jonlester's blog
Posted at 8:07pm on Jun. 30, 2008 GA-10 Republican debate
By jonlester
As I write, the debate between US Rep. Paul Broun and Republican challenger Barry Fleming is being streamed live and will also be made available later at WGAU 1340 AM's web site.
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Posted at 11:12pm on Jun. 16, 2008 The single most awesome...
By jonlester
...political roundtable program yet this year* is airing as I write and is also available in the archives. Lizz Winstead, Christopher Hitchens, Ben Relles, Zoe Stagg and Baratunde Thurston share their respective video products and commentary with executive producer and panel moderator Tammy Haddad with frequent poignancy and hilarity.
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Posted at 1:16pm on Apr. 8, 2008 An Honest Politician
By jonlester
Mayor Nikolai Malakhov of Chapayevsk, Samara Oblast in the Russian Federation, has concluded that the "ideal solution" to protect his constituents' health from the lingering toxic waste of Soviet arms factories is to abandon the city and resettle its 70,000 residents in a safer area. This is counter to the recommendations of the Natural Resources Minister:
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Posted at 3:49am on Apr. 8, 2008 Hugo Chavez Has Gone Too Far This Time
By jonlester
Yahoo! News reports that Venezuelan broadcaster Televen has replaced "The Simpsons" with reruns of "Baywatch Hawaii" for the stated purpose of protecting the development of children:
Televen TV station spokeswoman Elba Guillen said Monday that the decision to hand over the daily 11 a.m. time slot came after the National Telecommunications Commission received complaints from viewers.
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Posted at 11:46am on Apr. 1, 2008 Bush, Putin Plan Tunnel from Kremlin to White House
By jonlester
Today's best April Fool's story in the international press comes to us from the Moscow Times. New Deal nostalgists might fall for it as a public works idea.
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Posted at 7:49pm on Mar. 23, 2008 Grandmothers & Kings: a Conversation with an Inept Scammer
By jonlester
Today I was contacted by one of a steady stream of dating site impostors. Their basic pattern is to establish a match, send a Yahoo! address for mail and instant messenger contact, and then start the whole spiel with the deception. I had already decided to begin playing along with something deliberately confusing but this Tega Otunba proved particularly unskilled at pulling off any scam. Having already reported the address to Yahoo! as spam, I have no inhibition to further expose it to the address harvesting of other spammers:
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Posted at 2:03pm on Mar. 17, 2008 Can you believe these people?
By jonlester
If recent statements by the leadership of the International Olympic Committee are any indicator of the IOC's vision and goals, then maybe it's time to question how they define peace and harmony.
Brutality in Tibet is no reason to boycott the 2008 games, according to IOC President Jacques Rogge:
"We believe that the boycott doesn't solve anything," Rogge told reporters on this Caribbean island. "On the contrary, it is penalizing innocent athletes and it is stopping the organization from something that definitely is worthwhile organizing."
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Posted at 9:30pm on Feb. 20, 2008 An Attempted McCain Bimbo Eruption Breaks
By jonlester
The New York Times is unloading on McCain's ethical integrity, specifically in regards to a possible extramarital affair.
It may pass over and it may prove to be an untrue allegation but it's something we shouldn't be surprised to see the left put forth.
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Posted at 12:40am on Jan. 6, 2008 Bhutto Killed by Laser Beams?
By jonlester
The leadership vacuum in the wake of Benazir Bhutto's recent assassination may be more profound than previously believed. The Pakistan People's Party has issued its own medical report which asserts that Ms. Bhutto was killed by laser beams.
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Posted at 1:13am on Oct. 28, 2007 New Evidence of Syria-North Korea Nuclear Deal
By jonlester
Debka reports that US and Israeli intelligence services have obtained the handwritten order by Syrian president Assad to provide $120 million of Durham wheat without charge in exchange for aid and material for a "cement factory" in Al Tibnah, which is the site bombed by Israeli jets last month. US and Israeli intelligence, having already noticed the North Korean freighter traffic and the wheat orders, saw no alteration to the exchange despite a volatile worldwide wheat market, in which the value of Durham wheat doubled, and a shortfall in expected Syrian wheat output.
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Posted at 11:50am on Oct. 26, 2007 Stringing Iran Along
By jonlester
Michael Ledeen at National Review has an amusing analysis of Vladimir Putin's policy towards Iran which may be very close to the truth. Russians and Persians have been trying to out-fox each other for centuries and now Putin may essentially be setting Iran up to fail, possibly even manipulating American and Israeli military action against Tehran, complete with sales of antiaircraft systems that come with the famously dubious product support that has failed client states in the past.
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Posted at 12:17am on Aug. 2, 2007 Elton John, Social Engineer
By jonlester
Some celebrities seem to crave attention so much that they will resort to exceeding the outrageous stupidity of their peers as they compete for yet more exposure.
Elton John wants to close the Internet, claiming that it, of all things, is the cause of inferior content in modern music, even as he also prepares to sell his own back catalog as digital downloads.
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Posted at 2:36pm on Jul. 8, 2007 $50 Beer
By jonlester
Aside from the facts that aluminum recycling saves great amounts of energy and that human discharge is always good for the soil, organizers for the Sydney Live Earth concert failed miserably to provide adequate concessions for attendees, so much so that people were selling beers for Archived — Comments (5) / Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 7:30am on Jun. 28, 2007 Russian FSB Agents Kill Former Gitmo Detainee
By jonlester
A suspected terrorist, formerly incarcerated at the Guantanamo Bay prison facility, was shot dead Wednesday by Russian FSB agents in a shootout in Kabardino-Balkariya. Apparently he was wanted in connection with the 1999 apartment bombings in Moscow and Volgodonsk that precipitated the second Chechnya war.
(Note: the above link
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Posted at 9:37pm on Jun. 23, 2007 Celebrity Faux Pas of the Week
By jonlester
Cameron Diaz was apparently oblivious to Peru's painful experience with the Maoist Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) insurgency when she wore a handbag decorated with a red star and the Kanji characters for Mao Zedong's famous slogan, "Serve the People," while touring Inca ruins at Machu Picchu.
We don't expect much of a brain trust from Hollywood these days but traveling celebrities might be well advised to learn a few "dos and don'ts" of foreign lands they visit, as they know their activities will always be high-profile.
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