The Syrian government decided to let some journalists visit Homs, the city which has been most ravaged by violence throughout the nation’s recent series of political protests. It would appear they got the full Syrian government treatment, which is to say their access was restricted to specific events and people, presumably telling one side of the story. As far as meeting with the protest leaders and victims of months upon months of lethal violence, the media had no such access; they were closely followed by the state and were given access to wounded members of the Syrian military. The UN estimates 5,000 people have been killed in Syria since March. source
Blood continues to flow over Terry Jones: Yesterday, we mentioned the deaths in Afghanistan that had occurred when a protest against Koran-burning pastor Terry Jones boiled over. Sadly, the violence has spread: 9 more have been killed in Kandahar, ostensibly because Jones burned several Islamic holy texts on March 20th. Not to belabor our earlier point, but it seems worthwhile to balance disdain for Jones’ self-serving and gross bigotry with some basic honesty about what it’s caused– namely, that a danger intrinsic to any religion that takes itself very seriously is that it can cause overreactions to slights against it. The deaths of 20 people in 2 days because somebody on the other side of the planet burned some books is a tragic example. source
Wikileaks went through a lot of hell to get this video up. The clip, which shows a Reuters photographer and another staffer (along with ten others) getting killed by the U.S. government during the Iraq war because they mistook his camera for a weapon. He was shot at from a distance, and he survived, only to be killed during a rescue attempt. The government has been covering up this clip for years, including from Reuters. Now, from this video, it’s clear what happened: An unprovoked attack. This video is a harrowing watch. source
Customers are still coming to us, and the net of this is Cablevision doesn’t get the benefit of our revenue.
Verizon Senior Vice President Eric Rabe • Discussing Cablevision’s policy of turning away Verizon’s FiOS ads in Newsday, despite the fact that they had been a high-paying advertiser in the paper for years. Cablevision bought Newsday last year and has made a lot of questionable decisions like this, according to Gawker. • source
Obama has a huge problem. His new house is swarming with flies, and it’s pissing him off. “He chases them down in the Oval with his briefing papers to smack them,” notes Council of Economic Advisors member Austan Goolsbee. They’re trying to kill them, but they’re still floating around everywhere. We know man. They annoy us too.
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