enlarge Credit: Life Magazine JFK – January 20, 1961 – gazing at the New Frontier. Click here to view this media Fifty years ago this day (in case you haven’t already heard about it), John F. Kennedy was inaugurated as the 35th President of The United States. From my liner notes on the Great Speeches Of The 20th Century Box: “He was the youngest President. He came at a time when the Cold War had reached a fevered pitch. He spoke of “new frontiers” and the renewed faith in the American Dream. When John Fitzgerald Kennedy took the oath of office that, brisk, snow-dusted January morning in 1961, he captured the imagination of the youth of America. Kennedy spoke of the commitment to change, the possibilities of a world in peace, the idea that we shouldn’t ask what our country should do for us, rather what we should do for our country. It was the beginning of a time we would come to know as Camelot.”
Continue reading …When we stumbled upon an $800 price for the Motorola Xoom yesterday, our instinctive reaction was to leap forward to the next obvious question: when? Well, that call has now been answered by an internal Best Buy document that’s just dropped into our inbox, which explicitly pinpoints February 17th as the launch date for Moto’s highly touted, Honeycomb-equipped tablet. Stock is expected to land at the big box retailer on February 16th, with the big party going down the day after. There’s a note confirming that the Xoom will come with its promised 32GB of onboard storage, but anyone looking for confirmation or denial of the earlier pricing leak will be left disappointed. Guess we’ll all have to set our calendar alerts for about a month from now and exercise patience in the mean time. [Thanks, dajarbot] Continue reading Motorola Xoom launching February 17th at Best Buy Motorola Xoom launching February 17th at Best Buy originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 22 Jan 2011 22:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …No. 10 Texas overcame a 15-point deficit and rallied to beat No. 2 Kansas 74-63 Saturday, dealing the Jayhawks their first home defeat in nearly four years. (Jan. 22)
Continue reading …TMNT Fan Film of the Day: “April O’Neil reported on a new gang in the streets. Then it got personal. Only those below the streets can help her now.” Fight The Foot is an independent short set in an alternate Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles universe in which Shredder is an evil genius who “takes over a common street gang and trains them into the organized clan later seen in the films.” [ thd .] Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : The Daily What Discovery Date : 23/01/2011 03:35 Number of articles : 2
Continue reading …As pointed out by one of the victims, this is hardly a typical sentence. But things being what they are, it’s remarkable that this police officer was convicted at all. Imagine just how bad it had to be: (AP) CHICAGO – A decorated former police officer whose name has become synonymous with police brutality in the city was sentenced Friday to 4½ years in federal prison for lying about the torture of suspects. Dozens of suspects — almost all of them black men — have claimed for decades that Jon Burge and his officers electrically shocked, suffocated and beat them into confessing to crimes ranging from armed robbery to murder. After the hearing, several victims and their supporters said the sentence wasn’t nearly stiff enough. “It’s outrageous,” said Mark Clements, who claims Burge’s officers tortured him into giving a false confession in 1981 when he was 16. Tears ran down his faced and his voice rose in anger. “It’s not justice.” Standing nearby, community activist Fred Hampton Jr. echoed the outrage, saying the white officer’s sentence was disproportionately low compared to what others receive for lesser crimes. “People in our community get more time than this for fist fights,” said Hampton, whose father was a Black Panther leader killed by police before the Burge era.
Continue reading …Click here to view this media So Michele Bachmann was out in Iowa sniffing around this week, and she says she was “encouraged” by the results. And yes, she really is running : “The Iowa trip is part of a bigger picture. There’s a national story line here,” said Bachmann communications director Doug Sachtleben, virtually begging for national media coverage. That kind of talk is usually a bank shot. … However, even in an increasingly crowded GOP field, mumbling about running for president in this age of 24-hour news cycles can attract much publicity for potential candidates, unless you’re Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty. And much publicity can attract crowds and, oh, by the way, much money. Especially if you appear to ride a rising tide of popularity and empowerment for successful conservative females. Over at Megyn Kelly’s Fox News show yesterday, the “Power Panel” chewed it over — and largely reached the same conclusion. Indeed, what seems likely is that Bachmann actually is running for vice-president — she wants to position herself as part of a Palin-Bachmann 2012 ticket — or potentially as Romney-Bachmann ticket. One can always dream, can’t they?
Continue reading …The Turkel Committee investigating Israel’s botched raid on a Turkish-sponsored flotilla to Gaza last May will…
Continue reading …Photo: Flickr/ heidarewitsch We ‘Huggers with our aspiring clean, fiber-rich diets probably aren’t as likely to experience the daily (yikes!) Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) that some millions of Americans do, according to The New York Times . But who hasn’t had the occasional aggravation from one too many cups of
Continue reading …Click here to view this media In the wake of Keith Olbermann’s departure from MSNBC, I at least was able to take a little solace watching the Wall Street Journal’s Stephen Moore getting his ass handed to him on Real Time over the health-care law and insurance company mandates by MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, former Reagan adviser David Stockman and Bill Maher. Moore, of course, defended the hypocritical Republicans who thought a mandate was a great idea until a Democrat proposed it and gave us more of the “government takeover of health care” lie, which Rachel, thankfully, shot down. I really don’t know why Bill Maher thinks having Moore on as a guest contributes much to his show because the man strikes me as being as dumb as a box of rocks — but who knows, maybe he’s some genius and I’m just not seeing it. Whether he’s just not that smart or crazy like a fox with his lies, what he does is lie. I don’t understand how that adds to any kind of dialogue that moves our country to a place where we’re solving our problems for the working class, whether some might consider it entertaining or not. Stephen Moore had nothing to add to this discussion other than hyperbole and lying GOP/Rupert Murdoch talking points. The insurance mandates he’s claiming are unconstitutional are something Republicans loved before a Democrat proposed them. And those high deductible plans he’s touting just mean a lot of people don’t get treatment when they’re sick because they can’t afford it. As Rachel recommended, we need to actually have a “government takeover” of our health insurance programs and Medicare for all and we’d be a lot better off. Moore would prefer to keep lining the insurance companies’ pockets instead.
Continue reading …The unthinkable has happened. After spending 99 percent of their recent marketing budgets figuring out ways to sling mud at each other, AT&T and Verizon have now come together to dance a merry waltz — all in the name of Apple’s hallowed iPhone. The latest commercial for the phone that really doesn’t need advertising shows that you can FaceTime, read iBooks, navigate maps, and do everything else on the Verizon iPhone just as well as you could do it on the AT&T-friendly GSM variant of the device. As if you didn’t already know. Still, it’s fun to see these guys trying to turn their lack of competitive diversity into some sort of an advantage. Video after the break. Continue reading Apple brings AT&T and Verizon together for a happy dance in latest iPhone commercial (video) Apple brings AT&T and Verizon together for a happy dance in latest iPhone commercial (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 22 Jan 2011 19:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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