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27 Jun 2011 23:22

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World: House Democrats stand to gain from failed debt ceiling talks

  • We’ve all said we would vote for the full faith and credit of the United States to be honored by voting for this increase in the debt ceiling. If they don’t want to do taxes, maybe they don’t want to do anything.
  • House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi • Pointing her finger at Republicans — emphasizing that if nothing’s done about the debt ceiling situation (because they aren’t willing to raise taxes), it will greatly hurt them. The New Republic’s Jonathan Chait suggests that this is a power play on Pelosi’s part; if the Republicans can’t make a deal with Obama, it’s likely to damage the economy in such a way that a) it will hurt Republicans and b) it will hurt Obama. One group it won’t hurt, however, is House Democrats — meaning that they’d get some much-needed leverage in 2012 and Pelosi will no longer be an afterthought. This is what we call game theory.  source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

27 Jun 2011 14:27

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Tech, World: Fun fact: Chinese Twitter clone nearly as big as Twitter itself

  • 57% the share of China’s microbloggers that use Sina Weibo — a Chinese Twitter clone; that’s roughly 140 million users (compared to Twitter’s roughly 200 million worldwide)
  • 87% the share of China’s total microblogging activity that goes through Sina Weibo; not bad for a former Yahoo-like portal site that’s stretching its wings source
  • » This is pretty huge. China has more internet users than any other country, and Sina is dominating their microblogging market. They’re trying to make themselves more than just China’s Twitter, though; they want to add more Facebook-like features as well. But that won’t be easy. Competition is fierce, because no single social media site dominates and the company faces strong competition from RenRen and Tencent. On top of that, though, Sina has to police its users and censor them if they’re talking against the government — something Twitter doesn’t have to do. Regardless, this sort of outside-in social media cloning is pretty fascinating to us.
Posted by Justin Jones • 0 Comments • Permalink

27 Jun 2011 10:20

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World: Libya: Gaddafi’s got a warrant out for his arrest. Uh-oh

The International Criminal Court issued the warrant, along with another one for his son Saif al-Islam and another for intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi, over crimes against humanity. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

26 Jun 2011 21:28

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World: Afghan war: Insurgents using young children as suicide bombs

  • 8 the age of an Afghan girl tricked into carrying a suicide bomb source
  • » Why would they do such a thing? This attack, one of the more disturbing we’ve heard in a while, is shocking, but not an unheard-of tactic by insurgents looking to covering their tracks — and possibly because they’re desperate. Only the girl died, by the way.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

26 Jun 2011 11:44

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World: Yemen: Saleh reportedly returning; protesters try to force sons out

  • He will appear within the next 48 hours despite our fear that the burns on his features and on different parts of his body will be an obstacle given that his appearance will not be as the media expects it.
  • Ali Abdullah Saleh’s media secretary, Ahmed al-Sufi • Suggesting that Saleh will return to Yemen soon after spending weeks recovering in Saudi Arabia after his palace suffered a raid earlier this month. He suffered severe burns, but they cover less than 40 percent of his body … you know, not that much. As you might guess, hundreds of thousands of protesters aren’t taking this news well at all — they’re pushing for members of Saleh’s inner circle, including his sons, to leave the country. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

26 Jun 2011 10:57

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World: Chinese dissident Hu Jia freed after three-year jail term

The Chinese dissident, shown with his wife Zeng Jinyan, has remained quiet since his release … much like fellow freed dissident Ai Weiwei, who refuses to answer questions. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

25 Jun 2011 15:06

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World: Tony Blair’s address book hacked, thrown up on PasteBin

In case you wanted to get in touch with the toothy ex-British prime minister’s dentist, now you can, thanks to a fresh leak by a hacker group on Friday. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

25 Jun 2011 11:10

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World: Gaddafi just lost the soccer-playing contingent of his base

  • 17 Libyan soccer players side with the rebels, not Gaddafi source
  • » Harsh words for the dictator: One of the players to defect, goalie Juma Gtat, put his feelings as such: “I am telling Col Gaddafi to leave us alone and allow us to create a free Libya. In fact I wish he would leave this life altogether.” This is significant for a number of reasons — first, it comes after some notable military defections, and secondly, soccer is particularly huge in North Africa. That means that Gaddafi just lost some pretty significant allies in a public relations war.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

24 Jun 2011 20:55

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World: Rwandan genocide: Life imprisonment for former gov’t minister, son

  • During the course of these repeated attacks on vulnerable civilians, both [Pauline] Nyiramasuhuko and [Arsene] Ntahobali ordered killings. They also ordered rapes. Ntahobali further committed rapes and Nyiramasuhuko aided and abetted rapes.
  • International Criminal Tribunal Judge William Sekule • Discussing the reasons the two Rwandans — a former minister for family and women’s affairs, and her son — received life sentences from the tribunal, along with many other officials involved in a widespread massacre of ethnic Tutsis in the Rwandan city of Butare. Nyiramasuhuko, a Hutu, ordered the killings on a the Tutsis hiding in a government office. From there … well, just read the quote above. You get the idea of how bad this all is. These convictions close one dark chapter of a story whose book, once neglected entirely, has yet to close. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

24 Jun 2011 11:17

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World: Osama bin Laden seriously considered changing al-Qaeda’s name

  • what In the months before his death, the leader of the terrorist group considered giving al-Qaeda a different name, according to a letter retrieved by special forces officials after he was killed back in May. It was a sign of Bin Laden attempting to keep the group relevant.
  • why The  name “al-Qaeda” stands for “the base,” which Bin Laden thought didn’t strike a religious pose. He wanted a name that emphasized that they were going to holy war with the enemies of Islam. He had nothing to worry about; “al-Qaeda” did the trick. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
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