President Obama today honored outgoing Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ four decades of service, including the past 4 1/2 years in charge of the Pentagon, by surprising him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest US honor a president can give a civilian. “I can think of no better way…
Continue reading …Casey Anthony Case: George Anthony’s Alleged Mistress Krystal Holloway Testifies
June 30, 2011 No Comment
Casey Anthony’s defense started what is expected to be their last day of testimony by calling Krystal Holloway to the stand. Holloway, who has been described in the media as George Anthony’s mistress, testified about conversations that the defense hopes will place doubt about Casey’s guilt in the minds of the jury. Holloway testified that
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What happened when Hollywood’s most photographed actor teamed up with Terrence Malick, its most reclusive and paparazzi-shy director? Brad Pitt tells all ‘You hear stories of intense actors who can’t shed their character and who don’t know who they are for a week or two after. I’m not that guy, man,” says Brad Pitt . “My happiest moment is the day they call
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Prince William and Kate began their first official trip abroad Thursday laying a wreath at Canada’s National War Memorial as excited onlookers screamed with delight and showered the young royals with flowers and gifts. (June 30)
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A father accused of abandoning his 4-year-old son along a rural West Texas highway in the middle of the night was charged Thursday with attempted capital murder, prosecutors said. (June 30)
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Click here to view this media The idea of Fox News getting high and mighty about Media Matters’ DropFox campaign is, well…laughable. However, what might be even more laughable is the idea that they can start a campaign to strip Media Matters of their tax-exempt status. They should be careful what they wish for. In this clip, viewer Dana Martin from New Orleans tells Fox and Friends why she is so convinced that Media Matters tax-exempt status must be revoked. So convinced, in fact, that she filled in a web form to send a complaint to the IRS about their tax exempt status. And guess where that web form is? On the Fox Nation web page, of course, where else? But as I said, they should be careful what they wish for. Let’s look at some other tax-exempt organizations who also undertake “campaigns” with taxpayer subsidies. There’s the Media Research Center , headed by Brent Bozell, who routinely appears on Fox News as a commentator. One look at their website shows that they have some ‘projects’ of their own which are clearly not educational at all, but purely political. And of course, there’s the US Chamber of Commerce, also fully subsidized by taxpayers just like the Citizens United Foundation, the Heritage Foundation and the Cato Institute. Continuing on, we can also include the Catholic, Mormon, Presbyterian and Baptist churches as tax-exempt organizations which should be carefully scrutinized as to the legitimacy of their tax exemption. And those are just ones that come to mind quickly. This is Media Matters’ mission statement: Media Matters for America is a Web-based, not-for-profit, 501(c)(3) progressive research and information center dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media. Seems to me they’re being perfectly consistent in their purpose, but this campaign put on by Fox shows just how effective they’ve been in actually accomplishing it. If I take a deep breath, I’m sure I can smell Roger Ailes’ aggravation from here. Or stench. Or something. Update: Here are two clips from this morning, too. It’s a series! And it’s all George Soros’ fault! And only charities we like should be tax-exempt! Click here to view this media Sarcasm aside, there’s nothing quite like the politics of personal destruction as played out by Juan Williams in this segment. Williams dons his intellectual dishonesty hat to be outraged — outraged, I tell you — at the nerve of that David Brock to actually go after lies and expose them. It also makes me laugh to see them publicizing the DropFox campaign so freely. Click here to view this media
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Click here to view this media Just one day after Senator Brown (R-Mass) had announced a baseball collectible card for his own fundraising it was pulled, presumably after Major League Baseball got wind of the idea. What is it with Republicans and their inability to respect copyright laws? (Ed. See also Michele Bachmann v. Tom Petty and countless other examples.) From Fox25 : “Forget about Youk and Big Papi, Scott Brown is the latest craze in baseball cards. The Brown campaign is finding new ways to raise money for the junior senator’s re-election effort. The cards, which are going for ten dollars on Brown’s campaign website, feature the Republican holding a bat, wearing a Red Sox hat and are described as ‘a unique collectable for your home or office.’ Brown already has more than eight million dollars in his campaign war chest.” The link at Brown’s site is still up and so is the solicitation for cash, but the picture of the baseball card is gone.
Continue reading …Huma Abedin, Anthony Weiner’s Wife, Taking Time Off From Job, Husband: Reports
June 30, 2011 No Comment
Huma Abedin, a close adviser to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the wife of ex-Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.), is taking some time off from her job as well as her husband, according to multiple reports. The New York Post first reported the news on Thursday morning. A source told the Empire State-based outlet that Abedin “is definitely taking time off away from her husband and chilling.” According to local station WPIX: Abedin, who is pregnant with the couple’s first child, plans to take time off from her senior job with the State Department as well as some time off from her husband by heading to an undisclosed location. News of Abedin’s pregnancy broke earlier this month amid intense controversy sparked by Weiner’s admission that he engaged in inappropriate online interactions with multiple women, who he claimed to have never met in person. After first rejecting calls from top lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to resign, Weiner stepped down from his post in congress several weeks ago. According to the Post, Weiner is entering rehab. Before announcing his plans to resign earlier this month, the New York Democrat said he intended to seek treatment.
Continue reading …Maddow Condemns Corporate Funding of Get-Out-The-Vote Efforts for GOP – Then Asks if Democrats Should Do Likewise
June 30, 2011 No Comment
Do as I suggest, not as I claim to eschew. Those wascally Wepublicans and their corporate-financed efforts to compel voter turnout, Rachel Maddow complained on her MSNBC show Tuesday, before suggesting possible Chinese or Brazilian manipulation of American elections through legalized bribery to unpatriotic conservatives (video after page break) — MADDOW: That stuff, that organizational capacity, will now be handled through means that can be 100 percent corporate funded to an unlimited degree. If FreedomWorks is now going to be doing the get-out-the-vote efforts for Republican candidates, who are the donors to FreedomWorks? Really, who are their donors? You don't know, I don't know, they don't have to tell us. If China or Brazil decides that they like one of the Republican presidential contenders this year, and they would prefer that person to Barack Obama, what's to stop China or Brazil from giving a million bucks to FreedomWorks to go get out the vote, to go do organizational work for that candidate? What's to stop them from giving a $1 million donation? Or a $10 million donation? Or a $10 billion donation? Literally, what is to stop China from writing a $10 billion check to elect some favored Republican candidate in the next election, to elect some favored Republican candidate the next president of the United States? What's to stop that now? Later in the same show, however, Maddow appeared considerably less worried about the propriety of such practices when she said this to former Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean — Do Democrats at this point see their challenge as finding their own billionaires who they like better? Or do Democrats have a qualitatively different challenge here? I mean, is there a way to compete with this other than fire with fire? “Their own billionaires” — provided they aren't from China or Brazil. (Not to worry, George Soros)
Continue reading …Today’s links highlight news and technology that are both eye-opening and delicious. School of Thought: ProPublica’s new online tool allows you to see whether the schools in your state are getting equal access to resources. (ProPublica) Good News! A new search engine skews towards happier search results. Always look on the bright side of life.
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