Purveyor
Purveyor's JournalJoan Rivers to Anti-Defamation League: "Don't Talk to Me About the Holocaust"
Joan Rivers has a message for the folks at the Anti-Defamation League: Mind your own business.
The funnylady tells E! News that the watchdog group has bigger fish to fry rather than calling her out for comparing Costco to Nazi Germany after the warehouse chain giant allegedly banned her new book, I Hate Everyone…Starting With Me, due to profanity.
"Number one, my husband lost most of his family in Auschwitz, so don't talk to me about the Holocaust," Rivers tells E!, defending the analogy. "Number two, banning books anywhere is a bad portent. Number three, the ADL should worry more about the world's attitude toward Israel than waste time and energy on me, because I'm not going to stop saying what I think."
Don't we know it!
Costco's decision not to carry her tome prompted Rivers to stage an in-store protest on Tuesday in which she handcuffed herself to a shopping cart. She also brought along a megaphone, shouting, "Costco should not be like Nazi Germany! Next thing they'll be burning the Bible."
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http://www.eonline.com/news/337121/joan-rivers-to-anti-defamation-league-quot-don-t-talk-to-me-about-the-holocaust-quot?cmpid=rss-000000-rssfeed-365-topstories&utm_source=eonline&utm_medium=rssfeeds&utm_campaign=rss_topstories
Columnist And TV Host Fareed Zakaria Suspended For Copying Other Writer's Work
NEW YORK (AP) -- Columnist and TV host Fareed Zakaria has apologized for lifting several paragraphs by another writer for use in his column in Time magazine. His column has been suspended for a month.
Zakaria said in a statement Friday he made "a terrible mistake," adding, "It is a serious lapse and one that is entirely my fault."
In a separate statement, Time spokesman Ali Zelenko said the magazine accepts Zakaria's apology, but would suspend his column for one month, "pending further review."
"What he did violates our own standards for our columnists, which is that their work must not only be factual but original; their views must not only be their own but their words as well," Zelenko said.
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http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_WRITER_APOLOGIZES?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-08-10-17-06-51
Meet Gauss, the Latest Weapon in the Unfolding U.S.-Israeli Cyberwar
To the steadily growing list of digital weapons that appear to have been jointly created by the combined resources of the U.S. and Israel, we can now add another. The researchers at Russia-based Kasperky Labs who discovered it have christened it Gauss, and say it is aimed at pinching the pocketbooks of its intended targets, whoever they may be, by stealing account information of customers of certain banks in Lebanon, but also customers of Citibank and of PayPal.
It’s complicated, but not difficult, to surmise the nature, if not the names, of the targets of this latest state-sponsored malware campaign: Of the 2,500-odd infections that Kasperky’s researchers have counted so far, 1,660 — more than two thirds of them — have occurred in Lebanon. The software is designed to intercept data intended for use with accounts at the Bank of Beirut, Byblos Bank, Fransabank, all of which are either based, or which have significant operations in Lebanon.
Gauss, they say, bears a lot of the same markers as Stuxnet, Duqu, and Flame, which all predated it. It is the latest evidence that the U.S. is participating in a covert, undeclared campaign of computer warfare against parties unknown and of uncertain intent.
Anyone who reads the news of the world can guess at Gauss’s purpose. The prospect of a shooting war with Iran involving the U.S. and Israel in some combination is never far from the minds of anyone in that region these days, as that country continues to develop its capacity to produce materials that might be used in nuclear weapons.
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http://allthingsd.com/20120810/meet-gauss-the-latest-weapon-in-the-unfolding-us-israeli-cyberwar/
Guest Lineups For The Sunday News Shows
ABC's "This Week" - Former Gov. Tim Pawlenty, R-Minn.; David Axelrod, adviser to President Barack Obama's re-election campaign.
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NBC's "Meet the Press" - Pawlenty.
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CBS' "Face the Nation" - Stephanie Cutter, deputy campaign manager for the Obama campaign; Eric Fehrnstrom, adviser to Mitt Romney's presidential campaign; former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
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CNN's "State of the Union" - Axelrod; Ed Gillespie, Romney campaign adviser; Sen. John Thune, R-S.D.
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"Fox News Sunday" - Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.; Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla.
New, Largely Symbolic, US Sanctions On The Assad Regime, Hezbollah
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Obama administration set new, largely symbolic, sanctions Friday on Syria's state-run oil company and the Hezbollah militant group, moves designed to underscore Iran's key role in propping up the Syrian regime over the span of its civil war.
State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said the penalties against energy firm Sytrol come after it delivered $36 million worth of gasoline to Iran in April. At the same time, Tehran was "actively advising, supplying, and assisting the Syrian security forces and regime-backed militias that are carrying out gross human rights abuses against the Syrian people."
Meanwhile, the Treasury Department targeted Hezbollah for "training, advice and extensive logistical support to the government of Syria's increasingly ruthless efforts to fight against the opposition." It also blamed the Lebanese Shiite militant group for coordinating Iranian assistance to the Syrian government.
Neither action will change Americans' behavior much. Americans have been banned from doing business with Hezbollah since the U.S. declared it a foreign terrorist organization in the 1990s. Decades of U.S. sanctions against Syria have hampered energy trade between the two countries, and President Barack Obama blacklisted any new imports a year ago.
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http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_US_SYRIA?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-08-10-13-45-15
Israel Defense Chief Suggests US Has New Intelligence Bringing Worries Over Iran In Line With Israel
Source: CBS News
(CBS News) LONDON - Israel's defense chief suggested Thursday that the U.S. has new intelligence that changes the American assessment of the imminent danger represented by Iran's clandestine nuclear work, bringing its views closer to those held by the Jewish state.
An article published Thursday by the Haaretz newspaper said Defense Minister Ehud Barak had "confirmed" the paper's earlier report that Mr. Obama had received a new National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) "which shares Israel's view that Iran has made surprising, significant progress toward military nuclear capability."
Speaking later to Israeli Radio, Barak was not as definitive, but said there is "apparently a report by American intelligence agencies - I don't know if it's under the title NIE or under another title - which is making the rounds of high offices," in Washington that makes the American government's concerns more urgent.
"As far as we know, it comes very close to our own estimate, I would say, as opposed to earlier American estimates. It transforms the Iranian situation to an even more urgent one and it is even less likely that we will know every development in time on the Iranian nuclear program," Barak said.
Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503543_162-57489798-503543/israel-defense-chief-suggests-u.s-has-new-intelligence-bringing-worries-over-iran-in-line-with-israels/
Saudi Arabia 'to Shoot Down' Iran-Bound Israeli Planes
Source: RIA Novosti
13:28 09/08/2012
MOSCOW, August 9 (RIA Novosti)
Saudi Arabia has threatened to shoot down any Israeli aircraft over its airspace en route to or from Iran, the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported on Thursday.
The message was passed via senior U.S. officials during recent talks in Jerusalem.
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The paper said the route over Saudi Arabia was one of four air routes identified by Israel's intelligence for a possible attack on Iran.
Saudi Arabia is equipped with U.S.-made fighter jets and sophisticated defense systems, Israeli media reported.
Read more: http://en.rian.ru/world/20120809/175091104.html
Cornell, MIT Scale Back Aid Even as Endowments Rise
Cornell, MIT Scale Back Aid Even as Endowments Rise
By Janet Lorin - 2012-08-09T04:01:00Z
Cornell University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology are scaling back financial assistance to students, adding to the burden of families already coping with climbing college costs.
Cornell, the Ivy League school based in Ithaca, New York, will force students whose families make more than $60,000 a year to seek other financing to pay for part of their studies starting in 2013. This fall, MIT is raising the amount low- income students contribute by 36 percent to $6,000 a year.
Students are being asked to pay more even as college endowments show double-digit growth as they recover from the 2008 financial crisis. With more students qualifying for aid, Cornell said its spending on financial support has jumped almost 20 percent a year on average since 2008, a pace it won’t sustain by drawing directly from the endowment. Cornell, which costs $60,000 a year, is good value for students’ money, even with the changes to financial-aid, said Barbara Knuth, vice provost and dean of the graduate school.
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Cornell’s endowment grew 20 percent to $5.35 billion in the year ended June 30, 2011, according to the school. Still, it’s down from a $6.1 billion peak in 2008.
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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-09/cornell-mit-scale-back-aid-even-as-endowments-rise.html
Refinery Fire Could Boost Gas Prices Nationwide
Source: USA Today
Motorists in West Coast states are about to see a big spike in gas prices, the fallout from a fire that cut production at one of the region's largest oil refineries.
Gasoline prices, now averaging $3.87 a gallon in California, $3.72 in Washington and $3.69 in Oregon, are expected to spike to $4.15 to $4.25 a gallon over the next week to 10 days following Monday's partial shutdown of a Chevron refinery in Richmond, Calif.
Nationally, gasoline prices have climbed 27 cents a gallon in the past month. While the refinery fire will drive prices along the West Coast, it will also lift the national average above year-ago levels.
"August looks like a very touch-and-go month for the entire country," says OPIS analyst Tom Kloza, who expects price relief after Labor Day. For the year to date, gasoline has averaged $3.61 a gallon — 10 cents more than the average for all 2011, the most expensive year ever, he says.
Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2012-08-08/refinery-gas-prices/56875468/1
Mid-Michigan prices spiked well before this fire with un/reg selling for 3.89-3.99g
U.S. Job Openings May Presage Hiring Gains in Second Half of Year: Economy
Source: Bloomberg
Job openings in the U.S. rose in June to the highest level in four years, indicating employment gains may accelerate in the second half of the year.
The number of positions waiting to be filled climbed by 105,000 to 3.76 million, the most since July 2008, from a revised 3.66 million the prior month, the Labor Department said today in Washington. Hiring and firings cooled.
A rising need for workers shows some employers are expanding as sales improve, laying the ground for a pickup in hiring that may help boost consumer spending, which accounts for about 70 percent of the economy. Payrolls rose more than forecast in July even as the unemployment rate climbed to a five-month high, the Labor Department reported last week.
“The economy is still growing, that’s underpinning labor demand,” said Henry Mo, a senior economist at Credit Suisse in New York. “Job availability is increasing, but we still need to see employers put this into action. The economy will grow a little better in the second half than in the first half and the labor market will improve gradually.”
Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-07/job-openings-in-the-u-s-increased-in-june-hiring-dropped.html
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