South Sudan became an independent nation in July, and it’s looking for business. An international conference in Washington Wednesday and Thursday is focusing on the new country in Africa and featuring speeches from President Salva Kiir and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. But a South Sudanese American living in Washington says there’s much more [...]
Tag: Open
December 16, 2011
December 11, 2011
Polls Open in Ivory Coast
Ivory Coast voters are going to the polls in the country’s first parliamentary elections in more than a decade. An election official is quoted as saying some polls in Abidjan had not opened nearly two hours after voting started Sunday, but that those polling stations will stay open late. The Election Commission says almost 1,000 [...]
December 3, 2011
Happy birthday, Britney Spears: now you are 30 | Open thread
Earlier this week, we marked the 176th birthday of the great American author, Mark Twain. Today, we celebrate the 30th birthday of a more contemporary, but perhaps equally iconic cultural figure: Britney Spears. Her first three decades years have been, at times, a bumpy ride. A 30th birthday is something of a landmark – a [...]
November 15, 2011
Here’s the risk: Occupy ends up doing the bidding of the global elite | Patrick Henningsen
A 21st-century grassroots movement faces many pitfalls. This was as true back in 1968 as it is today. It could be infiltrated by law enforcement and intelligence agencies, or co-opted by a major party. As the state continues to creep further into our lives, activists can expect that it will use all its resources – [...]
November 5, 2011
AP: CIA following Twitter, Facebook
November 4, 2011 by legitgov ShareThis AP: CIA following Twitter, Facebook 04 Nov 2011 In an anonymous industrial park in Virginia, in an unassuming brick building, the CIA is following tweets — up to 5 million a day. At the agency’s Open Source Center, a team known affectionately as the “vengeful librarians” also pores over [...]
October 29, 2011
What will your Halloween costume be? | Open thread
According to the New York Daily News, the most popular Google search for Halloween costumes is rapper Nicki Minaj. But Time has Angry Birds right up there. And the Natalie Portman goose-bumpy shoulders tributes are clearly going to be popular, with Black Swan trending strongly. Call us Murdoch- and media-obsessed, but we’re hearing Wendi Deng [...]
October 29, 2011
Dems: Bush-era Loan Deserves Same Scrutiny as Solyndra
October 27, 2011 by legitgov ShareThis Dems: Bush-era Loan Deserves Same Scrutiny as Solyndra 27 Oct 2011 Congressional Democrats have asked House investigators to expand their probe of the Obama Administration’s ill-fated loan to Solyndra to cover another speculative federal lending effort — this one approved under President [sic] Bush. In a letter to Energy [...]
October 11, 2011
Are you put off by a film star’s politics? | Open thread
He may be an Oscar winner and humanitarian but, if a survey by the Hollywood Reporter is anything to go by, Sean Penn’s performances are being deliberately bypassed by the American right. The survey of 1,000 cinema-goers highlights that 52% of Republicans snub films that star an actor whose political views they disagree with. Penn [...]
September 17, 2011
The Obama White House: a micro-brewery in search of a brand | Open thread
When Sgt Dakota Meyer joined President Obama for a beer on the terrace outside the Oval Office on Thursday to celebrate the former Marine’s Medal of Honor decoration for valour in Afghanistan, he probably didn’t ponder what brand of beer the White House was serving. But if he did, he would have learned that it [...]
September 16, 2011
Pussy Willow: she was lost and is found | Open thread
A calico cat named Willow, which disappeared five years ago from her home in Colorado, has been found on Wednesday, alive and well, on a Manhattan Street. How she travelled 1,600 miles, where she has been living and what she has been doing in the meantime are all mysteries. But there is no doubt as [...]