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25 Oct 2011 00:04

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U.S.: Occupy Chicago: Nurses union protests controversial Grant Park arrests

  • cause Early Sunday, police arrested two members of National Nurses United who cared for protesters at Occupy Chicago, in the process ignoring Grant Park’s closing time of 11 pm. They were among 100 people arrested.
  • reaction After getting out of jail on Monday morning, the nurses were joined by more than two dozen fellow union members outside of Mayor Emanuel’s office on the fifth floor of Chicago’s City Hall, causing a bit of an emotional scene. source
  • » Hiding a story from the media? The nurses arrested suggest that police were trying to hide an awkward scene from the cameras. “We were among the last protesters released, for no good reason that we can tell, except for they clearly knew when the media cameras had left,” said Jan Rodolfo, the Midwest director for NNU. “We were tearful and exhausted and shell shocked.” Rodolfo was among those arrested; her court date has been set for November 15.
Posted by samimain • 0 Comments • Permalink

24 Oct 2011 22:37

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Politics: Rick Perry’s spin on a tax plan: “Cut, Balance and Grow”

  • Cut, Balance and Grow strikes a major blow against the Washington-knows-best mindset. It takes money from spendthrift bureaucrats and returns it to families. It puts fewer job-killing regulations on employers and more restrictions on politicians. It gives more freedom to Americans to control their own destiny. And just as importantly, the Cut, Balance and Grow plan paves the way for the job creation, balanced budgets and fiscal responsibility we need to get America working again.
  • Rick Perry • Discussing his new plan for taxes, “Cut, Balance and Grow,” which has a name clearly worded to evoke the “Cut, Cap and Balance” plan that House Republicans tried to push through earlier this year. Perry’s plan, in simple terms: An optional 20 percent flat tax, with benefits for lower-income people who would not necessarily benefit from such a flat tax. Don’t like it? Keep your current tax rate. Unlike Herman Cain’s 999 Plan, this might actually have a shot at getting through Congress. And would you look at that? Right on cue, Perry suddenly has an endorsement from Steve Forbes, the guy who banked his entire campaign on the flat tax — twice! Cain’s gonna have some gimmicky tax plan competition at the next debate. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

24 Oct 2011 19:48

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Biz, Tech: Netflix’s downward slide continues: Investors hate them even more now

  • 800,000 fewer folks give Netflix money source
  • » Oh, and it gets worse: The once-high-flying company now has 99 problems, and a shrinking stock price is one — one that dipped 26 percent in after-hours trading today. The company — which recently raised the cost of its legacy DVD plan, tried to split off DVDs into a separate site and then backed off after everyone hated it — also informed investors today that it would have a couple of unprofitable quarters as it expanded into the UK and Ireland. “We expect the costs of our entry into the UK and Ireland will push us to be unprofitable on a global basis; that is, domestic profits will not be large enough to both cover international investments and pay for global G&A and technology and development,” the company said. CEO Reed Hastings blamed the drop in subscribers on the price increase.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

24 Oct 2011 16:36

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Biz: U.S. may be headed for a holiday season credit rating downgrade

  • The ‘not-so-super’ deficit commission is very unlikely to come up with a credible deficit-reduction plan. The committee is more divided than the overall Congress… The credit rating agencies have strongly suggested that further rating cuts are likely if Congress does not come up with a credible long-run plan. Hence, we expect at least one credit downgrade in late November or early December when the supercommittee crashes.
  • Ethan Harris, economist for Bank of America Merril Lynch • Speaking on the looming possibility the U.S. could suffer another downgrade to their credit rating, this one in late November or early December. The last downgrade to the U.S. rating was not without controversy — one U.S. official called it a “a facts-be-damned decision,” over an accounting error by Standard and Poor’s that incorrectly inflated their deficit projections by nearly $2 trillion. Whatever might cause a credit downgrade, though, that it’s a dire consequence to be avoided is not in dispute, and rumblings are growing louder that the U.S. may end up biting this bullet again soon. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

24 Oct 2011 16:02

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Politics: Rick Perry: Trump not sold on Obama’s birth certificate

  • Say it ain’t so, Rick!  The Texas governor and presidential candidate recently told Parade Magazine that he dined with Donald Trump, and that Trump didn’t believe President Obama’s birth certificate was genuine. When pressed for his own opinion, Perry said he had “no reason to think otherwise… I don’t have any idea. It doesn’t matter. He’s the president of the United States. He’s elected. It’s a distractive issue.” (Photo by Gage Skidmore)source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

24 Oct 2011 14:59

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World: Wikileaks may fold by the end of 2011 if financial blockades continue

  • Assange says low funds may cause shut-down: Visa, MasterCard, eBay, and Bank of America have all imposed financial blockades against the confidential document-leaking organization, which head-man Julian Assange says may soon force their closure. Wikileaks has already suspended their normal publishing functions to devote their full time to legal battles against the institutions that have barred money from flowing to them. Bernd Fix, a board member for the Wau Holland Foundation which processes payments to Wikileaks, estimates that this year they’ll bring in just $95,000, compared to $1.4 million last year. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

24 Oct 2011 14:45

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World: Libyan NTC says they will investigate Gaddafi’s death

  • Let us question who has the interest in the fact that Gaddafi will not be tried. Those who wanted him killed were those who were loyal to him or had played a role under him. His death was in their benefit.
  • Mustafa Abdel-Jalil • Speaking on the NTC’s new committee to investigate the killing of Muammar Gaddafi, after what glimpses of video have made clear was an initial live capture of the deposed dictator. The tact of this quote is a little bothersome, though, for the simple reason that Abdel-Jalil is already implying that Gaddafi’s people, not his people, are to blame for this. At best this is an opinion for which there’s yet no evidence, or none the NTC has presented — we’d feel a bit better about this if, with today’s formation of a Libyan committee to investigate the killing, the NTC leader wasn’t promoting any pre-conceived notions of may have happened. Hopefully the committee will be impartial, and pursue an independent analysis of what took place, even if it doesn’t end up reflecting well on the rebels who surrounded Gaddafi in his final moments. It’s an early test. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

24 Oct 2011 10:55

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World: Wikileaks temporarily suspends operations amidst financial issues

  • what A year after first drawing significant attention for its whistle-blowing ability, Wikileaks is temporarily stopping publication, leader Julian Assange said Monday.
  • why Rather than the significant legal issues he’s facing, Assange blames a bank transaction blockade has that decimated their ability to raise revenue. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

24 Oct 2011 10:33

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Politics: Mitt Romney on Rick Perry: I would vote for him, if he stood a chance

  • If Rick Perry were the nominee, I’d be voting for him. I believe every single person on the stage in that last debate would do a better job than president Obama.
  • Mitt Romney • Claiming, during an interview over the weekend, that he would vote for Rick Perry, the man he savaged during last week’s debate. But would Rick vote for Mitt? SUSPENSE! source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

23 Oct 2011 22:26

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Tech: Apple’s most iconic device celebrates a major milestone

  • Happy 10th Birthday, iPod: Apple has sold more than 300 million iPod devices since it was introduced on October 23, 2001. The first iPod had a five-gigabyte hard drive and could hold 1,000 songs. It sold for $399. Today, the iPod Classic can hold 30,000 songs on its 160-gigabyte hard drive at a cost of $249. source
Posted by Matthew Keys • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
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