Something I missed before; the phone hack of murder victim Milly Dowler was back in 2002 according to this. I conflated it with the royal voicemail scandal, which is a different but likely related story. I’ll guess that journos and PIs have been figuring out how easy it is to navigate voicemails since the technology was invented. Maybe they found it more convenient and less risky than breaking in to homes and offices to listen to taped messages on the old first generation machines? Since many people never changed the default passwords on their analog and digital voicemails, it just…
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As a progressive who abhors the unprecedented and frighting hold Murdoch holds over Fox News, and by extension the radical Religious Right in the US, his fall from power as Britain’s “uncrowned king” can’t come soon enough. And with the latest news breaking that millions of emails pertinent to the scandal might have been deleted by a News International executive, it’s possible the scandal may jump the pond and take a few of Murdoch’s US institutions down AND even a family member or two. Oh, I hope so. I do hope so. And now, Andy Coulson has been arrested: he’s…
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After some discussion tonight watching the feed from Netroots Nation, I realized that I don’t want to give my money to Target anymore. Too bad I already started wearing the underwear. I’ll just let it get really… ripe before I wash it, so there. Workers at a Long Island Target store have been attempting to form a union, an effort which comes to a vote on Friday. Target has been waging a pretty standard corporate anti-union campaign—which is to say, lots of intimidation. But now it’s taken a turn for the humorous. Gawker’s Hamilton Nolan, who has been doing stellar…
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That not-so-veiled threat the Chamber guy made was so dumb. It’s so much easier to just wish that Teabagger Joe doesn’t just get redistricted, he gets defeated handily in the upcoming election. Drat, that’s a Flash embed, won’t be visible on iPhone/iPad. Ah, fooey. From Think Progress, it looks like there’s a GOP civil war erupting after the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Tom Donahue made some not so veiled threats to Republican freshman House members who don’t want to raise the country’s debt ceiling. Illinois Representative and resident blowhard Joe Walsh and the Tea Party Patriots co-founder Mark Meckler appeared…
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This is not all that good and joyful: anti-gay corporate poultry product shills Chick-fil-A are building a restaurant near me, I’ll pass it every day. Ugh. Bet Chick-fil-A wishes this month would end. Over the past few weeks, the restaurant chain’s deep ties to the anti-gay movement have been exposed and uncovered by a number of activists, most notably Jeremy Hooper at Good As You. Whether it’s Focus on the Family, the National Organization for Marriage, the Pennsylvania Family Institute, or Exodus International, Chick-fil-A ties run deep. Of course, the President of Chick-fil-A wants gay people to share no hard…
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Oh for CHRIST’S SAKE. Yes, security is important, but security theater is impotent. An entire US Airways flight was evacuated and the pilot placed a passenger under citizen’s arrest after he refused to pull up his baggy pants, reports NBC Bay Area.According to his mother, her son initially refused, saying that his hands were full. His mother says he then went to his seat where he pulled up his pants.The airline says the passenger refused to get off the plane and that’s when the pilot placed him under arrest. He was later charged by police with trespassing, battery and resisting…
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For a second there, I thought she was talking about the US economy, which is in the terlet thanks to the Bush tax CUTS and the continuing War on Women and Children, reducing aid to poor families. Taxes. It seems whether you cut them or hike them, they cause problems for everybody. A year of spending cuts and tax hikes has worsened the recession, now in its third year. The unemployment rate among young people is around 40 percent. via Greek Economic Dilemma Evolves Into Political Crisis : NPR.
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My Congressman is Rep. Joe Walsh, and he’s having a bad week. First he makes this obnoxious and cluelessly racist statement about why Obama got elected – due to “white guilt” and the ability to sound smart and educated… And then he goes on to insult American Jews who aren’t supportive enough of the State of Israel. Oy. first the Obama gaffe, then a later post with the reaction from smart, educated American Jews. “Why was he elected? Again, it comes back to who he was. He was black, he was historic. And there’s nothing racist about this. It is…
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How our right-wing talkers are explained to the British by one of the Guardian’s columnists: don’t miss the bit where Michael Savage, banned from travel to Britain, whines about Obama’s ecstatic reception in Ireland. I liked this bit where BillO grouses that FOXNews don’t get no respect. It is understandable why O’Reilly would be concerned about losing advertisers in light of the recent cancellation of his colleague Glenn Beck’s show. Though no official reason was given for the programme’s cancellation, it is widely speculated that the loss of revenue resulting from the Stopbeck campaign’s call for an advertiser boycott had…
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Can we expect this even if our own ultra-right is marginalized and defeated in elections? Somehow I think our racist wackos skew older, and less physically able to carry out coordinated attacks. But dang, they could sure cause traffic jams and hog all the sidewalks with their RVs and scooters. Far-right activists have attacked trade union meetings and anti-racist groups in the past month in what campaigners and politicians say is an escalating campaign of intimidation and violence. In the latest incident, a 20-strong group hurled concrete pillars, glass and rocks at a meeting on multiculturalism organised by Labour councillors…