Thursday, March 10, 2011

hmmmmmmmmmm

The Libyan Dictatorship Partially Owns the Company Scoring Your Kids' Standardized Tests

DAN DIMAGGIO FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT
Last week the New York Times ran a stunning piece about the investments made by the Libyan dictatorship's sovereign wealth fund. According to the article, the fund owns a 3.27 percent stake (valued at $453 million) in Pearson, publishers of the Economist, the Financial Times, and Penguin Books, making it the company's third largest shareholder.
What the Times does not mention is that Pearson is also one of the biggest standardized testing companies in the U.S., touting themselves on their website as "the largest commercial processor of student assessments." They score statewide tests for 30 states, as well as the SATs and ACTs. In fact, Pearson's North American education division is responsible for almost half the company's profits....................

ohhhhhhhhhh lions and tigers and bears OH MY

just skip to 4:53

via

Wednesday, March 09, 2011

i warned you NOT to mess with me

via twisted vintage

(actually, i had seen this photo before and knew the story behind it. if YOU want to know, go to the link above and read the comments. it's quite interesting AND SHORT)

i'm not lying. THE cutest video EVER

i do so LOVE HER

ummmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Prisoners Help Build Patriot Missiles
By Noah Shachtman

This spring, the United Arab Emirates is expected to close a deal for $7 billion dollars’ worth of American arms. Nearly half of the cash will be spent on Patriot missiles, which cost as much as $5.9 million apiece.

But what makes those eye-popping sums even more shocking is that some of the workers manufacturing parts for those Patriot missiles are prisoners, earning as little as 23 cents an hour. (Credit Justin Rohrlich with the catch.)

The work is done by Unicor, previously known as Federal Prison Industries. It’s a government-owned corporation, established during the Depression, that employs about 20,000 inmates in 70 prisons to make everything from clothing to office furniture to solar panels to military electronics..................

pic: u.s. army

equals?

(powerful stuff this!)

i read a story last week on this very same subject

although i have forgotten where. it had a TOTALLY different take though. it said hollywood didn't give a flying fuck WHOSE son saadi was. hollywood was hollywood and money was money.

now THIS story is saying the total opposite (which i'm suspecting is true - THIS week. i think LAST week was another way)

now everyone has a conscience? i don't know if saadi shares his father's feelings or not. my point is, saadi was the SAME man 2 months ago as he is TODAY. if he IS indeed his father's son (you know what i mean here), he should have been ignored and sent packingTWO MONTHS ago. why now? oh yeah, THE WORLD IS WATCHING THE (perhaps, but i don't know) BLOODY (literally) money NOW.

i have railed all along about qaddafi (muammar that is). he is a filthy hearted individual. he kills people including people on the lockerbee plane. we NEVER should have befriended him. we NEVER should have allowed him into OUR country (we have, a few times). HE'S A FUCKING TERRORIST. WAS AND WILL BE UNTIL HE TAKES HIS LAST BREATH.

if saadi is his father's son, HE should have never been allowed here. people should NEVER have done business with him (knowingly). if he's NOT his father's son, that's different. i have no issues with him being here and doing business here.

Hollywood Feels Ripples From Libya

By MICHAEL CIEPLY

LOS ANGELES — Things have gotten chilly here for Natural Selection, the film production company backed by Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s son Saadi.

On its office line, a recorded message has been the only answer for much of the last week.

Outside the company’s suite on Sunset Boulevard — across the street from the Hustler store and under a billboard promoting the Jerry Weintraub documentary “His Way” — a parking spot identified as Natural Selection’s is blocked by a battered white van with four flat tires. (An attendant’s notice taped to the back is dated Feb. 2.)

And Mathew Beckerman, the producer who made a splash in Variety last year with word that he had rounded up $100 million in financing for the company from Mr. Qaddafi and others, is suddenly getting a very cold shoulder.

Over the weekend, Mr. Beckerman’s name was deleted from the producer credits of a documentary, “Live at Preservation Hall: Louisiana Fairytale,” on the official Web site of the South by Southwest festival, which begins this week in Austin, Tex........

-pic:

Vito Amati/WireImage

Saadi el-Qaddafi, left, with the Hollywood producer Mathew Beckerman at a party during the Toronto film festival in 2009.

ok, i found (if not the EXACT article, something VERY close to it):

Qaddafi's Son Bankrolls `Mafia Killer' Movie While Father Clings to Power

By Kristen Schweizer

Al-Saadi Qaddafi, the son of Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi, may manage to keep his Hollywood investment business going even as his father fights off a rebellion at home.
Al-Saadi, a 37-year-old former professional soccer player, has invested in a $100 million Los Angeles-based film production fund called Natural Selection, founded by Matty Beckerman. He may be able to continue to push film productions for that fund as his father struggles to contain a revolt in Libya that has left hundreds dead.
“This son is quiet and legitimate and less political than his father,” said Wendy Mitchell, head of news at London-based film trade magazine Screen International. “It’s hard to get money to invest in films so I’m not sure people would necessarily go the other way. They were doing good business before all this happened.”.........

Tuesday, March 08, 2011

via bob cesca

from center for american progress

chart of the day

arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrghhhhhhhhh

Massachusetts voters can now register as ‘Pirates’
By Eric W. Dolan

The Massachusetts Election Division has approved the Massachusetts Pirate Party as a political designation, allowing voters in the state to register as a "Pirate."

The party strives to increase government transparency, promote personal privacy, reinforce the spread of knowledge through copyright reform, and abolish patents.

"We live in a country founded on the ideals of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," the Massachusetts Pirate Party said in a statement. "For many people, those ideals are not real. The Supreme Court and Congress have expanded the power of corporations and made them more powerful than people. Increasingly government officials ignore open meeting laws, make deals favorable to corporations behind closed doors and sell off our public information to private interests."............

i can just hear him say the word "folks" with that little bit of

spittle drooling from his mouth (ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww)

Exclusive: Limbaugh’s parent company still using actors to fake radio call-ins, exec tells Raw
By David Edwards

The company responsible for syndicating big conservative radio names like Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity has been using paid actors to call in to their radio shows.

According to a recent report in Tablet Magazine, Premiere Radio Networks, a subsidiary of Clear Channel Communications, hired actors to call in as guests.

A website for the Premiere On Call service was taken offline before the report was published, but a cached version of the website is still available.

However, when Raw Story contacted Premiere's entertainment division, one individual who spoke off the record claimed that the service was still being offered.

"Premiere On Call is our new custom caller service," the website said. "We supply voice talent to take/make your on-air calls, improvise your scenes or deliver your scripts. Using our simple online booking tool, specify the kind of voice you need, and we’ll get your the right person fast. Unless you request it, you won’t hear that same voice again for at least two months, ensuring the authenticity of your programming for avid listeners."...............

i liked this movie a great deal (back in the day)

and i just (coincidentially) watched the trailer for it again last week (as part of ifc's best trailers ever). not sure it would still hold up, but guess what? i'm going to give it a shot