Thursday, August 19th, 2010. Eggs recalled across the country, Palin defends Dr. Laura, Roy Blunt’s Ground Zero and troops pull out of Iraq.

Carol Rosenberg, a journalist for the Miami Herald and one of the few journalists who continue to follow operations and proceedings at the Guantanamo Bay prison reports “an emotionally ill detainee still being held at the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was first recommended for release by the Pentagon in 2004.”

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs became the spokesperson for Obama Administration contempt toward the left on Tuesday. The display of contempt came in the midst of a nearly 70 percent shift in Wall Street executive donations from Democratic candidates to Republican candidates ahead of the November mid-term elections.

Wonkette picked up on this Youtube Saturday evening. Chinese, it is most likely out of Taiwan or Hong Kong. The script, translated into English, is rather bland. The accompanying images, however, in the video are humorous, reaching well beyond the usual news channel snark.

Hotel workers from Chicago supported and participated in a nonviolent civil disobedience action aimed at calling attention to the Hyatt Hotel chain’s working conditions on Thursday evening. The action was part of a nationally organized plan to target Hyatt and call attention to its lack of fairness and respect toward workers.

news roundup

Congresssman Bobby Rush’s hearing on the Comcast-NBC merger in Chicago on July 8th shined a light on how Comcast-NBC hopes to get this through. They are hoping to demonstrate a concern for diversity and an interest in increasing minority ownership and leadership. Of course, why are they just now figuring out ways to make their corporations more diverse? Oh, yeah, this is one way to get the greenlight to merge.

In 2008, the AP did something unusually boneheaded even for this ossified organization:

The Associated Press, having already announced its intention to harass bloggers who publish snippets as short as 39 words from AP stories, has now published a web form through which intimidated parties can give the AP money in return for “permission” to publish as few as five words.

As in, the AP decided that if you wanted to quoted and link back to one of their articles, you had to pay them.

dealing with depression

Every news outlet in the world has been running the tape of the Israeli commando raid on Free Gaza Flotilla released by the Israeli Defense Forces. It lasts about a minute and clearly shows the commandos being attacked by the people on board as they rappel down from their helicopters.