(CNN) – Keith Olbermann, MSNBC’s primetime firebrand host, has been suspended indefinitely for violating the ethics policies of his employer earlier this year when he donated to three Democrats seeking federal office, MSNBC announced Friday.

“I became aware of Keith’s political contributions late last night. Mindful of NBC News policy and standards, I have suspended him indefinitely without pay,” MSNBC President Phil Griffin said in a statement. First reported by Politico and confirmed by Federal Election Commission filings, the primetime television host gave $2,400 – the maximum individual amount allowed – to each of the campaigns of Kentucky Senate candidate Jack Conway, and Arizona Reps. Raul Grijalva and Gabrielle Giffords. (View PDF’s of FEC filings for Conway, Grijalva, and Giffords)

The contributions may have violated an NBC policy that requires employers of the news organization to obtain permission ahead of any political donations or activities that could be deemed as a conflict of interest. CNN institutes a similar policy.

Olbermann, as well as MSNBC executives, was a vocal critic of the $1 million donation by Fox News’ parent News Corp. to the Republican Governor’s Association earlier this year, saying at the time, “We now have another million reasons Fox News is the Republican news channel.” In a subsequent show, Olbermann also pressed House Majority Whip James Clyburn if there was a “legislative response” to a network that “starts to shill for partisan causes.”

Har! Will he now name himself “Worst Person in the World”?



 

This Episode’s Executive Producer: Scott Schoenberger
Associate Executive Producers: Craig Lennox, Allan Bose
Art By: Nick the Rat

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Mr Obama will arrive in India on Saturday for the first leg of an Asian tour.

But as well as the usual security measures that come with welcoming a a visiting dignitary, Indian authorities have decided to go one step further, by removing all natural threats to the president as well. All coconuts around the city’s Gandhi museum, one of Mr Obama’s stops in the city, are being taken down.

Mani Bhavan, where Mahatma Gandhi stayed during his freedom struggle against the British, is among five places the US president is visiting in Mumbai. “We told the authorities to remove the dry coconuts from trees near the building. Why take a chance?” Mani Bhavan’s executive secretary, Meghshyam Ajgaonkar, told the BBC. Last week American security officers inspected Mani Bhavan and its surroundings along with other places the president is likely to visit.

Every year in India people are injured or even killed by falling coconuts. Mr Obama, still smarting from heavy losses in the midterm elections, will visit India, Indonesia, South Korea, Japan and China on the 10-day tour.

What are the odds? Actually this is pretty routine for resorts in “killer” coconut palm infested areas.


gizmag

Looks like the legions of iPhone users are pretty keen to get Flash video on their device with news that Skyfire 2.0 mobile web browser has effectively “sold out.” Within five hours of being released on iTunes, the Skyfire Flash video solution shot to the head of the top grossing app list and third highest paid app overall and overloaded the Skyfire servers, leaving potential buyers staring at the “Please Upgrade Flash” message while the folks at Skyfire Labs scramble to increase capacity.

The browser was able to get approval from Apple since it doesn’t actually process the Flash video on the device. Rather, the video is rendered at Skyfire’s servers and re-encoded in a HTML 5-compatible format before being relayed to the phone. For this reason, although they’ll be able to view Flash video, iPhone users still won’t be able to play Flash games or view any other type of Flash content.


They won control of the House, but not the Senate. There was a lot of rhetoric and hot air about they’ll do this or that to cut, cut, cut spending. It’s all about that new fangled concept called CHANGE. But what do you think they’ll really do or even be able to do? Given how many have ties to the businesses that got us into this mess, how much change is possible? Are we about to experience a new day in Washington, or just more of the same, different players?

Have we been fooled again?


“Yemen has become the base for Al Qaida organisation in the Arabian peninsula” according to Abdul Bari Atwan, the editor in chief of the London-based newspaper Al Quds Al Arabi and an expert on Al Qaida being one of the few journalists to have spent time with Osama Bin Laden.

“I have no doubts that Osama either visited Yemen or is actually based there,” Atwan told Gulf News in an interview.

“When I met him in Tora Bora [in November 1996] I asked him, ‘One of these days you will be kicked out of Afghanistan like you were from Sudan. Have you considered an alternative?’ His answer was Yemen because ‘its mountains are like Tora Bora’s and the country will embrace me and will be warm towards me’.”
[…]
Atwan says the country is now a semi-failed state and he believes it offers the best environment for Al Qaida to set base there.

The latest incident to highlight Yemen’s fragile state occurred last week when bombs were found on two cargo planes and traced to the country.

Atwan says the Americans, by exaggerating the phenomenon of these courier bombs, are aiming to set up a military base in Yemen and they want to have their troops there to control the marine routes in the Arabian Sea and Bab Al Mandeb Straits — which is a hotspot.

“If Al Qaida manages to set up a strong base in Yemen, it will be easier to disturb the oil and the business routes and this could be one of the incentives for the US,” Atwan explained.


  • Facebook taking its mobile strategy to a new level.
  • Apple sued over faking upgrades.
  • MSFT will sell a lot of Kinect and Phone 7 phones. Hooray.
  • T-Mobile renaming 3G to 4G no matter what it really is? I complain about this.
  • Google Buzz stays in the news.
  • iTunes goes to 90-second previews.
  • RIM getting killed.
  • Violent games stories march on.
  • Google in significant breach of UK laws.
  • Macbook Air having issues.

click to listen:

 

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Mumbai: The US would be spending a whopping $200 million per day on President Barack Obama’s visit to the city.

“The huge amount of around $200 million would be spent on security, stay and other aspects of the Presidential visit,” a top official of the Maharashtra Government privy to the arrangements for the high-profile visit said.

Can someone do the accounting on this fiasco? A trip to India is going to cost over a billion dollars by the time it is over? Are we hosting them in their own country or what? Beers for everyone in India?


In the good ol’ days, like during WWII, when you ran out of fuel for your jeep on the battlefield, you just sucked it out of any other vehicle that was around. If they extend this ‘algaeline’ (can I get the trademark on this name?) to land vehicles, I have a feeling you’ll be stuck for a while.

The U.S. Navy has rolled out the first military vessel designed to run on eco-friendly fuel. And this “mean, green riverine machine” is only the start: Within five years, the Navy anticipates a 10-ship carrier strike group — a “Great Green Fleet” — that relies entirely on alternative energy.

On Friday, Navy brass showed off the ship — a 49 foot-long riverine command boat that attains speeds of 40-knots — during a demonstration at the Norfolk, Va. Naval Base. The ship burns a 50-50 blend of algae-based fuel and diesel, and “ran just fine” during the demo, according to Rear Adm. Philip Cullom, director of the Chief of Naval Operations Energy and Environmental Readiness Division.
[…]
The Navy’s got a head-start on other fuel-thirsty military departments, but they’re still figuring out how to make alternative fuels affordable. Last year, the Navy spent $424 per gallon to buy 20,055 gallons of algae-based biofuel — a world record price for fuel, the Marine Corps Times is reporting.

“Yes, these fuels are expensive,” Cullom says. “When you’re leading the way on something, it’s not gonna be $3 bucks a gallon.”

“a world record price for fuel” — Really? Fuel for nuclear subs is cheaper?


What else accounts for the soaring popularity of the 24-year-old global phenom [Lady Gaga]? The question has intrigued and inspired Mathieu Deflem, 48, a sociology professor at the University of South Carolina at Columbia, who plans to teach a course called “Lady Gaga and the Sociology of Fame.” He believes it is the only such full-time college course in the country.

He wants to explore what makes a person famous and what being famous means in today’s culture. Or, as the course description puts it: “The central objective is to unravel some of the sociologically relevant dimensions of the fame of Lady Gaga.”

This course could also be called “Obsession.” Mr. Deflem said he was instantly entranced with Lady Gaga when he saw her on “The Tonight Show” in January 2009. Then he went to a concert in Atlanta. That led to his traipsing after her around the world to more than 28 shows.
[…]
Still, he harbors hope that she might visit his class. “I will get the word out to her that I’m doing the course,” he said, “but it might be logistically too difficult for her to come” because she will be on tour for most of the spring semester.


This happens to me all the time.

Found by Cinàedh.


Here is the latest conversation I had with money manager Andrew Horowitz…. new insights for anyone who invests in anything. Will a new Congress change anything??

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  • Violent video games still in the news.
  • California law at stake.
  • I talk a little about the new Phone 7 ad that does make me laugh.
  • Twitter to squeeze ads within tweets somehow.
  • Newest iPhone OS out for developers.
  • Google loses $8.5 million over Buzz lawsuit.
  • Dept. of the Interior sued by Google.
  • Turks hate YouTube.
  • Google now offers bug bounty. Big money.
  • Google branded laptop on the way?
  • Google traffic out of control.

click to listen:

 

Right click here and select ‘Save Link As…’ to download the mp3 file.



Click pic for interactive election results for
every Senate, House, and governor race

If your state had early voting, did you already? Are you voting today? What issues are most important to you in deciding who to vote for? Can you hardly wait until this insane election season is over so the elected can get back to their normal job of screwing us while enriching themselves and their friends?


UPDATE: Based on the comments for this video I decided to change the post (both kittens died from their condition). If you want to look at the video that was originally posted, you can go here.


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