Gore Sells Current TV To Al Jazeera, Gets $100M

Buried in the "Media Decoder – Behind the Scenes, Between the Lines" section of the New York Times:

Al Jazeera Seeks a U.S. Voice Where Gore Failed

By BRIAN STELTER | January 2, 2013

Al Jazeera, the pan-Arab news giant, has long tried to convince Americans that it is a legitimate news organization, not a parrot of Middle Eastern propaganda or something more sinister.

It just bought itself 40 million more chances to make its case.

Did Current TV ever convince Americans that it was a legitimate news organization and not a parrot of the Democrat Party’s propaganda or something more sinister?

Al Jazeera on Wednesday announced a deal to take over Current TV, the low-rated cable channel that was founded by Al Gore, a former vice president, and his business partners seven years ago.

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Columnist: Declare NRA An Illegal Organization

From a frothing at the mouth op-ed in the Des Moines Register:

Nation needs a new agenda on guns

This time, the debate has to be about more than not offending the NRA’s sensibilities.

Donald Kaul | Dec 29, 2012

I’m glad I retired five months ago.

Think of it: I was spared writing about the presidential election, an event so vacuous it made reality TV seem interesting. If there was any serious discussion of an important national issue — global warming, obesity, transportation policy, the morality of drone attacks on civilian populations, the environmental consequences of fracking, existential implications of the designated hitter — I missed it.

Instead, we got a campaign of misrepresentations, exaggerations and outright lies. The Republicans were by far the worst offenders, but President Barack Obama didn’t cover himself in glory either.

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Paper Posting Gun Permits Hires Armed Security

From the Nyack New York area, Journal News:

The gun owner next door: What you don’t know about the weapons in your neighborhood

Dwight R. Worley | Dec 24, 2012

… In the wake of the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., and amid renewed nationwide calls for stronger gun control, some Lower Hudson Valley residents would like lawmakers to expand the amount of information the public can find out about gun owners. About 44,000 people in Westchester, Rockland and Putnam — one out of every 23 adults — are licensed to own a handgun.

Anyone can find out the names and addresses of handgun owners in any county with a simple Freedom of Information Law request, and the state’s top public records expert told The Journal News last week that he thinks the law does not bar the release of other details.

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Hillary Leaves Hospital; No Firings At State Dept

From the Associated Press:

Clinton leaves hospital after treatment for clot

By JOSH LEDERMAN | January 2, 2013

WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was released from a New York hospital on Wednesday, three days after doctors discovered a blood clot in her head.

Clinton’s medical team advised her Wednesday evening that she was making good progress on all fronts and said they are confident she will fully recover, said Clinton spokesman Philippe Reines.

What other "fronts" is she facing? And notice how dire they make this sound. When she found a clot back in 1998, she stayed on the campaign trail. (See below.)

Doctors had been treating Clinton with blood thinners to dissolve a clot in a vein that runs through the space between the brain and the skull behind the right ear.

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Moody’s: ‘Fiscal Deal’ Won’t Save Credit Rating

From Reuters:

More steps needed to save US credit rating, says Moody’s Investors

January 03, 2013

New York: The United States must do more than the recently passed "fiscal cliff" measures if the country is to rescue its Aaa debt rating from its current negative outlook, rating agency Moody’s Investors Service said on January 3. Standard & Poor’s said the deal does not affect its negative view of the US credit outlook, and said more work remains ahead for policymakers.

You mean Moody’s doesn’t view raising taxes and increasing government spending as a good thing?

The last minute deal passed on January 1 to avert potentially devastating tax hikes and spending cuts clarifies the medium-term deficit and debt trajectory of the federal government, Moody’s said in a statement.

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Senate Got Fiscal Cliff Bill 3 Minutes Before Vote

From CNS News:

House Vote on Fiscal Cliff Bill Breaks GOP 3-Day Pledge to Read the Bill

By Matt Cover | January 2, 2013

(CNSNews.com) – When the U.S. House of Representatives voted to pass a Senate bill to avoid the fiscal cliff around 10:45 PM on Tuesday, it violated its pledge to allow three days for the public to read the legislation, a promise House Republicans made to voters before the 2010 elections.

Whatever happened to that quaint old idea expressed in Article I, Section 7 of the US Constitution, which says that “All revenue bills shall originate in the House of Representatives but the Senate may propose or concur with Amendments as on any other bills”?

The House passed the bill with a vote of 257-167 in evening on Tuesday, less than 24 hours after the Senate had drafted and passed the bill close to 2:00 AM Tuesday morning.

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Obama Wasted $3.6M On Fiscal Cliff Statement

From the Weekly Standard:

Back to Vacation: Obama Takes Midnight Flight to Hawaii

Round-trip cost of president’s return trip: $3.6 million.

By DANIEL HALPER | January 2, 2013

After Congress agreed temporarily to avert the "fiscal cliff" last night, President Barack Obama hailed the deal in brief remarks delivered from the White House, and then headed to Air Force One to take a midnight flight to Hawaii. Obama had left his family days earlier to return to Washington to deal with the "fiscal cliff."

Obama "ended a seven-minute statement in the Press Briefing Room starting at about 11:27 p.m.," according to the pool report. "Dressed only in a blue suit, he walked across the South Lawn to board Marine One at 11:40 p.m."

Seven minutes.

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‘The Hive’ – Please Talk Amongst Yourselves

Here is our usual weekend discussion thread again, where comments on the general topics of the day are welcome.

But please remember to post and comment on specific news items in the ‘Reader Selected News’ thread below or via the ‘News Selected By Our Readers’ link found in the sidebar.

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Reader Selected News, Week Dec 29 – Jan 4

This thread is for the busy bees of S&L to post news articles that might not warrant their own thread.

Posting Guidelines

To make the articles as readable as possible, please:

  • Only post news from established news media outlets.
  • Avoid editorials or opinion pieces unless they are truly newsworthy.
  • Avoid items that most people most likely have seen elsewhere.
  • Post articles that fit under the topic of a recent thread as a comment there.
  • Always spell out the name of the source and post a link to it.
  • Always post less than one quarter of the original article.

Posts of articles that do not follow these guidelines may be edited or deleted.

Thank you.

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‘The Hive’ – Please Talk Amongst Yourselves

Here is our usual weekend discussion thread again, where comments on the general topics of the day are welcome.

But please remember to post and comment on specific news items in the ‘Reader Selected News’ thread below or via the ‘News Selected By Our Readers’ link found in the sidebar.

More…

20 Comments »

Reader Selected News, Week Dec 22 – Dec 28

This thread is for the busy bees of S&L to post news articles that might not warrant their own thread.

Posting Guidelines

To make the articles as readable as possible, please:

  • Only post news from established news media outlets.
  • Avoid editorials or opinion pieces unless they are truly newsworthy.
  • Avoid items that most people most likely have seen elsewhere.
  • Post articles that fit under the topic of a recent thread as a comment there.
  • Always spell out the name of the source and post a link to it.
  • Always post less than one quarter of the original article.

Posts of articles that do not follow these guidelines may be edited or deleted.

Thank you.

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Merry Christmas To Our Extended S&L Family!

Merry Christmas!

From all of us here at Sweetness & Light, Inc., including the corporate management, administrative staff, editorial staff, (non-striking) writers, fact checkers, layout artists, typesetters, legal department, accountants, production assistants, paid and unpaid interns, runners, switchboard operators, security team, as well as the stock holders and the cleaning crew.

Which of course is really just me and you. And especially you.

Thank you all for reading the site. And thank you for your comments, news tips and very generous donations.

Best wishes, and have the happiest of holidays!

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