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30 Mar 2011 14:53

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World: Syria’s Bashar al-Assad defiant in anticipated speech

  • The oldest trick in the book: Faced with an upswell of protest against his government (during which deadly violence was turned on the citizens), Syria’s Bashar al-Assad gave a much anticipated speech. In explaining the protests against him, he resorted to a very familiar tactic for repressive heads-of-state facing public anger; blame it on a foreign conspiracy. Protesters had hoped to hear some concessions on reform, especially on Syria’s emergency powers law, which allows arrest without warrant. Sad to say, no such statement was to come from Assad, for whom the Parliament chanted “Only God, Syria, and Bashar!” source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

22 Feb 2011 13:56

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U.S.: Protests against Yemen’s government, President continue in Aden

  • “Not even for one week”: A glimpse of what’s going on in Yemen as the tour of Middle East upheaval continues. President Ali Abdullah Saleh clearly doesn’t care for these movements against him, and isn’t being particularly coy or diplomatic about it. Yemen’s death-toll is thought to have grown to double-digits of late, and protests against Saleh continue to rage in Aden. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

21 Feb 2011 13:58

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World: Yemeni President Saleh cries incredulousness at protests

  • Why do you turn to violence? Why do you turn to the destruction of things? This is an infection, it’s not in our culture, it’s not in our tradition.
  • Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh • On the groundswell protests against his government. He also referred to the protest movement as being “like a flu,” which while a rather crude way to describe the forces stacked against him is not wholly without merit. The middle east appears to be reaching a critical mass of anti-ruling party mentality, as the victories and adversities of protesters in other states provide limitless fuel and momentum for still more revolution. So, disrespect aside, the pathological reference bears some fruit. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

27 Jun 2010 12:23

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Politics: The financial reform bill a framework for many, many rules

Barney Frank, pictured, and Chris Dodd, the main architects of the reform bill, designed it so that the rules could come along – and be influenced – later. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

20 May 2010 20:45

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U.S.: Financial reform passes the Senate; Twitter reacts to the news



Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

20 May 2010 11:14

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U.S., World: Well, duh: Mexico’s president with Obama on immigration reform

All Obama and Felipe Calderon need is Stephen Harper to be standing next to them and North America’s pretty much covered. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

29 Apr 2010 10:28

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Politics: Is Harry Reid pondering what we’re pondering?

The Senate Majority Leader can’t seem to make up his mind – first climate change was coming first, then immigration, now it’s climate change again. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

15 Mar 2010 23:29

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Politics: One option to get Obamacare through: Sleight-of-hand

  • It’s more insider and process-oriented than most people want to know. But I like it, because people don’t have to vote on the Senate bill.
  • House Speaker Nancy Pelosi • On an option she’s considering to ensure the passage of the health-care bill. With this process, the bill would fall under a “self-executing rule,” which would assume the bill passed while a more popular piece of legislation was voted on. The idea would be to allow for passage of the Senate bill without pinning anyone’s name on the legislation. Even though this is a commonly-used tactic, Republicans are crying foul, calling it unconstitutional. Pelosi, BTW, wants the bill passed by the end of the week. Good luck with that; you’re gonna need it. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 4 Comments • Permalink

15 Dec 2009 23:13

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U.S.: Immigration: Hey, let’s throw another thing on Obama’s plate, OK?

  • Couldn’t this battle wait for now, guys? Today, Democratic Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez introduced a bill to reform immigration. Now, obviously, this battle needs to come up, especially considering how heated it got during the Bush years. But let’s play devil’s advocate here. You have a president who is dealing with these things (among others), in order of importance: Unemployment, health care, the economic crisis, Afghanistan, Iraq, closing Guantanamo, gay rights and making sure Bo the dog gets kibble. And now we want to throw immigration on top of all of this? This seems like it could wait until year three. We’d rather see Obama deal with all that other stuff the right way. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

04 Nov 2009 21:19

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U.S.: Automatic drip: California passes a massive water-reform bill

  • $40 billion to fix some faulty pipes or something source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
 
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