Facebook is reportedly close to adding its 700 millionth user, indicating that the social network is on track to cross the billion person mark sometime in 2012. Good luck catching up, Google.
The Netherlands' right-wing coalition government announced yesterday that it will ban tourists from weed-selling coffee shops by the end of the year, effectively giving the finger to backpackers everywhere. And while we generally support liberal drug laws, and have no fondness for Geert Wilders' anti-Muslim Freedom Party, we don't really blame the Dutch for wanting to limit drug tourism, given that it attracts the most annoying people on the planet.
Remember that thing the Obama administration started a couple of months ago, something about "bombing the shit out of Libya"? No? Well it was right around the start of March Madness; perhaps you were distracted. But the Libya War, and America's military involvement in it, is still quite active. The only thing that's changed is that it's probably in violation of the law now.
While the president continues his European tour with a stop in Poland, Michelle Obama is heading home. But is she going home to be with her daughters? Or is it because she hates Poland, and more specifically, its president?
Yesterday, for about the hundredth time, Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh was supposed to sign an agreement to step down after three decades in power. And, unsurprisingly, he backed out for another bullshit, concocted reason. However, instead of just saying "no," he decided to surround the U.A.E. embassy in Sanaa — where the U.S. ambassador and at least four other diplomats were gathered — with hundreds of armed men. From the Times:
Why has Iran suffered through so many droughts over the last few years? Many people would say "weather patterns, or whatever." But Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad knows the truth! "Western countries have designed plans to cause drought in certain areas of the world," he said in a speech in the Iranian city of Arak. And not only that! "European countries are using special equipment to force clouds to dump" rain on their own countries.
President Obama attempted to reset relations with the Arab world Thursday in a comprehensive speech that positioned the United States and its values squarely behind the democratic uprisings sweeping the Middle East and North Africa and promised aid to help promote economic growth and stability across the region.
Remember Erik Prince, the creepy former CEO of mercenary firm Blackwater (now called Xe), who fled the United States for the United Arab Emirates after selling his company? What's that zany dude up to now? Oh, just forming a mercenary army at the behest of the United Arab Emirates' autocratic crown prince, with the tacit approval of the U.S. government.
President Obama "is preparing a fresh outreach to the Muslim world in coming days," The Wall Street Journal tells us. How exciting! Despite the fact that Obama is the most Muslim president of all time, besides Dwight Eisenhower, his approval ratings have dropped precipitously in the Arab world, and Pakistan is certainly not too pleased with him, either. So, Obama will "deliver a wide-ranging speech":
Privacy is no trifling matter in Korea. Seoul police raided Google's offices looking for evidence the company illegally tracked users to target ads at them. Apple and Facebook, call your lawyers.
Pakistan's duplicitous president Asif Ali Zardari — also know as "Mr. Ten Percent" — is upset at the mere suggestion that Osama bin Laden was living a four-minute drive from "Pakistan's version of West Point" with anyone in his administration or security apparatus knowing anything about it. How dare anyone even suggest such an outlandish claim. In fact, Zardari is so confident in where he stands that he decided to write an op-ed for The Washington Post today to clear things up.
War monster John McCain, fresh off of his triumphant jaunt to Libya, made a shocking confession on this morning's Today show: He is not ready to drop more American freedom bombs, forever and without any actual plan, in another Middle Eastern country where some citizens have been protesting. Is the old nutter on his meds or something? What ever happened to the angry warrior we'd all come to know and not love? This is a classic gaffe.
Apparently taking a cue from his daddy, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has dispatched troops, along with tanks and other armor, to the southern city of Deraa, which has been the focal point for anti-government protests and, in turn, deadly regime crackdowns. The above video was uploaded to YouTube this morning. Online activists also report hearing "artillery" fire over the phone from Deraa. From Reuters:
More than 10,000 protestors took the streets in several Moroccan cities to protest against high unemployment and demand political reforms, the third such demonstration in the country since February. King Mohammed has already announced certain constitutional reforms that would give the country's government more independence from the monarchy; protestors have also asked for the release of political prisoners and reforms that would further limit the king's influence on the economy.
