Everyone loves Netflix — except the content creators who think they’re not getting paid enough for their wares and the folks who own the Internet pipes who are miffed that they’re not getting their own piece of the action. Here’s one of the early shots in the unfolding war.
Justice Department responds with bogus argument in support of wildly excessive sentencing recommendation for Abramoff associate Kevin Ring.
Yep, I know he’s not popular. But this is still an utter crock. Twenty years in prison for free meals and sports tickets to members of Congress and staffers? Really?
It’s almost like the DOJ is acting out in this case because most of the real players in the scandal got off scott-free.
Endlessly disgraced Italian PM caught on sex investigation phone transcript vowing to leave Italy because it’s a “sh*tty country” which has “sickened him.”
Last I’d heard of Stephen Goldsmith, he was the hotshot Mayor of Indianapolis, beloved of the Club for Growth, Manhattan Institute crowd. Back in 1998 I edited this piece on him by Michael Grunwald in the American Prospect. (I think I edited it. I lose track of which I edited or just read drafts of.) Now it turns out he’s been working in my own city as Number 2 for Mayor Michael Bloomberg. And now he’s resigned from that gig because he got busted at his DC home (this guy has a lot of cities) on a domestic violence charge.
“I should have put a bullet through you years ago,” Goldsmith’s wife Margaret allegedly told Goldsmith just before he shoved her, according to the police report.
Goldsmith’s wife later stated under oath that the incident was “taken out of context” and “an enormous misunderstanding” and declined to press charges.
(ed.note: In this post I originally incorrectly said that Goldsmith said the bullet thing to his wife. In fact, his wife said it to him. Allegedly.)
What are the legal implications of a former American official turned businessman counseling the Qaddafi regime on how to undermine the reputation in America of the rebels amassed against it.
Whodathunk that a county GOP in Rep. Gabby Giffords’ district raffling off a gun similar to the one used to shoot her would be such a problem?
Hard to imagine what could go wrong when a renegade lawman like Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio brings in movie tough guys like Steven Seagal to do raids on people’s houses using tanks and other cool movie hardware. Seems in this case, when Seagal and some of Arpaio’s deputies raided Jesus Sanchez Llovera’s home with a tank, Sanchez’s dog was killed in the subsequent gunfire. As well as 100 roosters. Sanchez is now suing Seagal for $100,000 damages.
Seagal was filming the raid for his reality show Steven Seagal: Lawman.
I say this recognizing the great wreck of society and suffering his rule caused over four decades and the carnage of the last six months. But the one thing that seems clear to me about Muammar Gaddafi today is that his post-Strongmancy is turning out to be even more entertaining than his Strongman period itself.
Yesterday I was catching running updates on the Gaddafi story from the twitter feed of al Arabiya English. At one point Gaddafi’s son Saadi announced that his father had empowered him to negotiate a ‘cease-fire’ with the rebels. Later, Gaddafi himself declared that he now wants to join the new rebel government. (I mean, he’s a lifelong public servant, has a lot of management experience running Libya … so why not?) Both of which — for a man who not only no longer appears to control anything but can’t even be located — are of course awesome. Read More