Read a little. Learn a lot. • Tightly-written news, views and stuff • Follow us on Twitter • Be a Facebook Fan • Tumble us!

15 Nov 2011 22:19

tags

World: Lebanese politicians get physically violent on live TV

  • Getting touchy:  Remember when Mitt Romney touched Rick Perry’s shoulder during a GOP debate a while back, and everybody freaked out? Yeah, that was nothing. During a televised debate about Syria yesterday, two Lebanese politicians became enraged and started throwing things at each other. After one guy chucks what looks like a glass of water across the table, the other guy stands up, grabs his chair, and almost hits his foe with it before the host intervenes. The topic of debate was Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, a very polarizing figure in Lebanon. American debates can get heated, but we’d be awfully shocked to see Newt Gingrich chuck his podium at Jon Huntsman while discussing Chinese economic policy. source
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink

15 Nov 2011 21:58

tags

Politics: “Republicans are stupid,” says Republican candidate for president

  • One of the Republican weaknesses is that we rely too much on consultants and too much on talking points, and we don’t rely enough on actually knowing things.
  • Newt Gingrich • In an interview with David Brody. Not quite sure what the political calculus is here, as admitting publicly that your entire party doesn’t know what it’s talking about is rarely good politics. However, not “actually knowing things” would seem to be a disqualifying factor for someone running for president, so Newt’s obviously exempting himself from this assessment. source
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink

15 Nov 2011 19:54

tags

U.S.: USPS expected to default on payment, could be broke by next year

  • $5.1 billion lost in fiscal 2011 by the US Postal Service source
  • » They could be broke by September 2012: On top of that, they expect to default on a key health care pension plan payment (which forces them to pre-pay for workers’ future health benefits decades in advance) — of $5.5 billion.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

15 Nov 2011 15:19

tags

Politics: Did Herman Cain really ask Henry Kissinger to be Secretary of State?

  • Dr. Kissinger turned my offer down to be Secretary of State. He said he’s perfectly happy doing what he’s doing.
  • Herman Cain • Relating an offer of his Secretary of State position made to Henry Kissinger. Kissinger, now 88, served as National Security Adviser under Nixon, and Secretary of State under Ford, but has not held a government position since. This is pretty bizarre — in the first place, Henry Kissinger is a phenomenally divisive figure in America history, heralded as a savvy elder statesman by some and an evident war criminal by others. He’s also plainly far older than we suspect most Americans would be comfortable with for such a demanding cabinet position. Further, he cited unavoidable conflict of interest due to his financial associations when he resigned as chair of the 9/11 commission, which seems disqualifying for a job like the Secretary of State. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

15 Nov 2011 14:38

tags

U.S.: Penn State: Number of allegations against Sandusky roughly doubles

  • 10 or so new claims of sexual assault against Jerry Sandusky source
  • » The floodgates open: One of the macabre ongoing aspects of the Jerry Sandusky child sexual abuse story has been the suspicion that the eight children the authorities believed had been victimized weren’t the only ones. This fear looks to have been warranted, as a source close to the investigation told the New York Times yesterday that about ten more people had come forward to authorities with new allegations. This comes on the heels of Sandusky’s interview last night with Bob Costas, in which he insisted the allegations were untrue and that he’d only showered with children and “horsed around” with them.
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

15 Nov 2011 14:18

tags

World: Jordan’s King Abdullah would step down were he Assad

  • An “expiration date”: Here’s a look at an interview recently conducted with Jordan’s King Abdullah, who speaks in understandably pessimistic terms about the nature of the Bashar al-Assad government in Syria. While predicting that the use of violence against his own citizens meant that Assad could not maintain power unchallenged, he also expressed concern as to who would lead Syria afterwards — a member of the same regime doing little good. This comes at a time of great violence in Syria; just yesterday between fifty and seventy-one people were killed. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

15 Nov 2011 10:23

tags

U.S.: Michael Bloomberg: Occupy Wall Street not expression

  • New York City is the city where you can come and express yourself. What was happening in Zuccotti Park was not that.
  • Mayor Michael Bloomberg • Offering a tough take on Occupy Wall Street this morning, after a long night in which police randomly showed up at the encampment’s door and gave protesters 20 minutes to vacate. The mayor seemed to imply with his statement that safety concerns trumped First Amendment concerns, which is perhaps a dangerous take on the law. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

15 Nov 2011 00:06

tags

World: Two words you don’t normally hear together: “Whale cemetery.”

  • 15 whales found in a “graveyard”: Over the span of 15 days, paleontologists have found the remains of 15 whales, in just one area of Chile. Some of the fossils date back seven million years. Not only that, but the scientists have also discovered new species, too. “The whale discovery is a discovery of global importance,” said Sol Squire, one of the paleontologists on the project. source
Posted by samimain • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
 
top tags