figure itself was but a minute fraction of the federal deficit, and Boehner looks really ineffective after if these numbers stick. Will the Republican and Tea Party marriage begin to splinter over news like this?
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
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