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14 Jun 2010 20:22

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Politics: Rick Barber: He makes bizarro hippies seem calm and collected

  • Transcript of this clip: I’m Rick Barber and I’m trying to get on MSNBC so Rachel Maddow will make fun of me. Then, people will vote for me in this runoff election, despite the fact that three other Alabama candidates tried similar tactics and lost. See the founding fathers? See me ripping out their souls with my stare? Vote for me! source

12 Jun 2010 16:46

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World: World Cup game yet another bone for South Korea to pick

  • yes North Korea aired last night’s World Cup opening game on a local broadcaster … It wasn’t live.
  • no They legally did not have the right to air the game; a South Korean broadcaster had the rights. source

07 Jun 2010 11:02

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Politics: Hillary Clinton: Iran’s gonna pull something, ’cause they always do

  • I think we’ll see something coming up in the next 24 to 48 hours. I don’t think anybody should be surprised if they try to divert attention once again from the unity within the Security Council … but we have the votes.
  • Secretary of State Hillary Clinton • Regarding the sanctions the United Nations Security Council is trying to push for against Iran. Clinton is currently headed to Brazil, where she’s trying to mend fences with the country, which opposes new sanctions on Iran. It’s her second trip to Latin America in three months. source

07 Jun 2010 10:36

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U.S.: The reported source of that crazy Wikileaks video is in custody

  • Hillary Clinton, and several thousand diplomats around the world are going to have a heart attack when they wake up one morning, and find an entire repository of classified foreign policy is available, in searchable format, to the public.
  • SPC Bradley Manning • Regarding some of the documents he sent to Wikileaks. Manning was arrested two weeks ago for reportedly leaking a number of documents to the site, most notably this video, in which a number of innocent civilians are killed in a helicopter attack. Manning was turned in by a hacker, and has not been charged yet. But holy crap. This guy gave Julian Assange and his boys a lot of classified info. source

05 Jun 2010 19:05

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Politics: WTF Time Magazine? Shell advertising on oil spill articles

  • Not to criticize Time two weeks in a row, but COME ON. Why are you letting Shell advertise on pages adjacent to stories about the oil spill? The ads are huge, and there’s more than one style of them (keep reloading). Totally not ethical in light of the spill. Look, this whole situation is awful all around – don’t get us wrong – but this kind of schadenfreude advertising isn’t helping anyone. Least of all Shell, who just a few weeks ago was on the hot seat for after an Amnesty International anti-Shell ad was pulled from an issue of the Financial Times. Bad form, Shell. source

05 Jun 2010 17:19

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Politics: Arizona policeman: The immigration law is making our jobs harder

  • Ask any officer … You would not believe how many incidents go unreported … even though the law has not gone into effect.
  • Tucson police officer Martin Escobar • Regarding the immigration law that he has filed a lawsuit against with another officer. Escobar, who works in an area of Tucson that’s nearly half-Hispanic, says that there are no “race-neutral criteria” to decide who’s an immigrant and who isn’t. And that’s going to affect leads on crimes. “These are the people that are calling in something going on,” he says. source

05 Jun 2010 00:19

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Politics: More on the Arizona mural and racism: That radio host got fired

  • Here’s that mural. What do you think? Radio host and Prescott, Ariz. city council member Steve Blair, whose comments on this mural have sparked a growing controversy about race in Arizona, was fired by KYCA, the station where he was a host. Blair has more thoughts on the controversy, and he seems to stumble around the issue a bit – oh, it’s defacing a public building, it’s graffiti,  I don’t understand what it means, so on and so forth. Fact of matter: He’s going to become nationally-known for being the jerk who called out this mural for its diversity. source
 

04 Jun 2010 23:41

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Culture: Arizona school: Can you whiten up the black kid on this mural? (whoa)

  • We consistently, for two months, had people shouting racial slander from their cars. We had children painting with us, and here come these yells of (epithet for Blacks) and (epithet for Hispanics).
  • Prescott, Ariz. Downtown Mural Project director R.E. Wall • Regarding the ridiculous chain of events that led to the group lightening the skin of children depicted on a local elementary school’s mural. The mural, by the way, is trying to promote green transportation, and features pictures of KIDS AT THE SCHOOL. Wall says that he and others were depicted to racial slurs on a regular basis while painting the mural. While the school claimed it was only to fix shading, the controversy got so bad that a city councilman who hosts a radio show was trying to get the mural taken down. Real quote from Steve Blair: “To depict the biggest picture on the building as a Black person, I would have to ask the question: Why?” Holy crap. This is 2010. (Hat tip Carissa Wright) source

03 Jun 2010 20:41

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Politics: Well, it’s a start: Obama and Jan Brewer talk immigration

  • What Jan wants Brewer, who is up for reelection, is stressing strong immigration reform. “I want the border secured first. … [Back in 1996] amnesty was bestowed upon people but we never secured the borders.” She also claims an unsecure border is leading to higher crime – a claim not supported by statistics, by the way.
  • What Obama offered Despite this, the only promise the president gave her was that they would talk more. That’s a good starting point, though. “I am encouraged that there is going to be much better dialogue between the federal government and the state of Arizona now,” she said after their Oval Office meeting today. source

03 Jun 2010 11:28

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Biz, U.S.: BP’s CEO: We didn’t plan for an oil spill below the surface

  • What is undoubtedly true is that we did not have the tools you would want in your tool kit.
  • BP CEO Tony Hayward • Regarding his company’s lack of plan to take care of the massive oil spill that happened on their watch. While there has been some good news today – they managed to cut that pipe, which may allow them to further limit the damage caused by the spill – the fact of the matter is that they didn’t have a plan. Sure, they had tools ready to take care of an Exxon Valdez-like situation, but they had no plan for any sort of trouble below the surface. Hayward calls it “an entirely fair criticism.” We call it downright unbelievable. source