Read a little. Learn a lot. • Tightly-written news, views and stuff • Follow us on TwitterBe a Facebook FanTumble us!

19 Jul 2009 00:03

tags

World: Bono dodges a hug from Bush…and gets congrats from Obama?

  • Bono stiffed Bush out of a hug. Well, that’s what he told the BBC anyway. According to the rockstar, he was at the National Prayer Breakfast in 2006 when the president swooped in for an embrace. Bono said he wasn’t feeling it (or Bush’s policies) and dodged the hug by hopping behind a podium. No one seemed to notice, but when he sat back down, Obama, a senator at the time, whispered, “Nice work with the hug dodge.” source

16 Jul 2009 16:43

tags

U.S.: Hilary sez she’s still doing her job OK even with a ganked elbow

  • Her words: “I broke my elbow, not my larynx.” Secretary of State Hilary Clinton has been out of the spotlight for a few weeks because of a broken elbow, but she still has a full role in the Obama administration, trashing on critics who say otherwise. Her only problem? The vetting process is so tough that administration officials are still not in their positions six months after the inauguration – they want to guarantee clean politics, apparently. source

14 Jul 2009 10:10

tags

U.S.: Obama’s threatening a veto of his defense spending bill. Here’s why.

  • $1.75 billion cost of the last-minute addition to Obama’s defense spending bill, which adds seven costly F-22s back into the mix source

13 Jul 2009 22:24

tags

Biz, U.S.: Like scary numbers? ‘Course you do. Here’s a really scary one

  • $94 billion U.S. budget deficit in June; that’s a lot of change source

13 Jul 2009 01:00

tags

Biz, U.S.: The fight over Shepard Fairey’s Obama “Hope” illo gets messy

  • Plaintiffs have profited from the sales of Mr. Garcia’s copyrighted photograph image and Defendant AP seeks to reap some of the profit by claiming that it – and not Mr. Garcia – is the rightful owner of the copyright in the photograph.
  • A legal memorandum in support of photographer Manuel Garcia • Regarding Fairey v. Associated Press, i.e. the legal battle over the iconic Obama “Hope” poster. For those not in the loop, Shepard Fairey did an immaculate illustration based on a photo Garcia shot and AP ran on the wire. After it blew up, AP sued Fairey, who claimed fair use. Now, Garcia’s claiming neither of them have the right to claim that photo as theirs. We agree that Garcia has a claim over this, but point out that if you look on Getty Images, Obama has literally hundreds of photos taken of him each week (and in April of 2006 alone, he showed up on Getty 41 times) – a fact which we think dilutes both his and AP’s claims. He’s a famous person who gets photographed a lot. Fairey just grabbed a random photo. • source

11 Jul 2009 17:35

tags

Politics: More penny math, this time on Obama’s health care plan

  • OK, another interesting animation, but we wonder: Is this guy fiscally conservative? He doesn’t mention a political persuasion in any of his videos but they mostly seem to be anti-Obama. For our curiosity, we just want to know whether they’re pushing an agenda. No matter which way you lean, keep making them. They’re good.source

11 Jul 2009 17:28

tags

U.S., World: Obama to G8 summit: Help out the hungry! G8 summit: OK!

  • $20 billion to help the hungry, after Obama’s pleas source
 

11 Jul 2009 13:07

tags

Politics, U.S.: Obama sez give the stimulus plan time to do its thing

  • It takes time to get out of the woods, sez the prez. Barack Obama is facing newfound criticism of the $787 billion economic stimulus plan in the wake of higher unemployment. His plan? No reversals. No second stimulus. Stay the course. “We must let it work the way it’s supposed to,” he says, “with the understanding that in any recession, unemployment tends to recover more slowly than other measures of economic activity.” So yeah. No extra $$$, no appeasing the Republicans. source

09 Jul 2009 23:36

tags

Biz, U.S.: The cash-for-clunkers plan is making auto salespeople excited

  • Are we excited about it? Absolutely! We think it is a great opportunity for people to get rid of their clunkers.
  • Cliff Johnson • President of Texas Motors Ford, on the cash-for-clunkers program the Obama administration implemented this year. The plan, which gives consumers up to $4,500 in credit to swap aging vehicles for newer, more fuel-efficient vehicles, has fans all over the map: Consumers, environmentalists, automakers and guys that sell cars for a living. Only the latter category talks like Cliff Johnson, though. • source

06 Jul 2009 16:29

tags

U.S., World: Obama and Medvedev kiss and make up…kind of

Obama and the Russian president have made nice and agreed to cut back on their nuclear weapons after a four hour meeting. Really? Maybe it was the vodka. source