Kenneth Bacon, a former reporter and Pentagon spokesman who later served as a top advocate of displaced people all over the world, died Saturday, according to Refugees International. He was 64
Bacon, ex-Pentagon spokesman, refugee advocate, dies
Tag Archives: media
Lolcats: Building a Media Empire Around ICanHasCheezburger.com
Ben Huh is the first to admit his company could easily have wound up on FAIL Blog. For the uninitiated, that’s his wildly popular website to which users submit photos and videos documenting such colossally stupid moves as writing a billboard partly in Braille and using a trash can as a bike helmet. Like the rest of the 20-odd websites Huh owns, FAIL Blog was added to his empire for no more specific reason, he says, than “Dude, I think it’s funny.” These spellbindingly inane blogs were built with the kind of user-generated content that has made Facebook and YouTube tremendously popular
Pakistan Military Not Capitalizing on Taliban Disarray
A week after a CIA drone strike is believed to have killed Baitullah Mehsud, you’d think the Pakistan military would be rushing to capitalize on the apparent disarray in the leadership of the Pakistani Taliban as rivals fight to succeed him. But rather than mount an offensive in the strongholds of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan in South Waziristan — the sort of campaign promised by President Asif Ali Zardari back in May — Pakistan’s generals seem content to let the CIA’s drones do most of the fighting. Indeed, some officials in Islamabad say Mehsud’s death may open the way for a truce with the TTP, if his successor agrees to stop fighting the Pakistani state and instead turns their weapons on Western forces in Afghanistan
France Mourns Death of ‘Mother Courage’ Marie-Laure Picat
Few people would have pegged Marie-Laure Picat as a likely heroine.
Iranian speaker calls for detainee rape probe
Iran’s influential parliament speaker has called for an investigation into allegations that post-election detainees were raped while in custody, state-run media said. Ali Larijani said that a special parliamentary panel “had carried out investigations into the situation in [Iranian] jails and the treatment of detainees and it should also look into whether jail rape allegations are true or false,” Press TV reported, citing Tabnak, a Web site associated with opposition politician Mohsen Rezaie. Meanwhile, Iran’s Intelligence Ministry, the government body that keeps tabs on political dissenters, warned the media against revealing what it called “classified data” after reports Monday that Ahmadinejad had purged four senior intelligence officials, according to Press TV.
Disruptions drown out debate at health care meetings
The battle raging over President Obama’s health care plan has spread from across the aisles in Congress to across the country.
Sotomayor poised to take oath as Supreme Court justice
Sonia Sotomayor will make history Saturday when she is sworn in as the nation’s first Hispanic Supreme Court justice. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts will swear in Sotomayor twice at the Supreme Court.
First daughters balance privilege and pressure
Luci Baines Johnson was just 16 years old when she approached her father, President Johnson, with what she considered a reasonable request.
Analysis: Bill Clinton as a diplomatic fix-it man
It was a heartwarming sight: Laura Ling and Euna Lee landing on U.S. soil and being reunited with their families.
Geithner vs. the Regulators: A Time for Swearing
The expletive-laden rant Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner unleashed during a closed meeting with regulators on Friday, July 31, has players in Washington and on Wall Street wondering one thing: What got the usually mild-mannered Geithner so incensed? Establishing a new regulatory framework for the financial markets is not the kind of politically charged, life-or-death issue that should drive a normally discreet Cabinet member to go on a blue streak in front of dozens of officials. But Geithner and the Obama Administration have more at stake in getting reform pushed through Congress by the end of the year than it may seem.