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Kurtz & Sharon Waxman on Barack Obama, Hollywood Celebs and Bill Clinton

Fast Chat: BlackBerry’s Dominance Slipping in Last Bastion: D.C.

Ashburn & Kurtz: Obama Slight Favorite to Win, But Dems Are Panicking

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Friday, 1:29 pm PRESIDENT DENOUNCES LEAKS: But can he really be so certain no one in his administration has slipped information to a reporter? Bush also decried leaks but his folks did it when politically useful. Remember Valerie Plame?
Friday, 10:47 am OBAMA'S PITCH: President goes to the podium to urge Congress to pass the jobs bill it refused to act on. He knows that won't happen. This is about creating an issue for the fall.
Friday, 9:23 am NOT SO SUPREME: Three-quarters in NYT/CBS poll say Supreme Court justices make rulings for personal or political reasons, and the court's approval rating has dropped to 44 percent. Good thing these folks don't have to run for election.
Thursday, 8:00 pm CLINTON BACKS DOWN: The ex-prez says he's "very sorry" for saying the Bush tax cuts should be extended, thus undercutting Obama. This after unnamed aides tried to blame the media (nice try). How hard did the White House squeeze him?
Thursday, 10:21 am CLINTON'S WALKBACK: Came after a furious round of calls between Bill's and Barack's aides following the ex-prez's comments on extending the Bush tax cuts. Clinton aides tell Politico he wasn't trying to wander off the reservation, just used fuzzy language. But Bubba always plays his own sax solo.
Thursday, 10:18 am BIIIG DATA: WashPost says financial traders and politicians are making decisions after mining Facebook, Google and Twitter to divine the national mood. One trader says he buys when people seem happy. Really? Is this a giant public opinion poll? Our video debate coming up soon.
Wednesday, 4:41 pm DOUBLING DOWN: The White House insists Obama wants the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy to expire at year's end, despite Bill Clinton's statement that all the tax breaks should be extended temporarily. It's called cleaning up the mess. Bubba has also walked it back.
Wednesday, 1:52 pm WHAT IN THE WORLD: A conservative 14-year-old radio host, Caiden Cowger, claims that President Obama "is making kids gay." In an on-air rant he posted to YouTube, Cowger slams homosexuality as "a perverted belief" and says the administration has encouraged kids in his area to come out. The host cites Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck as influences.
Wednesday, 9:48 am HELPING THE REGIME: Barbara Walters regrets trying to arrange CNN job interview for aide to Syrian dictator Assad. The Daily Telegraph has the e-mails.
Wednesday, 9:43 am YOU'RE FIRED: After Lauren Ashburn wrote about the feud between The Donald and Al Neuharth, Trump has now tweeted his retaliation: "Just cancelled my subscription to @USATODAY. Boring newspaper with no mojo--must be losing a fortune. Founder @AlNeuharth has always been a lightweight---just like his paper."
Tuesday, 7:54 pm ECHOES FOR NOVEMBER: Obama leading Romney 51-45 in Wisconsin exit polls. Of course, the electorate will be larger this fall than it is for the Scott Walker recall.
Tuesday, 5:10 pm THIS INTERN JUST CAN'T CATCH A BREAK: The Romney campaign made another spelling error, the third in a week. On his Facebook page late last night was a link to buy 2012 'Offical' gear ... the link has since been corrected.
Tuesday, 12:55 pm NEXT STOP, SUPREME COURT? California federal appeals court refuses to take up appeal of Prop 8, the gay marriage law struck down as unconstitutional.
Tuesday, 10:19 am BLOODY AMAZING: MSNBC: Royal couple to appear on balcony shortly. With all due respect to our British brethren, is this Queen's Jubilee thing still going on??
Tuesday, 10:11 am BUT WE'RE NOT: "Octomom: I'm excited about stripping." To promote her sex tape, of course.
Tuesday, 8:19 am CELEBRITY-IN-CHIEF: Republicans attack Obama for hanging out with George Clooney, Spike Lee and Lady Gaga. Maybe they're just jealous.
Monday, 5:43 pm BAD ACID TRIP: GOP congresswoman's spokesman Jay Townsend resigns after saying on Facebook we should hurl acid at Democratic female senators. That didn't take long.
Monday, 5:40 pm PITY! The Queen's English Society is disbanding. British papers blame texting and Twitter.
Monday, 2:57 pm WHEW! Fox News: "CDC Confirms There is No Zombie Apocalpyse Underway." What a relief!
Monday, 9:57 am THE CAIN TRAIN: Herman Cain is returning to the air with an Atlanta radio show, replacing the retiring Neal Boortz. Even humiliated presidential candidates never fade away any more. 999 lives on!

Smartest Takes

My friend Chris bought a 3D printer this year and I thought he was insane. While our friends were buying iPads, Chris took a more non-traditional approach. But now there’s substantial evidence that suggests he’s ahead of the game. Just like in college when he programmed websites while many of us (me included) focused on the print world. Maybe that’s why he secured a job at Google upon graduating…

Am I Clinically Addicted to Facebook?

Amanda Nachman | June 6th, 2012

At 9am I’m scrolling through my Facebook newsfeed. Throughout the day I’m sharing articles, music, videos or clever quotes on my wall with my network or close friends. By 8pm you may catch me browsing through my sister’s Jamaica album. And when I traveled to China last year and couldn’t access Facebook…I missed it (gasp!). Does this mean I’m addicted?

Viral Obama Video: Call Me Maybe

Amanda Nachman | June 6th, 2012

My first thought: This video must have taken hours. My second: this is priceless. Check out the video…

Magazines are back! Kinda.

Daily Download Team | June 6th, 2012

2012 marks the year that magazines make a comeback. In other words, they will no longer see a decline in revenue.

The Disconnected World

Francisco Dao | June 5th, 2012

It was an all too familiar scene. I looked around the table at my lunch companions and realized that I was actually eating alone. Every one of them was enthralled by whatever was happening on their cell phone screens, ignoring the people at the table. Was the online world of Tweets and posts that fascinating, or was present company so uninteresting that they felt the need to escape to the virtual world?

I began to think about how we got to this point. How did we become a society of people alone in a crowded room — perhaps even alone in a crowded world? Where would it lead us? Where had it already led us?

The online community loves to champion itself as engaged and connected, but I wondered if living online was actually contributing to our increasingly frayed society.

Facebook Is Coming For Your Children

Lauren Ashburn | June 5th, 2012

The more I think about Facebook throwing open its virtual doors to kids under 13, the more I think it’s a terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad idea.

It’s troubling enough that kids are sneaking on by lying about their age, sometimes with their parents’ help. Do we want to invite them into the world of flirting and flaunting?

Here’s the lead of my Daily Beast piece on the subject:

My son’s friend “Sally” joined Facebook two years ago. She has 298 friends, posts pictures in her bikini, and broadcasts her location for all to see. Her profile says she’s 32. She’s really 12—a year below the legal limit required to join.

When she was 10 and her other friends had joined, her mom helped her sign up and fake her birthday. Neither parent knows all of those friends who have access to her very personal information.

You can read the rest here.

Inside Poop: The Enduring Importance of Toilets

Amanda Nachman | June 5th, 2012

It’s time to take toilets seriously. Some 2.6 billion people around the world don’t have access to toilets and it’s a dangerous problem. In fact, diarrhea, a leading cause of death in children under 5 according to NPR, stems from unsanitary conditions. On the flip side, toilets are said to add 20 years to our lives.

Top 5 Getting-to-Work Innovations

Amanda Nachman | June 5th, 2012

The New York Times released a list of 32 innovations that will change your tomorrow. The list ranges from underwear that collects data on how hard you’re working those glutes to an automatic cat-petter (is that really necessary?). We selected five inventions from the list that will help you on the way to work:

Shower: Automatic 15-minute shampoo regiment that cleans, massages and even blow dries your hair. (Read more on the jump)

Dumbest Post: Going Insane on Bath Salts

Amanda Nachman | June 5th, 2012

Bath salts are quite popular right now among the media. But they should not be confused with the deliciously scented product used in bathtubs. Bath Salts is simply a clever cover-up name for a designer drug that includes methylenedioxypyrovalerone (MDPV).

The drug is linked to the recent “Miami Zombie” attack and begs the question: is there a drug out there that will drive you to eat human flesh?

According to Gawker, one user explained his personal experience on bath salts as dark and evil. It did not, however, lure him into cannibalism.

Teaching English: The Little Pim Factor

Amanda Nachman | June 5th, 2012

Two organizations join forces to teach underprivileged children English. One Laptop Per Child’s mission is to provide every child access to new channels of learning with a no-frills, low-cost laptop. Little Pim is a fun, interactive foreign language immersion program for children. Engadget explains their potential, but alas, the package isn’t available yet.

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