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Making Unique Observations in a Very Cluttered World

Friday 17 February 2012

Record 19 reporters, media execs join Team Obama -

Record 19 reporters, media execs join Team Obama - 


For some Washington reporters and media execs, cheering their team from the sidelines just isn’t good enough: Tugging on a red, white and blue Team Obama jersey is the answer.


That’s the case for a whopping 19 journalists and media executives, including five from the Washington Post and three each from ABC and CNN, who’ve gone into the administration or center-left groups supporting the president.


Those inside the administration hit 14 this month when the Post’s Stephen Barr joined the Labor Department. That’s a record, say some revolving door watchers, and could even be much higher: The Post reports that “dozens” of former journalists have joined the administration, although Washington Secrets couldn’t verify that tally.


Many are in communications and speech writing offices, most prominently Jay Carney, the president’s spokesman who ran Time’s Washington bureau, and husband to ABC’s Claire Shipman. Some joined as the news business collapsed, many to finally voice their politics, and others, notably former Transportation spokeswoman Jill Zuckman, because she liked her future boss, Secretary Ray LaHood, a rare Republican in the administration. That relationship rocked: LaHood broke through the lower-tier Cabinet P.R. ceiling to become one of the most well-known Transportation secretaries ever. She had worked for the Chicago Tribune.


The revolving door isn’t a surprise to critics of the media and Obama. “The number of reporters going into the Obama administration merely confirms what I knew and what most conservatives long believed,” said Noam Neusner, himself one of the few reporters hired as a Bush speech writer. “There is a vast supply of liberals in newsrooms, they are very happy to support Obama administration policies if they can get hired and they barely hide their ideology in the way they cover the news.” Neusner, who I worked with at U.S. News, said that he too might have been guilty of a pro-Bush bias, but said correctly: “My editors and colleagues were surprised to hear that I was a Republican.”


A former GOP Capitol Hill and cabinet spokesman added, “It’s frustrating to see so many reporters that had relationships with trusted sources give up their ‘impartiality’ and start playing for the other side. It does show that the game is stacked in favor of the other side when most reporters still working in their profession remain silent.”

Read more - 

20 Signs You Might Be A Typical American Worker -

The following are 20 signs you might be a typical American worker….






#1 If you are working three jobs and you still don’t have enough money at the end of the month, you might be a typical American worker.


#2 If your job involves asking the question “Would you like fries with that?”, you might be a typical American worker.


#3 If you shop at the dollar store because Wal-Mart is too expensive, you might be a typical American worker.


#4 If your job requires you to wear a smock, a brightly colored polo shirt orlots of “flair”, you might be a typical American worker.


#5 If people are constantly asking you where the restroom is while you are at work, you might be a typical American worker.


#6 If your employer hires extra part-time workers in order to avoid giving anyone full-time hours, you might be a typical American worker.


#7 If you are required to watch a mindless “training video” after being hired, you might be a typical American worker.


#8 If the company you work for is owned by someone on the other side of the world, you might be a typical American worker.


#9 If a trained seal could do your job and you feel like your expensive education is going to waste, you might be at typical American worker.


#10 If you don’t have any health insurance at all, you might be a typical American worker.  Only about 25 percent of all part-time workers in the United States receive employee benefits such as health insurance or paid sick leave.


#11 If your car is older than your kids are, you might be a typical American worker.


#12 If you can’t afford to buy the things that you are selling to the public, you might be a typical American worker.


#13 If the balances on your credit cards are larger than your bank accounts are, you might be a typical American worker.


#14 If going to Burger King is your idea of “fine dining”, then you might be a typical American worker.


#15 If it costs more to fill up your car with gas than you will make at your job today, you might be a typical American worker.  The price of gasoline has increased by 83 percent since Barack Obama first took office, and the average cost of a gallon of gas in the United States is now up to $3.52.


#16 If you eat your cereal with a fork so that you can save milk, you might be a typical American worker.


#17 If your electricity bill keeps going up but your paycheck never does, you might be a typical American worker.


#18 If it feels like you are losing an organ every time you pay for health insurance each month, you might be a typical American worker.


#19 If you feel like your employer is constantly tempted to replace you with someone younger and cheaper, then you might be a typical American worker.


#20 If you are so poor that you cannot even afford to pay attention, you might be a typical American worker.


Unfortunately, a lot more Americans are going to be forced into working these kinds of jobs if current trends continue.


Read more - 
http://www.blacklistednews.com/20_Signs_You_Might_Be_A_Typical_American_Worker_/18004/0/0/0/Y/M.html

Authorities in Switzerland have confiscated $6 trillion in counterfeit U.S. bonds -

Authorities in Switzerland have confiscated $6 trillion in counterfeit U.S. bonds - 


Authorities in Switzerland have confiscated $6 trillion in counterfeit U.S. bonds at the request of Italian prosecutors, authorities said Friday.


In Italy, eight people were arrested across the country and placed under investigation for fraud and other crimes.


The bonds, carrying the false date of issue of 1934, had been transported in 2007 from Hong Kong to Zurich, where they were transferred to a Swiss trust, according to prosecutors in the southern Italian city of Potenza.


Authorities said that U.S. officials had confirmed the bonds were counterfeit.


Prosecutors said the fraud had not been completed, but that it appeared that the suspects intended to try to sell the fake bonds to a developing nation, directly or through an intermediary bank.


Recently, Carabinieri carrying out a routine search at a highway rest stop found a briefcase containing $20 billion in fake bonds.






Read more: http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/World/20120217/government-bonds-fake-120217/

Three Smart Things About Boogers -

Three Smart Things About Boogers - 


1 Boogers are good for you: One researcher argues that picking your nose and snacking on the haul is actually beneficial for the immune system. This is great news for the 91 percent of adults who admit to picking. An extensive study on nose-fingering revealed that members of all socioeconomic groups have very similar rhino-exploration habits.


2 Mining for nose-gold can turn into a pathological disorder. Rhinotillexomania (loosely, furious nose-picking) is the term used to describe obsessive-compulsive digging, and it can lead to medical issues like repeated nosebleeds, a decrease in good nasal bacteria, and in rare cases septum perforation.


3 King Tut had his own personal nose-picker. The young Egyptian pharaoh hired this royal assistant for the low, low price of three head of cattle and, naturally, food and lodging. It’s best to keep an imperial snout excavator well fed and rested.


Read more - 
http://www.wired.com/magazine/2012/01/st_3st_boogers/