In the same poll: Voters trust Hillary Clinton on Benghazi more than congressional Republicans by a 10 point margin; a net +18 percent of respondents would rather congress focus on immigration reform than Benghazi; and voters were split 45/45 on whether Benghazi is more or less of a scandal than Watergate (although that broke down mostly on partisan lines).
The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office has released a comparison of the budgets offered by President Obama, House Republicans, and Senate Democrats. They’re a lot similar than you’d expect given how much the two parties are at each others’ throats about things like Social Security and taxes, huh? Anyway, for those who enjoy charts and graphs, the CBO’s blog post on its budget projections will not disappoint. (h/t Ezra Klein) source
Exclusive: How the Syrian Electronic Army hacked the FT
Matt has an inside line to the SEA; he recently interviewed members of the group.
Good news everyone. Something is probably going to happen that you may not like. Whatever it is will get announced this coming Monday.
soon
YOLO!
If Microsoft tries to acquire them it’d be Mumblr.
If Facebook tries to acquire them it’d be Fumblr.
While this is the case (and Facebook and Microsoft are definitely ready to pounce), Yahoo currently has Tumblr negotiations under lock and key, Forbes reports:
A source with knowledge of the Yahoo/Tumblr discussions says they are proceeding rapidly and likely to result in an offer as soon as Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer can get her board’s approval. She is said to favor an outright acquisition rather than an investment or partnership. As mentioned above, a lockup agreement prevents Tumblr from holding a bake-off with Facebook, Microsoft or anyone else.
Part of Mayer’s courtship has involved working overtime to convince Karp that his fears of being “absorbed into a behemoth” and “raided for talent and traffic” are unfounded. Karp has made it clear that he would like to run Tumblr for a long time. According to my source, he would remain CEO under the outline of the deal being worked out.
Those last two sentences are key.
Toronto’s mayor denies smoking crack cocaine in video
The Globe and Mail: Toronto Mayor Rob Ford has denied claims that he was recently filmed smoking crack cocaine.
“It’s just ridiculous,” he said as he left his home and got into his black SUV. “It’s another Toronto Star…”, he said before shutting his car door and driving away.
Mr. Ford’s response comes after online news site Gawker posted a story in which one of its reporters claimed he had viewed a video in which the mayor was clearly seen smoking crack cocaine.
Photo: Toronto Mayor Rob Ford leaves the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and Toronto Argonauts CFL football game in Hamilton September 3, 2012. (Reuters/Mike Cassese)
How do your respond to a controversy like this, anyway? This is not the kind of thing public officials usually have to deal with.
A couple ticks behind on this, but Newsweek’s redesign is really, really good.
Gawker claims to have seen video of Rob Ford using crack cocaine pipe
A published report says a video that appears to show Toronto mayor Rob Ford smoking crack cocaine is being shopped around by a group of men allegedly involved in the drug trade.
There was no way to verify the video, however, which was the subject of a report on Gawker on Thursday and then became the subject of numerous stories.
The Toronto Star said two of its reporters watched the video and said it appears to show Ford in a room, sitting in a chair, inhaling from what appears to be a glass crack pipe.
A story on the Star website Friday also alleges Ford makes several disparaging and crude remarks about Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau and the high school football team he coaches.
A lawyer retained by Ford, Dennis Morris, told the newspaper that Thursday’s publication by the Gawker website of some details related to the video was “false and defamatory.”
In case you missed this last night, because this is definitely not one to miss.
I’m moving back to New York in a few days. Unlike past...
OMG. I got so...
In this week’s Newsweek, a little...
Tumblr this morning. [h/t anne]
#@#$%!.tumblr.com
Here’s a hidden feature that shipped in...
Watch: PCB gets a visual shout out on GMA’s Yahoo/Tumblr...
iphisquandary says: Oh come on don’t even pretend this isn’t about race. A fucking Saudi-American guy carrying a RICE COOKER THAT POLICE THOUGHT WAS A BOMB made bigger news than this. We all know he didn’t necessarily do it, but if this guy was of color and was a suspect like a certain other man who had nothing to do with the Boston Marathon bombing, everyone would know his name by now. Let’s not be disingenuous.
» SFB says: The circumstances of the cases were different. It was unclear that a criminal element may have been involved in the West, Texas case when it first happened (it’s still not clear, though it’s currently being investigated), whereas it was immediately clear that someone was trying to hurt people after the Boston incident—a set of circumstances that led to different treatments by mainstream media sources. The arrest over the pipe bomb parts only came weeks later, after the case had cooled in the national press.
It’s not fair that people got falsely accused of things in the middle of a media circus, but considering it wasn’t clear that this was even a criminal matter (the angle leaned much closer to evil corporation that failed to protect the public), it’s understandable why the response was more muted. But that still doesn’t take away from your point. It’s awful that people were unfairly targeted for their race during a media circus. — Ernie @ SFB
(P.S.: It’s also worth pointing out that, during this same period, a white guy was arrested and accused of sending ricin to the president, only for further investigations to show that he was allegedly framed.)
If you haven’t been keeping a close eye on the story in West, Texas, a lot has happened since the deadly explosion a few weeks ago. Bryce Reed (right), an early responder who was one of the first EMTs on the scene of the incident, was found in possession of an alleged pipe bomb. While he has not been charged with anything in connection with the explosion as of yet, authorities have opened up a criminal investigation into the incident since his arrest. As Talking Points Memo reports, he had a shaky personal situation in recent days.
A white guy with an Anglophone name was found with a pipe bomb in circumstances related to a blast that killed a dozen people, injured scores, and devastated a town?
No, I hadn’t actually heard anything about that. Weird.
I’m sorry, what!? I don’t watch the news but I’m pretty sure the coverage should have been as closely watched as the Boston incident has been. I’ve learned all kinds of info about Boston without watching or reading conventionally news but nothing about this?! Por que, why?
Because the news had broken literally the day that I originally posted it. And also, there is no connection at the moment between him and the explosion (at least not currently, though officials say they have not ruled out arson as a cause of the fire that led to the explosion), just that he allegedly had the parts to a pipe bomb. — Ernie @ SFB
(Previously.)
Today in purported (but we should point out, unverified) videos of big-city mayors apparently smoking crack on camera.
In more really depressing news, viral video star Kai, a hitchhiker who we’ve posted about a couple of times on SFB due to his heroic act involving a hatchet, has been arrested and charged with murder in the beating death of a man in New Jersey. While he claims (via a Facebook comment posted before the news broke) that the man drugged and raped him, he nonetheless is being held on $3 million bail.
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