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11 Jan 2011 09:48

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U.S.: Jared Lee Loughner’s parents: Recluses, shaken to the core

  • They’re in there now … They’re both in there crying. He’s crying and hanging on to me and she’s not even out of bed.
  • Wayne Smith • Regarding his neighbors, Randy and Amy Loughner, whose son Jared is the main suspect in Saturday’s Gabrielle Giffords shooting. Smith, who is not close to the couple, nevertheless has become a rock for the couple, who has a reputation for reclusiveness, since the shooting. Smith (who didn’t even know the family’s last name until Saturday) was the one who broke the news to them. “I said, ‘Guys, I hate to be the one to tell you, but he shot a bunch of people,'” Smith said. He was there for the Loughners, who had lived in the neighborhood since before Jared, 22, was born, in their time of great sorrow. “We stood right out there and cried for an hour,” he continued. “I’m a softie.” An awful incident all around. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

10 Jan 2011 22:22

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U.S., World: Economists forecast bad, bad times for US economy

  • The age of American predominance is over. The (Chinese) Yuan will be the world’s reserve currency within two decades.
  • MIT’s Simon Johnson • At an annual economic convention, regarding the US’s extended economic outlook. In short: it doesn’t look good. Harvard’s Dale Jorgensen, who also attended the convention, predicts that various Asian economies, particularly China, will overtake America as the world’s largest economy by 2020 or so, and that the United States should brace for “social unrest” following that development. Gulp. source
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink

10 Jan 2011 20:41

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U.S.: Jerry Brown gives California a bitter budgetary pill to swallow

  • $12.5B the size of the spending cuts that Jerry Brown’s trying to sell to California residents
  • five the number of years of tax increases that would also be part of the fairly risky deal
  • no Republicans are on board with Brown on this yet – he used the phrase TAX INCREASE! source
  • » About those tax increases: They would extend a series of temporary tax increase implemented in 2009, which are set to expire in July. Californians are set to vote on the increases in June. And other changes are recommended too – certain services could be transferred from state local governments (such as prisons), and services for the poor are among the ones getting cut the most. However, K-12 schools will be protected from cuts (and just about nothing else).
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

10 Jan 2011 11:07

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U.S.: How Congress is overreacting to the Gabrielle Giffords shooting

  • legislation Pennsylvania Rep. Bob Brady wants to make it “a federal crime to threaten or incite violence against a member of Congress or a federal official.” Aren’t the laws on the books already good enough?
  • packin’ North Carolina Rep. Heath Shuler and Utah’s very own Jason Chaffetz plan to carry concealed weapons from now on. We guess that’s understandable, but still an overreaction. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

10 Jan 2011 10:46

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U.S.: Bryce Tierney: A close friend discusses Jared Lee Loughner

  • Hey man, it’s Jared. Me and you had good times. Peace out. Later.
  • Jared Lee Loughner • Leaving a voicemail for a good friend, Bryce Tierney, in the hours before Loughner shot and killed six people and wounded Gabrielle Giffords. Tierney has a long history with Loughner, and notes that the suspect had some strange quirks, including an obsession with lucid dreams: “I saw his dream journal once,” Tierney said. “That’s the golden piece of evidence. You want to know what goes on in Jared Loughner’s mind, there’s a dream journal that will tell you everything.” Tierney also said that Loughner had an apparent beef with Giffords that goes back years – specifically, he asked a question at one of her events that wasn’t answered to Loughner’s liking. The question? “What is government if words have no meaning?” Giffords’ answer to that pseudo-intellectual drivel may have slowly pushed Loughner over the edge. Really. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

10 Jan 2011 10:20

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U.S.: Welcome to Atlanta: Snowy, icy city covered in snow and ice

Usually this highway is extremely busy on a Monday morning, but today … something about there being a crapload of snow or something. Mother nature hates Georgia. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

09 Jan 2011 19:56

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U.S.: Jared Lee Loughner charged: Gabrielle Giffords shooting update

  • NO the second person of interest wasn’t involved at all source
  • » Other updates: Jared Lee Loughner has been charged with five separate criminal charges, including multiple counts of murder and attempted assassination of a U.S. congresswoman – with evidence in the incident coming from, on top of other sources, surveillance tape. Loughner, by the way, isn’t talking, but he did leave a note on an envelope for investigators scoping out his home: “I planned ahead.” With the envelope was a letter from Giffords in appreciation of Loughner’s visit to a similar 2007 event as the one on Saturday. Oh, and the initial 911 call was released. Whew.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

09 Jan 2011 12:08

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U.S.: Did Jared Loughner have ties to racist, anti-Zionist group?

  • claim A report from the Department of Homeland Security suggests that Gabrielle Giffords shooting suspect Jared Loughner has ties to American Renaissance, a group they called “anti-ZOG (Zionist Occupational Government) and anti-semitic.” Hmm.
  • denial The group’s founder, Jared Taylor, denies this: “I have absolutely no idea what DHS is talking about. We have never used the term ‘ZOG.’ We have never thought in those terms. If this is the level of research we are getting from DHS, then Heaven help us.” source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

09 Jan 2011 11:56

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U.S.: U.S. Government: Kids are getting way too much fluoride

  • » Sound weird, guys? Well yeah. Part of this is due to the level of fluoride in the water. Some areas have naturally-occurring high levels, while the government generally recommends utilities add a certain amount to drinking water. Now, Health and Human Services is suggesting lower levels, because many children are getting too much of it – especially in areas with naturally-occurring high levels. Hear that sound? That’s the crinkling of some weird guy’s tinfoil hat.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 1 Comment • Permalink

09 Jan 2011 11:03

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U.S.: Carlos Castro “scared to sleep” with boyfriend suspected of killing him

  • I’m scared to sleep with him here. I actually changed my flight to go home a couple of days early – this guy’s been acting crazy.
  • Portuguese celebrity journalist Carlos Castro • Speaking to a friend about Renato Seabra, his former lover who he went to NYC with. Castro never made it back home, reportedly dying in a wild fight with Seabra where the 20-year-old reality TV star did some things to him we choose not to repeat. If you want the full details on those, go to the link to New York Daily News, who has less of a squeam factor than we do. As for Seabra, he’s currently being held in a psychiatric facility. This story kind of got buried yesterday in the wake of the Giffords tragedy, but, really, it’s no less shocking – and involves a fairly well-known celebrity in Portugal. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 1 Comment • Permalink
 
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