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18 Jul 2011 00:56

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Politics: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: Obama faces confirmation headaches

  • Until President Obama addresses our concerns by supporting a few reasonable structural changes, we will not confirm anyone to lead it. No accountability, no confirmation.
  • Sen. Richard Shelby • Offering an ultimatum about the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, particularly in regards to its leadership. Obama recently chose former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray as his pick — a slight over noted financial industry critic Elizabeth Warren, but one that will nonetheless face a tough Senate  confirmation battle. The GOP wants to push a five-member commission structure for the organization, but while Obama may offer concessions to please Republicans, that particular idea is off the table. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

17 Jul 2011 19:45

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Politics: Sarah Palin’s “The Undefeated” loses its throne right away

  • $169M the amount Harry Potter’s final film made — the biggest single weekend gross ever, BTW, but one that was very front-loaded
  • $75k the amount Palin’s “The Undefeated” made this weekend in 10 theaters (roughly — see, the distributor didn’t report exact estimates)
  • .04% share of Palin’s box-office take to Harry Potter’s take, which is like comparing an ant to an elephant, but still pretty fun source
  • » A huge amount of spin here: ARC Entertainment threw out a press release today claiming that “The Undefeated” actually did quite well amid adversity.  “We expect word-of-mouth to keep ticket sales strong and we will definitely expand the film to a wider national audience,” said  Trevor Drinkwater, the distributor’s CEO. “With merely three weeks of preparation and a virtually non-existent traditional advertising spend, the film did exceptionally well.” The distributor also noted that the film did the kind of business a film would normally require millions in advertising for. Which, let’s put it simply, isn’t true. Two fairly low-budget films this weekend — Errol Morris’ “Tabloid” and the poorly-reviewed “Snow Flower and the Secret Fan” — still managed to have larger grosses than Palin’s film despite the fact that all three films showed in less than 30 theaters. And on top of that, the movie has gotten plenty of traditional media coverage in part due to its star. A dud is a dud. Sorry.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

17 Jul 2011 11:20

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Politics: Sarah Palin documentary not exactly off to the best start

  • ten number of theaters the Sarah Palin documentary, “The Undefeated,” opened in this weekend — mostly conservative test markets
  • three people were in a recent Orange County showing — including a fairly lonely reviewer for The Atlantic; the other two left after 20 minutes source
  • » A pretty bad test weekend: While some estimate that Palin’s film could make as much as $4 million over its entire run — good for a rally-the-troops conservative film — the weekend that they chose to test it is one where most filmgoers of all political persuasions are preoccupied with Harry Potter. But one thing to keep in mind — if she decides to run, the film could do a lot better. For what it’s worth, the other two girls in the theater with Atlantic editor Conor Friedersdorf probably thought “The Undefeated” was an action movie, so maybe she’ll get some business from confused moviegoers.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

17 Jul 2011 11:01

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Politics: Scott Walker: Yeah, we made mistakes on handling that union thing

  • The mistake I made early on is, I looked at it almost like the head of a small business: identify a problem, identify a solution and go out and do it. I don’t think we built enough of a political case, so we let … the national organizations come in and define the debate while we were busy just getting the job done.
  • Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker • Discussing, during the National Governor’s Association meeting in Salt Lake City, the whole anti-union saga that has engulfed his state for a good four or five months now. Walker has faced tons of criticism from the left over the law, which passed in a sneaky behind-the-back way at the end of a lengthy holdout by numerous Democrats in the state senate — and was later upheld in court after a proxy battle over a judge’s election favored Walker’s law. Many Republicans who voted for the measure face a recall vote in August, and Walker could face one of his own in 2012. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

17 Jul 2011 10:43

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Offbeat: Guy wins right to wear pasta strainer in drivers’ license

  • Hey, it’s religious garb, guys! After a years-long struggle that included a psychological exam, Austrian Niko Alm will finally get the right to carry around a driver’s license that honors his religion: The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. “The photo was not approved on religious grounds. The only criterion for photos in driving licence applications is that the whole face must be visible,” said Vienna police spokesperson Manfred Reinthaler. In case you’ve forgotten about the Pastafarians, they’re a tongue-in-cheek religion designed to mock intelligent design. And now Niko Alm can mock it all the way to the DMV. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

17 Jul 2011 10:25

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U.S.: News of the World scandal: Rebekah Brooks reportedly arrested

  • Friday As pressure piled on embattled News Corp. executive Rebekah Brooks for her role in an ongoing phone-hacking scandal at News of the World (a now-shuttered-but-very-popular paper she used to edit, by the way), she resigned with hopes of clearing her name
  • Sunday Now Brooks has no choice but to do just that, as police have reportedly arrested Brooks for her role in the hacking scandal that even has some loose ties to British Prime Minister David Cameron. She’s the highest-profile News Corp. official to get arrested. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

16 Jul 2011 15:35

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World: News of the World scandal: Did Scotland Yard turn a blind eye?

  • After the past week, that assertion has been reduced to tatters, torn apart by a spectacular avalanche of contradictory evidence, admissions by News International executives that hacking was more widespread, and a reversal by police officials who now admit to mishandling the case.
  • New York Times reporter Don Van Natta Jr. • Discussing the News of the World phone-hacking case in a piece that suggests that Scotland Yard had played a role in keeping evidence of hacking under wraps. “At best, former Scotland Yard senior officers acknowledged in interviews, the police have been lazy, incompetent and too cozy with the people they should have regarded as suspects,” the article continues. “At worst, they said, some officers might be guilty of crimes themselves.” Maaaan, this is getting messy. source
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16 Jul 2011 15:22

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World: News of the World hacking scandal gets messier amid resignations

  • worse After weeks of scandal tainted News Corp to its core, a woman at the center of the ongoing News of the World phone-hacking scandal — News International leader Rebekah Brooks — resigned Friday.
  • worser Hours after Brooks left her job, Les Hinton — a Rupert Murdoch’s longtime confidante who headed the Wall Street Journal and was Brooks’ predecessor during the time of the alleged hacking — also resigned.
  • worsest Now various claims are floating around that the scandal has damaged relationships between some of Murdoch’s children. Murdoch, meanwhile, apologized profusely in a series of newspaper ads. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

16 Jul 2011 13:02

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Culture: Final “Harry Potter” flick makes more in day than we’ll see in our lifetimes

  • $92.1 million the size of the opening day take for “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2” on Friday
  • $43.5 million the amount of that take that came from midnight showings ALONE; both numbers are records source
  • » To put this in perspective: The previous opening-day record was set by 2009’s “The Twilight Saga: New Moon,” which scored a comparatively modest $72 million first-day opening. Oh yeah, of the 137 movies Box Office Mojo ranks on this list, only seven were released in the ’90s — meaning nearly all of the other movies on the list were released in the past decade. The oldest movie in the top ten of the list is from 2006. By the way, the final film in the “Harry Potter” saga is within $70 million of topping the $158.4 million single-weekend record, set by “The Dark Knight” in 2008 — which means there’s a good chance that it will.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

16 Jul 2011 12:40

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Biz: Activist investor Carl Icahn develops strange taste for bleach

  • Well, as long as he doesn’t drink it. You use Clorox, right? You use it to spray stuff? To disinfect surfaces? To bleach your clothes? Well, Carl Icahn, who doesn’t exactly carry the best reputation for company turnarounds but was a real-life influence for Gordon Gekko (seriously — read up on Trans World Airlines and consider how much it compares to the plot of the original “Wall Street“), recently put up an insane, unsolicited buyout offer for the cleaning-supply country, which (think about this next time you eat a salad) also makes Hidden Valley Ranch salad dressing. Slowly but surely, Icahn became the company’s largest shareholder, and now he’s gunning for a whitewash. We could keep going with these bleach jokes all day, so don’t tempt us. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
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