Photo of Phelps smoking bong unites ‘legalizistas’

From CNN American Morning…

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more about “The Raw Story | Photo of Phelps smoki…“, posted with vodpod

CNN.com: Inauguration Day Web Winner

From the Associated Press…

NEW YORK — On Inauguration Day _ one of the highest traffic days ever for the Internet _ CNN came out on top.

The CNN Digital Network was the no. 1 online destination among current events and global news sites, according to the research firm Nielsen Online. It had 11 million unique visitors on Tuesday when Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th president.

The MSNBC Digital Network followed with 10 million unique visitors and Yahoo! News took the No. 3 spot with 9.1 million. Rounding out the top five was the Fox News Digital Network and AOL News.

For its webcast, CNN partnered with Facebook to supply status updates from one’s friends on the social networking site. CNN.com earlier said it served more than 21.3 million streams globally that day between 6 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. EST. _ the most in its history by far.

The Associated Press provided 8 million live video streams through its online video services. The AP launched its ad-supported Online Video Network in late 2006…

Click here for the full article

Obama offers Surgeon General position to CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta

By Howard Kurtz
For the Washington Post
Click here for the original article

President-elect Barack Obama has offered the job of surgeon general to Dr. Sanjay Gupta, the neurosurgeon and correspondent for CNN and CBS, according to two sources with knowledge of the situation.

Gupta has told administration officials that he wants the job, and the final vetting process is under way. He has asked for a few days to figure out the financial and logistical details of moving his family from Atlanta to Washington but is expected to accept the offer…

Click here for the full story

How does CNN’s hologram effect work?

By Chris Higgins
From MentalFloss.com…

Last night, CNN debuted its latest ultra-high-tech gizmo: a “hologram” interview system that allows Star Wars-like images of distant people to appear on stage, interacting with the CNN host. Now, it turns out that the “hologram” isn’t actually visible to the host (it’s composited into the image you see at home by a computer), but it’s still pretty neat. Here’s a video of Will.i.am appearing “live via hologram” in the system’s first use:

Okay, so how does this work? Gizmodo tells all. From the Gizmodo article:

On the subject’s side:

• 35 HD cameras pointed at the subject in a ring
• Different cameras shoot at different angles (like the matrix), to transmit the entire body image
• The cameras are hooked up to the cameras in home base in NY, synchronizing the angles so perspective is right
• The system is set up in trailers outside Obama and McCain HQ
• Not only is it mechanical tracking via camera communication, there’s infrared as well
• Correspondents see a 37-inch plasma where the return feed of the combined images are fed back to them. Useful for a misplaced hair or an unseemly boogar
• Twenty “computers” are crunching this data in order to make it usable

Help us, Will.i.am, you’re our only hope!

A Moment for History

I’m in love with CNN’s Campbell Brown

Image from TampaBay.com

Be sure to catch Campbell Brown: No Bias, No Bull weeknights at 8 p.m. on CNN!

IMPORTANT! Drudge Puts Dangerous Spin on Mugging, Implies Violence Targeting McCain Volunteers

I usually never post a full and complete article but I felt that the things Feldman talks about need to be communicated to as many people as possible, as soon as possible. Please read it, especially if you read DrudgeReport.com as much as I do!

Please visit the original article here and support their advertisers! Thank you!

By Jeffrey Feldman
for HuffingtonPost.com
Click here for the original article

Yesterday, a horrible incident took place in Pittsburgh: a young woman was robbed; and then, after the assailant noticed that her car had a McCain sticker, he returned to brutalize her, including scratching a backwards ‘B’ in her cheek with a knife. Although horrible by itself, what makes this story even more shocking is the way right-wing media has tried to twist the coverage with rhetoric suggesting that this ATM mugging was actually a pre-meditated act of political violence aimed at the McCain campaign.

At 4:03pm, today, a WTAE-TV Pittsburgh reported that a 20-year old woman was robbed at an ATM machine, and then subsequently had the letter ‘B’ scratched into her cheek with a knife–supposedly in response to her assailant seeing a ‘McCain’ campaign sticker on her car.   This is how WTAE reported the story:

Woman Attacked At ATM, Assailant Carves Letter Into Her Face

Woman Robbed, Attacked With Knife At Bloomfield ATM
POSTED: 4:03 pm EDT October 23, 2008
UPDATED: 4:30 pm EDT October 23, 2008

PITTSBURGH — A 20-year-old woman who was robbed at an ATM in Bloomfield was also maimed by her attacker, police said.

Pittsburgh police spokeswoman Diane Richard tells Channel 4 Action News that the victim was robbed at knifepoint on Wednesday night outside of a Citizens Bank near Liberty Avenue and Pearl Street just before 9 p.m.

Richard said the robber took $60 from the woman, then became angry when he saw a McCain bumper sticker on the victim’s car. The attacker then punched and kicked the victim, before using the knife to scratch the letter “B” into her face, Richard said.

Richard said the woman refused medical treatment after the assault, which happened outside the view of the bank’s surveillance cameras.

The robber is described as a dark-skinned black man, 6 feet 4 inches tall, 200 pounds with a medium build, short black hair and brown eyes. The man was wearing dark colored jeans, a black undershirt and black shoes. (link)

The crime was horrendous. Anyone who mugs another person, whether it is for $0.60 or $60, is a criminal who deserves punishment.  And to beat someone up–and then scratch a ‘B’ in their face–supposedly in response to seeing a McCain campaign sticker on a person’s car–that is an act that demands immediate criminal prosecution.  The young woman attacked deserves a speedy recovery and quick restitution of her property and dignity by the courts.

The problem with this crime, however, is not just that it happened, but the way that Matt Drudge has obviously tried to spin it into a political watershed for the 2008 Presidential campaign by rewriting the headline and carefully omitting several crucial elements.  The end result is that a mugging punctuated by an odd act of violence has been transformed at the hands of a right-wing media figure to appear like a targeted act of violence against the McCain campaign.

Not long after the original WTAE story, Drudge added the following incendiary headline on The Drudge Report:

SHOCK: MCCAIN VOLUNTEER ATTACKED AND MUTILATED IN PITTSBURGH…

‘B’ CARVED INTO 20-YEAR OLD WOMAN’S FACE… DEVELOPING…

Note two things that Drudge has strategically left out of this headline: (1) the actual details of the crime (e.g., an ATM robbery, followed by an assault) and (2) the fact that the robber brutalized the young woman after the initial crime had been completed, when the criminal noticed the bumber sticker on her car. The omissions are crucial because they repackage a story of theft and assault into a story of political violence.

What Drudge has done, in other words, is reframe a report about a mugging to make it seem like the beginning of targeted political violence against the McCain campaign.  Hence, it seems from his headline that there are criminals in the U.S. currently out looking for McCain volunteers with the goal of brutally assaulting them–that someone was looking for McCain volunteers to attack, found one, and beat her.

Now, Matt Drudge’s blog is one of the most visited websites on the internet and is well-known for its Republican Party leanings, it’s deep connection to right-wing media outlets, and the phenomenal speed with which it can disseminate a story–whether that story is true or false.  It is important, therefore, to consider the grave danger carried Drudge’s spinning of this story.

Given Drudge’s choice of words, one could imagine the Drudge headline as the basis for right-wing media and the Republican base to conclude that political violence has begun against the McCain campaign–despite this being a false and misleading representation of the events.

Even worse, the immense site traffic at The Drudge Report enjoys, combined with Drudge’s implication that this horrible mugging incident in Pittsburgh was in fact targeted political violence against Republicans, could result in widespread panic amongst by McCain supporters mislead by Drudge’s manipulative reporting into thinking that they were the target of some kind of organized assault.

If either of those things were to happen, the Drudge headline of the WTAE story could quickly tip the the Presidential election into a dangerous place by heightening the ‘us vs. them’ tensions already set in motion by the McCain-Palin campaign rhetoric.

Finally, since Pennsylvania is a ‘swing’ stage–a state that is still too-close-to-call in the Presidential election polls–it is not beyond the realm of possibility that Drudge’s deceptive re-framing of this mugging story could result in heightened tensions on the ground, and possibly contribute to outbursts of violence by people who believe they are under ‘attack,’ as a result of Drudge’s rhetoric.

However Drudge’s headline is interpreted, it has the potential to provide an excuse for actual political violence under the guise of self-defense.

Just to give an idea of how incendiary this story could become, since I began writing this post, the Obama-Biden campaign has already issued the following statement:

“Our thoughts and prayers are with the young woman for her to make a speedy recovery, and we hope that the person who perpetrated this crime is swiftly apprehended and brought to justice.”

Their response shows the necessary and swift intolerance that any crime of this nature deserves.  Whether or not The Drudge Report will succeed with its dangerous ploy to recast this crime as the beginning of political violence against Republicans remains to be seen.   But at the very least, we can expect Drudge’s spin to be the lead on every right-wing media outlet at least to the weekend.

How mainstream media handles it is another story.  Will news producers at CNN, MSNBC, ABC, NBC, and CBS refute Drudge’s irresponsible flirtation with rhetoric that has the potential to spark widespread panic?   Let’s hope so.

©  2008 Jeffrey Feldman, Frameshop

From CNN: Sources say Taliban will split ways with al Qaeda, seek peace

By Nic Robertson
CNN Senior International Correspondent
Click here for the original article

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. (Photo from CNN/Getty Images)

LONDON, England (CNN) — Taliban leaders are holding Saudi-brokered talks with the Afghan government to end the country’s bloody conflict — and are severing their ties with al Qaeda, sources close to the historic discussions have told CNN.

The militia, which has been intensifying its attacks on the U.S.-led coalition that toppled it from power in 2001 for harboring Osama bin Laden’s terrorist network, has been involved in four days of talks hosted by Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah, says the source.

The talks — the first of their kind aimed at resolving the lengthy conflict in Afghanistan — mark a significant move by the Saudi leadership to take a direct role in Afghanistan, hosting delegates who have until recently been their enemies.

They also mark a sidestepping of key “war on terror” ally Pakistan, frequently accused of not doing enough to tackle militants sheltering on its territory, which has previously been a conduit for talks between the Saudis and Afghanistan…

Click here for the full story

Chris Rock on CNN’s Larry King Live

From CNN.com
Click here for the original article

(CNN) — Republican presidential candidate John McCain is just holding on like a boxer before he gets knocked out, comedian Chris Rock says.

Rock, an avid supporter of Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama, spoke with CNN’s Larry King on Thursday. He said Obama is more grounded with your average American — not somebody like McCain with “12 houses.”

“The other guy [McCain] can lose five houses,” Rock said.

“I’ll go with the guy with one house. The guy with one house is scared about losing his house…”

Click here to watch the video of Chris Rock on Larry King Live from Tuesday night

Don’t forget: Chris Rock’s “Kill the Messenger” new stand-up routine on HBO Saturday night at 9 p.m. EST!

Photo chopped from HBO.com

Facebook passes the 100,000,000 user mark

That’s right– Facebook officially now has more than 100 million users.

That means that if it were a country, it would be the world’s 12th largest— falling between Mexico and the Philippines.

Facebook = a force to be reckoned with?

(Sources: Wikipedia, CNN)