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03 May 2010 09:37

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U.S.: So, what’d we miss? *opens browser* Holy crap, Times Square!

  • The guy taking off his shirt in this video is a person of interest in the Times Square car bombing attempt, which managed to clear out one of the most human-saturated areas of the world on Saturday night. The SUV included three propane tanks, a large gun locker, a pressure-cooker-type device with a bunch of wires and some M-88 firecrackers in it, and a bunch of fertilizer that’s incapable of causing explosions. A T-shirt vendor noticed smoke was coming out of it. He stopped a pretty terrible situation. In other words, someone wanted to punish ShortFormBlog for taking a weekend off by nearly blowing up Times Square. Thanks. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

01 May 2010 09:20

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U.S.: Elena Kagan could be the rare SCOTUS justice who wasn’t a judge

  • 1972 the last time a new justice wasn’t a judge source
  • » The nature of nominees: Many Supreme Court justices, beyond being judges already, tend to be East Coast, Ivy League, and largely have careers in government. Kagan, the current Solicitor General and a leading candidate for the Supreme Court post, fits that bill, too. She was nominated for a judicial post in 1999 but had her nomination stalled, does share other things in common with Supreme Court judges. Her career path is very similar to that of Chief Justice John Roberts, minus, you know, the judging.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

01 May 2010 09:04

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U.S.: Obama adds “major oil spill” into his very busy schedule

  • today The president will hit
    Ann Arbor, Mich. to give a commencement speech to grads at the University of Michigan.
  • tonight Obama will head back to Washington for the fun-but-unimportant White House Press Correspondents’ dinner.
  • soon The president will make a trip to Louisiana in the next 48 hours to get briefed on the nature of the oil slick. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

30 Apr 2010 14:30

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U.S.: Arizona immigration: The latest on their (home) plate

  • “solely” Arizona lawmakers, realizing they created a huge controversy with the law, are trying to change one word to make it all go away: The law uses the word “solely” in regards to race, which allows for racial profiling. They plan to take it out.
  • baseball The state could also lose the 2011 MLB All-Star Game as a result of a boycott of the law. Surprisingly, the state has been down this road before. in 1993, the state lost the Super Bowl as a result of their blocking of MLK Day.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

30 Apr 2010 09:24

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U.S.: Why the oil spill is bad news for the Obama administration

  • march The president suggests a major
    initiative to expand offshore drilling to the East Coast – a move which
    drew criticism from some
    environmentalists.
  • april In the wake of the oil spill,
    Obama plans to block any new drilling until after an investigation – a paper tiger because new drilling won’t happen for years. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

30 Apr 2010 09:01

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U.S.: The oil is coming ashore! The Gulf Coast is screwed, guys.

There are reports that oil has gotten ashore already from the massive oil spill. Louisiana has already declared a state of emergency. This could be very bad. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

30 Apr 2010 00:37

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U.S.: The newly approved Provenge: It’s a cure for prostate cancer, kinda

  • $93,000 the amount the cancer vaccine,
    which the FDA just approved
    yesterday, costs
  • four the number of months the drug
    adds to the life expectancy of a
    prostate cancer patient source
  • » It’s a vaccine that doesn’t really work like a vaccine. The vaccine, administered in three shots, is made from a patient’s own cells, and is used to teach the body how to kill malignant cancer cells. However, unlike most vaccines, it doesn’t prevent the disease, just slows it down. The drug may be expensive, but it’s more effective than chemotherapy.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 5 Comments • Permalink
 

29 Apr 2010 20:15

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U.S.: Charlie Crist goes indie, just bought his first Crystal Castles album

  • My decision to run for the U.S. Senate as a candidate without party affiliation says more about our nation and our state than it says about me. Unfortunately our political system is broken. I think we need a new tone in Washington.
  • Florida Gov. Charlie Crist • Who’s now an indie kid in the Florida Senate’s political race. (Though he went out of his way to say “independent.” WTF?) He loses a lot of backing by turning his back on Republicans, but polls suggest he has a much better chance of winning now that he’s out of the primary. The moderate got pushed out as part of a rightward lean by the party, who’s backing bizarro hippie favorite Marco Rubio. The New York Times suggests that Crist may suffer from that lack of infrastructure, though if Rubio or Democratic candidate Kendrick Meek can’t expand their collective bases, he’s the winner. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

29 Apr 2010 11:23

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U.S.: Time for a lawsuit! Arizona immigration lawsuit on the way

  • four number of groups that will be suing over the controversial new law
  • two of those groups are related to the American Civil Liberties Union source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

28 Apr 2010 20:12

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U.S.: Financial reform debate’s a go in the Senate, finally

  • Forget the full Senate vote. They shook hands on it. In what’s a pretty big #(&(@&& deal, Democrats and Republicans in the Senate agreed to bring financial reform to the floor. BBC notes that a vote failed three days in a row, but eventually went through after Democrats nearly forced an all-night session. Republicans claim they won some concessions, though. While Republican Sen. Richard Shelby, who’s been working with bill mastermind Christopher Dodd, says he still disagrees with many parts of the bill, but has been promised that Republican amendments would be considered. So that’s something. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 2 Comments • Permalink
 
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