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05 Aug 2010 10:45

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World: Wyclef Jean hands the reins of Yele over to someone better-suited

  • bad Wyclef Jean’s pro-Haiti charity, Yele, has had years of financial issues brought on by questionable payments – bad accounting, money not going to charity, you name it. It’s scarred his reputation a little.
  • good Jean, however, will no longer be running the organization – likely so he can focus on his presidential run.  He’ll hand the reins over to someone  with a better history of working for nonprofits. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

01 Aug 2010 11:02

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Biz: BP station owners in the U.S. really want “Amoco” branding back

  • Poor Amoco. A decade ago, BP decided to ditch the old workhorse brand and replace it with BP’s sun-looking thingy, which seemed like a good idea back then, but now that the oil spill has dragged BP’s brand through the mud for a solid three months, gas station owners want to switch back. Because, let’s face it – BP station owners are on the front lines of this mess. They have to deal with the pissed-off consumers and lower sales caused by the oil spil. BP might as well make it easier on them. (Photo by theogeo on Flickr) source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

31 Jul 2010 16:08

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U.S.: Arizona immigration law: Susan Bolton’s getting a lot of death threats

  • She has been inundated. About 99.9 percent of the inappropriate comments are people venting. They are exercising their First Amendment rights, and a lot of it is perverted. But it’s that 0.1 percent that goes over the line that we are taking extra seriously.
  • U.S. Marshal David Gonzales • Noting the torrent of rage that has hit U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton since she struck down major parts of the Arizona immigration law a couple of days ago. Gonzales says that, despite the death threats, she’s holding up OK: “She’s tough as nails. She takes this as all part of her job.” source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

28 Jul 2010 09:42

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Offbeat: Protip to Oklahomans: Do not vote for this girl’s father.

  • Dear dad, perhaps you should have done better? A daughter with a bone to pick put up a Web site about her wannabe judge father, who she says “is not a good father, a good grandfather, and” … screw it, you can read what it says on the rest of her newspaper ad over to the left. Let’s just say that the bad blood flows deep in the Mantooth family. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

27 Jul 2010 09:14

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U.S.: Bell, California’s highly-paid city council no longer highly-paid

  • 90% decrease in pay for many well-paid members source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

26 Jul 2010 20:56

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U.S.: Bell, California: Home to a bunch of rich bureaucrats, apparently

  • 36,664 the population of Bell, California
  • $787k the amount Bell’s city manager Robert Rizzo makes yearly, which is very high for the city’s size – he’s also not the only one, either
  • $0k the amount the city’s embarrassed mayor, Oscar Hernandez, will make for the rest of his term – and he’s not running for re-election source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

26 Jul 2010 10:28

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World: Afghanistan and The White House: How do THEY feel about Wikileaks?

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

26 Jul 2010 10:13

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Tech, World: The United Arab Emirates is all scared of the Blackberry

  • what The United Arab Emirates (a.k.a. the really rich Arab nation) says that the BlackBerry’s offshore storage model conflicts with the country’s 2007 data-storage law.
  • why Some of the platform’s numerous applications “allow people to misuse the service, causing serious social, judicial and national security repercussions.” source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

25 Jul 2010 20:48

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Politics: Why did Wikileaks contact the press before its big Afghan War leak?

  • Short answer: It gains little traction otherwise. NYU superhuman being Jay Rosen pointed this fact out on Twitter tonight. Last year, Wikileaks guy Julian Assange put it like this: “You’d think the bigger and more important the document is, the more likely it will be reported on but that’s absolutely not true. It’s about supply and demand. Zero supply equals high demand, it has value. As soon as we release the material, the supply goes to infinity, so the perceived value goes to zero.” So in other words, if they just put it up without talking to the press first, nobody would see it. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 3 Comments • Permalink

25 Jul 2010 20:47

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Politics: Why Wikileaks does what it does – even if people don’t like it

  • We believe that transparency in government activities leads to reduced corruption, better government and stronger democracies. All governments can benefit from increased scrutiny by the world community, as well as their own people. We believe this scrutiny requires information.
  • A note on the Wikileaks Web site • Noting why they do what they do, despite the controversy it creates. Let’s face it. They’re very self-promotional. They know how to get their name out there. And they want to get a message out there. The message this time? “[The leak] shows not only the severe incidents but the general squalor of war, from the death of individual children to major operations that kill hundreds,” said Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
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