twitters breaks out in mumbai

the mumbai attacks have citizen journalists playing a greater role than actual news journalists. apparently the tweeters are so on top of things indian authorities have asked people to quit posting detailed information on the service.

17% college grads know diff between free markets and centralized planning

a new article in the washington post focuses on a recent study which includes gems llike ‘only 17 percent of college grads understood the difference between free markets and centralized planning.’ and ‘only 27 percent of elected officeholders in the survey could identify a right or freedom guaranteed by the first amendment.’ i’m sure everyone knew the bit about ‘the right to bear arms.’ hey, this might be why barack obama thinks the u.s. has 57 states.

seems like the washington post is trying to make up for their poor coverage during the presidential election. or perhaps the zogby/ziegler poll which showed that ’57% of Obama voters were unable to correctly answer that Democrats controlled both the House and the Senate.’

barack obama avoids georgia run-off election

the previous posting was about sarah palin heading down to georgia (the state, not the country) to stump for chambliss whose trying to hold onto his senate seat. but barack obama, who we know as the president elect because we’ve seen this seal in front of his podium during numerous press conferences, has recorded some audio for jim martin, but won’t be stumping for the man.

is obama concerned because he’s read karl rove’s editorial about his reverse coattails in the south.

sarah palin goes to georgia to rally the rnc base

sarah palin, the defacto head of the republican party, will spend some time in georgia alongside saxby chambliss who is campaigning against democrat jim martin in a run-off election in less than 2 weeks. who names their child saxby?

this race is important because with republican stevenson down, the democratic party is inching toward the filerbuster proof number 60 in the senate wing of congress. if chambliss loses his senate seat or if coleman goes down in minnesota, then nancy pelosi and crew will have their 60 seats.

does this matter? well, the u.s. constitution is all about checks and balances and the will of the people. one could argue that if the will of the people is that the democrats control everything, then so be it. the other side of such an argument is that perhaps, based on what happened with bill clinton during the first couple of years of his administration and the fiscal irresponsibility that was george w. bush for 6 years, both of whom led during those periods while their respective parties were in charge.

sexist christopher hitchens comes out swinging at hillary clinton

christopher hitchens, the man who spent election day eve railing against sarah palin and endlessly referring to her as THAT WOMAN! now tosses his two cents worth in about hillary clinton becoming secretary of state.

fashion and luxury suffering in the downturn

magazines are losing advertisers because fashion labels just don’t have the dough. and their customers are out of work. and marc jacobs has cancelled his annual christmas bash.

andrew breitbart on the new blacklist

andrew breitbart on breitbart tv discusses the new hollywood blacklist. does it exist?

zogby poll internet most reliable for news: fox news most reliable t.v. news

72.6% of those polled believe the news they read is biased. you can click here for more information

french socialists reject segolene royal for chaos

france’s socialist’s political party narrowly elected martine aubry as head of the party. she narrowly defeated segolene royal, who was the first female presidential candidate in the 2007 election, intends to challenge the vote.

how is the media covering this? it was top headline on bbc world this morning and is prominently displayed on the homepage of the channel as well. although we don’t watch cnn 24-7, this morning we did not see a story on this. the new york times ran an article earlier in the week about how the socialist party, the party of francois mitterand and the infamous 35 hour work week –which has destroyed the frenc economy, had failed to elect a leader.

although nicholas sarkozy was elected a little more than 1 year ago, defeating royal by 5% of the vote, it seems as if he has been the president of france for ages.

timothy geithner as secretary of treasury

a piviotal job in barack obama’s new administration was announced late on friday. well, early enough to watch the market react, but late enough (if taken badly) not to cause real damage.

geithner who is white, or appears to be, like obama has lived outside of the u.s. and may bring much needed international knowledge to the table.

how is the press covering the story. the wall street journal seems pleased. despite geithner’s relatively young age (47), he’s the president of the new york fed and worked with the IMF for 2 years according to wikipedia.