The 20s

“ To recap: Goldman, to get $1.2 billion in crap off its books, dumps a huge lot of deadly mortgages on its clients, lies about where that crap came from and claims it believes in the product even as it’s betting $2 billion against it. When its victims try to run out of the burning house, Goldman stands in the doorway, blasts them all with gasoline before they can escape, and then has the balls to send a bill overcharging its victims for the pleasure of getting fried.
”

Another month, another terrifying expose of Goldman Sachs from Rolling Stone’s Matt Taibbi, who chronicles how Goldman Sachs spent the better part of a decade selling off bad investments, betting that they would fail, and then taking your tax money to pay off the loans. And now I now exactly where SEAL Team Six ought to strike next. I’m told Goldman’s compound is somewhere in lower Manhattan.

-DM

[LongReads, Rolling Stone]

Obama SEAL Doll Offensive In About Nine Different Ways. And so the run of horrible Osama bin Laden commemorative death merchandise begins in earnest, with this ridiculous doll depicting President Obama as a Navy SEAL. And from the grotesque grin to the massive assault rifle to the very idea of the doll itself, there’s something here to anger just about everyone. Except your seven-year-old. He’ll love it.

-DM

[NBC Connecticut]

“ I detest the man…He screwed me. He has no morality.
”

That’s former Staten Island Borough President Guy Molinari, telling the Staten Island Advance how he feels about Newt Gingrich. The two have beef stemming from a feud from when they were both Congressman in the 1980s, after, according to the Advance, “Gingrich bumped Molinari from a prime committee post despite a promise not to do so.”

-KH

[SI Advance, the20newyork, @AziPaybarah]

“
[Schwarzenegger] tweeted frequently during his travels to such faraway places as Brazil, Nigeria and France. Shriver was not mentioned in his Twitter updates from the road.

Shriver, also active on social networks, posted three updates on her Twitter page on the day of their 25th wedding anniversary on April 26, but did not mention the milestone.

About a month before the wedding anniversary, Shriver wrote on her Facebook page that she was going through a transition in her life.

”

That’s from the NY Post, discussing the recent split of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver. It’s reassuring to know that I’m not alone in using Facebook and Twitter to dissect the actions and relationships of my friends.

-KH

[NYPost, the20newyork, h/t @ThisIsJenDoll]

Hellllooooooooo Congressman! If more congressmen had abs like Representative Aaron Schock of Illinois, our nation’s obesity problem would be solved. Deeply committed to health and fitness, Schock bares his six-pack abs on the June cover of Men’s Health magazine. And if the cover isn’t enough for you, there are more shirtless shots of “America’s fittest congressman” inside. Reason behind the peep show? Schock is challenging America to shape up.

- CT

[Men’s Health, the20washington]

“ Of the top 21 sites for which there were data, Twitter showed up as referring links to just nine. And for all but one of those nine, Twitter sent only about 1% of total traffic.
”

That’s from the Pew study “Navigating News Online,” which breaks down traffic at the top news sites. The low volume of Twitter referrals is not surprising. Looking at Twitter success stories, they usually refer to live-tweets during primetime (think Bad Girls Club, or the Oscars), shared insights (Princess Beatrice’s hat!), or actionable tweets around breaking news (think #jan25, or #OBL). A news site may earn new readers by breaking news on Twitter (with or without a link), but I’m not sure they can ever really expect big numbers of direct referrals.

-LB

[PEW]

Brooklyn Paper Removes Hillary Clinton From Situation Room Photo. Der Tzitung, an Orthodox Jewish paper based in Brooklyn, removed Clinton and counter-terrorism director Audrey Tomason from the photo. They say they never publish pictures of women for fear of being too “sexually suggestive” And let me tell you—with Hil’s new hair, I know exactly what they’re saying.

-KH

[HuffPo, the20newyork, h/t @FelixSalmon]

“ … a full explanation of how this disgraceful use of my great grandfather’s name occurred, a full apology for the grievous insult after all that Native Americans have suffered and the (removing) from all the records of the U.S. government this use of the name Geronimo. Leaving only for history the fact this insult to Native Americans occurred in all its pity.
”

That is a list of demands submitted by Harlyn Geronimo to the Senate Commission on Indian Affairs for its hearing on racist stereoptypes of Native Americans. Harlyn, the great-grandson of legendary Apache leader Geronimo, is outraged that the Navy SEALs used “Geronimo” as the codename for the mission to capture or kill Osama bin Laden.

- CT

[DCentric]

(via the20washington)

More Chanting Military Men, This Time With Glowsticks. We already posted video from the Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD. Above is the reaction from the cadets at West Point just up the thruway from NYC. They sang, cheered, and—of course—chanted U-S-A over and over again, which means so much more on a day like yesterday than it did during, say, the World Cup.

-KH

[YouTube, the20newyork]

Or: Remember on May 2nd, 2011, when you saw that one dude on Twitter clumsily try and draw similarities between the death of thousands of innocent people and the death of one mass murderer? EXACTLY. Don’t be like that.

-DM

[the20washington, Lydia DePillis, Salon]

The 20s

Posts tagged news