Home » Archives by category » News (Page 7823)

The federal government is having a change of heart about what constitutes the American Dream. It long pushed the notion that people should own homes—one of the factors blamed for the housing mess—but a new proposal to dissolve Fannie and Freddie marks a pullback from that philosophy, reports…

Continue reading …
Cairo cleans up after revolution

After a night of celebrations, citizens of Cairo turned out on Saturday morning to clean up after themselves, and their revolution. From repaving pavements broken during violent clashes to cleaning grafitti off the walls, Egyptians seem determined to start off their country’s new era on the right foot. Al Jazeera’s Jacky Rowland in Cairo has more.

Continue reading …
Taliban strike at Kandahar police headquarters, killing 19

The attack by Taliban gunmen and bombers kills policemen, soldiers and civilians while leaving 49 injured. The raid demonstrates a continued ability by insurgents to mount complex assaults in the key Afghanistan city despite a NATO offensive there. Share Related By Laura King, Los Angeles Times…

Continue reading …
Activists, Including Wendell Berry, Occupy Governor’s Office, Demand End to MTR

A group of activists, including acclaimed author, poet and environmentalist Wendell Berry, have occupied Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear’s office over this Valentine’s Day weekend and are demanding that the governor meet with them to discuss the devastating effects mountaintop removal coal mining is having on Eastern Kentucky. About 20 activists in total are in the office, and they have invited the governor and Kentucky’s first lady to join them…. Read the full story on TreeHugger

Continue reading …
Suicide Bomber Kills 30 on Pilgrimage in Iraq

BAGHDAD — A suicide bomber attacked a bus carrying Shiite pilgrims home from Samarra on Saturday, killing at least 30 people in the latest of several recent assaults on pilgrims. Notes from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq and other areas of conflict in the post-9/11 era. Go to the Blog » It was the second attack in three days against Shiite pilgrims near Samarra, whose gold-domed shrine was damaged in a 2006 bombing that led to waves of sectarian killings between Iraq’s Sunni and Shiite populations. The bombing happened at one of about 40 checkpoints that line the road between Samarra and Baghdad, highlighting how easily attackers are able to exploit security flaws at the remote…

Continue reading …
Wonder Goal of the Day: So, Wayne Rooney just scored the…

Wonder Goal of the Day: So, Wayne Rooney just scored the greatest goal of his life. [ reddit .] Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : The Daily What Discovery Date : 12/02/2011 19:04 Number of articles : 3

Continue reading …
Lawrence O’Donnell Takes Apart NRA Gun Lobbyist Wayne LaPierre

Click here to view this media After NRA lobbyist Wayne LaPierre attacked MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell at this year’s CPAC, O’Donnell responded in his Rewrite segment and pretty well ripped LaPierre to shreds for his part in contributing to the number of deaths after that tragic shooting of Congresswoman Gabby Giffords in Tucson, Arizona. O’DONNELL: Time for tonight’s Rewrite. In Washington during the Conservative Political Action Committee better known as CPAC, I actually made an appearance of sorts. It happened while Washington’s lobbyist in favor of murderers’ rights to always use the gun of their choice, Wayne LaPierre, the Executive Vice President of the NRA, was speaking about the calls for gun and ammunition control in the aftermath of the Tucson massacre. (cut to video) You just heard the NRA’s lie, now some facts. A Justice Department study on the federal assault weapons ban, which was law for 10 years found “Gun murders declined 10.3 percent in states without preexisting assault weapons bans.” 10.3 percent. Another study by the Justice Department in 2004 concluded “If the ban is lifted, gun and magazine manufacturers may reintroduce assault weapons models and large capacity magazines, perhaps in substantial numbers.” And that is exactly what the merchants of death did; reintroduced assault weapons and the high capacity magazines that allowed Jared Loughner to take 31 shots, 31, before he had to stop and reload. On the NRA’s web site, gun violence cheerleader Wayne LaPierre says “It’s time to acknowledge what we know in our hearts to be true.” That “The best way to stop a bad guy with a gun, is a good guy with a gun.” Wayne, there was a good guy on the scene that day, in Tucson with a gun, but there wasn’t anything he could do. It was too dangerous to fire. He could have hit an innocent bystander. A good guy with a gun did not stop Jared Loughner. It was the moment that Loughner had to reload that he became stoppable and he was stopped by a 61 year old woman who wrestled another high capacity magazine out of his hand as he tried to reload, and an unarmed 74 year old man, who had already been grazed by one of Loughner’s bullets. The second, the second Jared Loughner had to stop and reload, he became an unarmed man. Wayne LaPierre wants that reloading moment to come after crazed gunmen fire as many shots as the desires of high capacity magazines will allow them to. If Jared Loughner had tried to do this in 2003 when those magazines were illegal, he would have had to reload after firing 10 bullets. That means he would have been stopped, stopped, after firing ten bullets and Tucson would have seen fewer funerals. People in Tucson were shot and killed thanks to the relentless lobbying work of Wayne LaPierre and his blood-drenched organization. Wayne LaPierre has devoted his adult life, every day of his adult life since 1977, every working day, to making sure madmen in America can fire as many bullets as they want without having to reload. Wayne LaPierre runs an organization that is devoted to expanding the profits of the merchants of death. Gun manufacturers pay his salary so he can pretend to be representing the rights of hunters who in fact have absolutely no use for the kind of high capacity magazine Jared Loughner used. Wayne LaPierre is not your run of the mill lobbyist. Oh no. Most lobbyists are good and decent people in fact. Some are every bit as sleazy as you might imagine. And some are criminals, like Jack Abramoff, but none, none, have done more harm to America, than Wayne LaPierre. He more than any individual law maker is responsible for this country’s insane gun laws that allow insane people to mow down Congresswomen and nine year old girls in Safeway parking lots. Wayne LaPierre is morally guilty of being an accessory before the fact of Jared Loughner’s shooting spree in Tucson. And every member of Congress who welcomes him into the office for a little lobbying session, is taking one step closer to the devil.

Continue reading …
The Engadget Podcast, live at 2PM EST!

Phew, what a week! We’re not sure we remember enough words to be able to describe the events of the past few days, but we’ll do our best. We’ll get the live show going promptly at 2PM EST today. Hey, where else are you gonna be on a Saturday afternoon? Outside? Good luck with that. P.S. And don’t forget that Ustream has Android and iPhone clients as well, if you’re out and about and you can’t join in on the Flash-based fun below. Continue reading The Engadget Podcast, live at 2PM EST! The Engadget Podcast, live at 2PM EST! originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 12 Feb 2011 13:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink

Continue reading …

Seeking a romantic getaway this Valentine’s Day? Love is in the air (and perhaps the water supply) in Amazon ’s 20 most romantic cities in America. The firm compiled the list with an eye on key sales data: romance novels, rom-coms, and, of course, Barry White albums. The winners: Alexandria,…

Continue reading …
MSNBC’s Ratings Are Collapsing

Whether it's the departure of Keith Olbermann or the weakness of the new prime time lineup, the ratings at MSNBC are collapsing. Take a look at how this so-called news network fared Thursday: As you can see from the numbers published by TVNewser Friday, CNN beat MSNBC every hour throughout Thursday's extended prime time with the only exception being Lawrence O'Donnell at 8PM. Yet even his numbers were nothing to brag about, for he has now slipped under Olbermann's typical average of roughly one million viewers. Rachel Maddow's numbers in the following hour are also well off her normal million, and Ed Shultz at 10PM is really stinking up the joint. Another concern for MSNBC execs should be their network's loss to CNN all of those hours in the crucial demographic of folks aged 25 to 54. As that is a big determinant of advertising rates, Thursday's demo numbers were a disaster. Most embarrassing for MSNBC has to be Cenk Uygur's performance at 6PM. Not only is he getting handily beaten by CNN's “Situation Room,” but he's also almost getting quadrupled by Fox's “Special Report.” And therein may lie the real mistake of MSNBC's after Olbermann's departure. Maddow, O'Donnell, and Schultz had built decent audiences – for MSNBC, that is! – in their respective time slots. By moving Schultz to 10 and O'Donnell to 8, the momentum has been effectively squelched. But the real key is Uygur. As I noted the day after Olbermann's surprise announcement, pitting Cenk against Bret Baier seemed foolish. This clearly is not a man ready for prime time, and by having him at the precipice of television's most-trafficked hours is way beyond his talent and experience at this point in his career. As a result, MSNBC is almost giving this hour to Fox and CNN while destroying any momentum the network used to get from Schultz in that slot. The time has likely also come for MSNBC to reconsider “Hardball” at 5 and 7. With Uygur's lousy numbers sandwiched by Matthews', MSNBC is basically forfeiting three straight hours leading up to the supposed heavy hitters in their lineup. That doesn't seem like a sound business model for a network that had been regularly besting CNN all these hours. Consider too that MSNBC trailed CNN in average total viewers throughout the day Thursday, and was tripled in this stat by Fox. The same was true in the all important demo. How things have changed, for two months ago I observed that with CNN's plummeting ratings, it was becoming irrelevant. With this new pathetic lineup, it appears it's MSNBC that's fast approaching such insignificance.

Continue reading …