Is a handsome young soldier currently professing his love to you on Facebook? He might be real! But probably, he's not. Especially if he's asking you to send him money. The AP reports that the fake-Facebook-soldier (or whatever the snappy conman name is) is "becoming an all-too-common ruse," in one case costing a victim $25,000. It is not a particularly sophisticated ruse, however:
Last week the Times revealed that insane Fox News boss Roger Ailes allegedly urged former News Corp. employee Judith Regan to lie to federal investigators in 2006 about her affair with Ailes' buddy Bernard Kerik, then trying to become secretary of Homeland Security. Is Ailes about to be indicted for this?
The UN Security Council is meeting today to discuss Libya, while Muammar el-Qaddafi continues to kill his own people. Also, parts of Tripoli are fighting back. Here's a look at what's happening across the Middle East and North Africa today:
Muammar el-Qaddafi's personal Ukrainian nurse, Galyna Kolotnytska — described in Wikileaks cables as a "voluptuous blond" — is heading home to Kiev, according to her daughter, Tetyana, speaking to a Ukrainian newspaper: "She spoke in a calm voice, asked us not to worry and said she'd soon be home." It's officially over, Muammar. [WSJ]
Newt Gingrich tweeted something marvelous the other day, in response to a typical, prodding liberal questioning his belief in dinosaurs: "not only do I believe in dinosaurs I had a t rex skull in speakers office to remind us they used to think they were important too." Bullshit. You had the skull of a Tyrannosaurus Rex in your House Speaker's office, to teach life lessons? That belonged in a museum! No but really, it was the Smithsonian's property.
Koch Industries executives are reacting to the prank call pulled on Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) this week, where a blogger got through to the governor by posing as David Koch. In an interview with National Review Online, Koch Industries executive vice president Richard Fink says the Koch brothers will not "back off."
The last decent president we had in this country, George W. Bush, was all set to give tomorrow night's keynote address at the clunky Young Presidents' Organization's Global Leadership Conference, in Denver. But then who shows up at the conference today, via satellite of course, but Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, the gravest threat to global civilization since Garfield 2: A Tail of Two Kitties. Can't have that! So Bush has canceled.
For the first time in the history of red spray paint in the vicinity of a poster girl's breasts, a vandal made a billboard less sexual. To advertise an exhibit at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, the billboard in Long Lake, MN featured a 16th-century Titian painting of Venus. The vandal painted a red tube top over Venus' breasts and commented, "Brrr!"
The White House doesn't appoint nearly enough openly gay people for administration positions, it's been said, by someone, at some point. But now that's all over. They have appointed an openly gay man, Jeremy Bernard, to be secretary of defense. No just kidding; America isn't "there" yet. He'll be White House social secretary.
A vast number of the states in our fine union are facing deep and painful budget cuts, thanks to the ongoing not-having of money, combined with lots of spending of money that we didn't have in the recent past. Education, social welfare, health care—the entire social safety net will have to be slashed. But with a little ingenuity, we'll be able to preserve our prison-industrial complex!
After a Toronto Star investigation, the Canadian government has acknowledged that it used Agent Orange — the same cancer- and birth defect-causing chemical used by the U.S. military to clear the jungles of Vietnam — to clear brush from roadsides in Ontario between the 1950s and 1980s. Yes, until the fucking 80s!
Each one of the 1,926 teachers working for the Providence School Department was sent a dismissal notice this week, in a move officials say was necessary to deal with a projected deficit of almost $40 million next year.
The elegantly named Madison, Wisconsin police chief Noble Wray has listened to the David Koch impersonator's prank call with Gov. Scott Walker re: smushin' up unions, and he has a few questions! Namely: What "trouble" did Walker think about planting in the crowds of protesters before backing off for practical considerations?
Think back five long years ago, when hot shot publisher-to-the-stars Judith Regan was embroiled in a huge scandal that was the talk of the media world: after HarperCollins fired her, Regan sued them. In her suit, she alleged that a mystery News Corp executive had told her to lie to federal investigators who were vetting former NYPD chief Bernie Kerik—a man that Regan slept with.
