Barack Obama 87
Mitt Romney 39
Gary Johnson 13
Analysis - There’s good news and there’s bad news. The bad news is the election is between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. And I lied - there is no good news.
*This is a measure of how well declared candidates would do in the presidential election, not the primary.
- bought Last month, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg shocked the world by announcing the company’s billion dollar acquisition of social-photo app Instagram. And, while the deal is under investigation by the FTC, few expect any issues.
- producedFacebook Camera debuted in the iPhone App…
It’s just getting weirder and weirder for Facebook …
Mark Zuckerberg sells 30.2 million shares at $37.58 per share for $1.1 billion (SEC filing)
Pump and dump …
Leap Motion successfully blows our mind with motion-sensor device
Motion detection for your computer: This thumb drive-sized piece of technology will allow users to “completely control your computer by waving your hands around like Tom Cruise in Minority Report.” For $70, the Leap will plug into your USB drive and will provide touchless control of your laptop/computer of choice. The Leap website states: “It sounds too good to be true, we know. But, that’s what we specialize in around here.” It also claims that the device is 200 times more accurate than the Kinect bar and tracks “movements to the 1/100th of a millimeter.” We can’t wait to look like idiots! source
Barack Obama 88
Mitt Romney 37
Ron Paul 30
Gary Johnson 14
Analysis - GOPers and Democrats alike set aside their differences and cheer the end of Newt Gingrich’s political career … GOPers can take solace that Romney is finally more electable than Ron Paul … And democrats can fret about another month of generally bad news for and missteps by Obama - who still will likely be reelected in November by a comfortable margin. But those jobs numbers - sheesh!
*This is a measure of how well declared candidates would do in the presidential election, not the primary.
The economy has stalled.
Friday’s jobs report for April was even more disappointing than March. Employers added only 115,000 new jobs, down from March’s number (the Bureau of Labor Statistics revised the March number upward to 154,000, but that’s still abysmal relative to what’s needed). We…
Despite the failure of its attempted missile launch, North Korea’s provocative action threatens regional security, violates international law and contravenes its own recent commitments. While this action is not surprising given North Korea’s pattern of aggressive behavior, any…
As members of the nonfiction filmmaking community, we want to express our outrage over the ongoing harassment of our colleague Laura Poitras by the US government and the Department of Homeland Security. We call on the Obama administration to investigate this abuse of power and to bring an end to this persistent violation of America’s bedrock principle of a free press.
Laura Poitras is one of America’s most important nonfiction filmmakers, the recipient of the 2011 Cinema Eye Honor for Outstanding Achievement in Direction for her landmark film, The Oath, and the chair of our Filmmaker Advisory Board. She was nominated for a Best Documentary Feature Oscar and twice has been nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for her work. Her long list of credits, awards and impeccable credentials would be easy for anyone to verify.
Over the course of the last several years, as Laura has been working to chronicle the post-9/11 world and the effect of American policies here and abroad, she has been repeatedly harassed, detained, interrogated and has had her cameras and computers seized by Homeland Security officials as she attempts to re-enter her home country.
Not once in more than three dozen detentions and interrogations has Homeland Security found anything to justify this chronic abuse of power.
Within the last week, as Laura was returning from a recent trip abroad, she was once again detained. This time, however, she was also threatened with being handcuffed for attempting to take notes during her interrogation.
Nonfiction filmmakers perform a vital role in a democratic society, serving as observers and investigators of the world around us. It is unacceptable for any American nonfiction filmmaker or journalist to be treated in this manner. They must be able to return to their own country without fear of arrest or fear that their work product will be seized, solely because they are investigating or chronicling subject matter that may be sensitive or controversial.
We ask other members of the nonfiction film and journalism communities to protest this affront to a free press and we reiterate our call on the Obama administration to end these draconian and un-American policies once and for all.
An open letter to the Obama administration from Cinema Eye, an organization that holds the annual Cinema Eye Honors documentary awards. To date, over 60 people have signed the letter including 10 Academy Award winners.
For background on what’s been happening to Poitras, see Glenn Greenwald’s article in Salon.
(via futurejournalismproject)
How Did Mitt Make So Much Money And Pay So Little in Taxes?
Now that Mitt Romney is the presumed Republican candidate, it’s fair to ask how he made so much money ($21 million in 2010 alone) and paid such a low rate of taxes (only 14.9 percent).
Not only fair to ask, but instructive to know. Because the magic of private equity reveals a lot about how and why our economic system has become so distorted and lopsided – why all the gains are going to the very top while the rest of us aren’t going anywhere.
The magic of private equity isn’t really magic at all. It’s a magic trick – and it’s played on you and me.
Jake Kornbluth and I have made this 2 minute video that explains it all in eight simple steps. (Thanks to MoveOn.org for staking us.)
By the way, the “other people’s money” that private equity fund managers (as well as other so-called “hedge” fund managers) play with often comes from pension funds that contain the savings of millions of average Americans.
The pension fund managers who dole out our savings to private equity and hedge-fund guys also take a hefty slice in bonuses. And like the others, they bear no risk if their bets later turn bad. They get their bonuses regardless.
Nor are any of them — private-equity, hedge-fund, or pension-fund managers — personally liable for doing adequate due diligence. They can bet our money on the basis of no more information than what they had for breakfast.
But if these funds lose, you lose. That’s what happened in 2008 and 2009. Some of the losses are also shifted to the government’s Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation – which means taxpayers lose.
It’s a giant con game, and it continues to this day.
Here’s what has to be done to stop it:
1. End the “carried interest” loophole that allows private-equity managers like Mitt Romney to treat their income as capital gains, taxed at 15 percent, even though they don’t risk a dime of their own income. Their earnings should be treated as ordinary income.
2. Hold the managers of private-equity funds, hedge funds, and pension funds to a “due diligence” standard. So if the funds lose money and these managers didn’t exercise due diligence, the Pension Guaranty Corporation can claw back their bonuses.
3. Raise the capital-gains rate to match the tax rate on ordinary income – especially for short-term investments. Give a tax preference only to “patient capital” – that is, for investments held for, say, five years or more.
4. Resurrect Glass-Steagall.
Mitt and others like him won’t like any of these reforms. They’d eliminate the humongous profits they’ve enjoyed at the expense of the rest of us.
But these reforms are necessary if we’re to take back our economy.
Get #BeyondOutrage.
