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  • Posted 11/25/09 at 1:52 PM
  • Intel

Things to Be Thankful For This Year: No Marauding Monkeys

In Cape Town, baboons have figured out how to get into people's cars.

In Cape Town, baboons have figured out how to get into people's cars.Photo: AP

This year, it might be hard to think of things to be thankful for. Many of us are still experiencing the effects of the Deepest Recession Since the Greatest Depression™,. Afghanistan, Iraq, and health care are still quagmirish. But in the words of former bailout chief Neel Kashkari: “As bad as it is today, it could have been so much worse.”

In this spirit, we've decided to be thankful for the things that did not happen this year. Here are three of ours:

• The economy did not entirely collapse, the social fabric did not entirely crumble, and we were not forced to storm the Palazzo Chupi and eventually eat Julian Schnabel out of desperation.
• John McCain and Sarah Palin were not elected. (We know that was last year, but it was November, and so it still counts.)
• We don't live in one of those places where attacks by marauding baboons spontaneously occur.

Put yours in the comments! Then sign off the Internet, and have a happy, long Thanksgiving weekend. We'll see you Monday.

  • Posted 11/25/09 at 1:02 PM
  • White Men With Money

Powerful Old Men May Possess Selective Memory-Erasing Capabilities

The Wall Street Journal today has a nice little story about the Wednesday 10, a sort of club of assorted New York muckety-mucks, like Mort Janklow and former NBC president Larry Grossman, who have been meeting regularly for dinners since 1957. There aren't any women in the group, although Bob Menschel of Goldman Sachs says that's just because the group was founded back in the day, and if they had formed it today, "it wouldn't occur to us not to include women." In fact, prominent women such as Barbara Walters, Gloria Steinem, and Feminine Mystique author Betty Friedan have been invited to address the group as guests. However: It seems something mysterious happens to these female guests after the fact.

Read more »

Lou Dobbs Already Backpedaling on His Signature Issue

The latest speculation making the rounds about Lou Dobbs's political future is that the former CNN anchor won't run for president in 2012, but will instead aim for a Senate seat. The New Jersey resident is considering a challenge to Democratic senator Robert Menendez in 2012 as "an intermediary step" to the White House, a surprisingly honest spokesman told the Times. But apparently Dobbs is aware that targeting the nation's only Hispanic senator might not reflect well on someone already burdened with a reputation for hostility toward Hispanic illegal immigrants. Maybe that's why Dobbs has already begun to reverse his outspoken opposition to what he used to call "amnesty," a path to legalization for illegal immigrants. The Wall Street Journal reports that in an overlooked interview with Telemundo last Friday, Dobbs "twice mentioned a possible legalization plan for the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the U.S., saying at one point that 'we need the ability to legalize illegal immigrants under certain conditions.'" Looks like he's getting the hang of the politician thing already.

Lou Dobbs Weighs Senate Run, as a Steppingstone [NYT]
Dobbs Reaches Out to Latinos, With Politics in Mind [WSJ]

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  • Posted 11/25/09 at 11:58 AM
  • Ink-Stained Wretches
Magazine Publishers to Create ‘iTunes for Magazines’

Publishers like Time Inc. and Condé Nast are reportedly banding together to build an "online newsstand" for digital content, similar to iTunes, which sounds like a fine idea. We hope there's a Genius component that recommends stuff, like "If You Like Adam Gopnick You Might Also Want to Try Monocle, Adam Thirlwell's The Delighted States: A Book of Novels, Romances, & Their Unknown Translators, Containing Ten Languages, Set on Four Continents, & Accompanied by Maps, Portraits, Squiggles, Illustrations, and a Variety of Helpful Indexes and This Sterling Silver Marrow-Scooping Spoon." [NYT]

  • Posted 11/25/09 at 11:43 AM
  • 9/11

Leaked 9/11 Texts a Gold Mine for Historians, Truthers, Voyeurs

Leaked 9/11 Texts a Gold Mine for Historians, Truthers, Voyeurs

Photo: Getty Images

Throughout the day today, the website Wikileaks will be publishing over half a million messages sent from text pagers on 9/11. According to the website, they range "from Pentagon and New York Police Department exchanges, to computers reporting faults to their operators as the World Trade Center collapsed." It's a little arduous sifting through all the computer gibberish in the documents, but the information contained within can be fascinating. CBS News's Dean McCullagh found messages discussing an evacuation to Mount Weather, "the government's sort-of secret bunker buried under the Virginia mountains west of Washington, D.C." He finds another that warned of a threat to Air Force One, and even one that seemed to celebrate the death of a disliked business executive onboard one of the doomed flights. Other texts refer to a bomb going off in the World Trade Center and military planes forcing down a commercial jet, which, as McCullagh points out, are sure to pique the interest of 9/11 Truthers.

Wait, how did these get out in the first place? »

  • Posted 11/25/09 at 11:00 AM
  • Awesome Things

Judge Tells ‘Vexatious’ Bank to Shove It

Perhaps with his windfall Greg can purchase a more flattering sweater.

Perhaps with his windfall Greg can purchase a more flattering sweater.

Like many people who refinanced their homes using subprime loans in recent years, Greg and Diane Horoski, of East Patchogue, Long Island, fell behind on their mortgage payments, after Greg suffered health problems and the rate of their mortgage shot up from 10 to 12 percent. When they tried to renegotiate, their lender, OneWest and its IndyMac mortgage division, wouldn't budge. It was "like dealing with organized crime," Horoski said. Eventually, after the bank began the foreclosure process, the Haroskis took them to court. They drew an awesome judge.

OneWest's conduct was "inequitable, unconscionable, vexatious and opprobrious," the judge wrote. »

  • Posted 11/25/09 at 10:33 AM
  • Gossipmonger

Chace Crawford Supposedly Had Sex With Lorenzo Lamas’s Wife

Shauna Sand says she had an affair with Chace Crawford when he was 18, after meeting him "at a college party." "He was so incredibly beautiful — I immediately fell in love with him!" the 1996 Playmate told Star. "I even gave him a key to my apartment." Rihanna is getting $500k to perform on New Year's Eve in Abu Dhabi. Rosie O'Donnell is not enjoying the single life. Cynthia Rodriguez's new boyfriend is a real-estate investor named Laszlo Fazekas. Courtney Love took her band to Scores. "She was saying she used to be a stripper and appreciated what the girls do," a source tells "Page Six." Danny Meyer took his family to one of his own restaurants the other night.

Read more »

  • Posted 11/25/09 at 10:24 AM
  • Obamania

The President Who Cried ‘Unprecedented’

Obama has done an unprecedented number of burger-joint photo ops.

Obama has done an unprecedented number of burger-joint photo ops.

Maybe you've noticed that President Obama has a habit of referring to things he does as "unprecedented." With less than a year as president under his belt, he's used "the word at least 129 times in everything from major addresses to small speeches, statements, memorandums and proclamations." Compare that to George W. Bush, who used it only 262 times over eight years. (Then again, it is a five-syllable word, so.) But an in-depth investigation by Politico has revealed that, sometimes, the things Obama refers to as "unprecedented" are actually quite precedented.

Why does he do it, and what are the risks? »

  • Posted 11/25/09 at 09:36 AM
  • Ballsy Crime

Rajaratnam’s Brother’s Hedge Fund Was Also Being Investigated by the SEC

Yesterday in a court filing, lawyers for Raj Rajaratnam made the case that it was unconstitutional for the SEC to wiretap the Galleon founder because they had already interviewed him during the course of investigating an "unrelated hedge fund." But actually, the WSJ tells us today, it was was related — literally. The fund under investigation, Sedna, was run by Raj's brother Rengan. It was closed in late 2007 because of losses and "the cost of complying with the SEC probe."

Rajaratnam's Brother Drew Scrutiny [WSJ]

  • Posted 11/25/09 at 09:00 AM
  • Secretary of Awesome

Could Hillary Clinton Replace Joe Biden on the Ticket in 2012?

That's the latest "hot rumor" making the the rounds in Washington, according to U.S. News' Paul Bedard. Of course, the "hotness" of this rumor has to be taken with an enormous grain of salt — maybe the biggest grain of salt you've ever seen, the kind that could be a roadside attraction in northern Pennsylvania — as Hillary is, at any given time, rumored to be eyeing some job other than the one she currently holds. The logic behind the latest scuttlebutt is that Biden would be "too old" to run for president in 2012 (he'd be 70 by the time he took office; Hillary would be 65), and, as we've noted, Hillary's denials about wanting to run for president again are less than airtight. Plus, she'd likely be a bigger boost to President Obama than Joe Biden, since she's now incredibly popular — and Lord knows he might need a boost. Not to mention, the transition should be easy, since Hillary has already begun to embrace Biden's ceremonial role as the master of gaffes.

Could Hillary Clinton Replace Biden as Obama's VP? [Washington Whispers/U.S. News]

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Available at all Tory Burch boutiques and ToryBurch.com.

  • Posted 11/25/09 at 12:29 AM
  • Health Carnage
Democrats Prove They Too Can Fight Among Themselves

Democracy for America, a liberal P.A.C. founded by Howard Dean, is preparing to sink its claws into what it calls the “Insurance Industry Democrats,” those swarthy Dems who haven't come out full force for the Senate's health care bill. Watch out Blanche Lincoln and Ben Nelson, you're on the list! [Prescriptions/NYT]

11/24/09

Maybe Lou Dobbs Should Start His Own Political Party

Yesterday when Fred Thompson asked Lou Dobbs if he was weighing a presidential run, the former CNN anchor said, "Yes is the answer." Couldn't really be much clearer than that. But there is one thing that remains unclear — what party would Dobbs attach to his name?

Sure, he seems like a natural Republican, what with the fiery opposition to illegal immigration and the distaste for President Obama. But would he pass the party's purity test? Bay Buchanan, whose brother Pat ran for president as a Reform Party candidate in 2000, thinks the man who calls himself "Mr. Independent" may fit best in a third party. And so do a bunch of others.

"I think he can win." »

  • Posted 11/24/09 at 9:57 PM
  • WWJGD?
Jury in Gotti Trial Still Deadlocked

For the second time in five days the jury in John "Junior" Gotti's racketeering trial has declared itself deadlocked. And once again Judge Kevin Castel told them to get back to work. After the jury delivered a note to the judge saying it was "unable to reach a unanimous verdict," Gotti's lawyers asked for a mistrial. As Gotti blew a kiss to his supporters Castel denied the request and reminded the jury that even if this trial ends in Gotti's fourth mistrial, there will likely be a fifth trial. "This trial has been conducted at considerable expense and human effort to both the government and the defendant," he said. "If your deliberations do not end in a verdict, in all likelihood it would have to be tried again before another jury." [NYP]

  • Posted 11/24/09 at 8:59 PM
  • White House

Who's Eating Arugula With the President Tonight?

The White House released the list of the luminaries, dignitaries and shiny, famous folks expected to eat arugula with the president at tonight's state dinner and it's full of the names you'd expect. Most of the media types, political types and Hollywood types in attendance were early supporters of the President back when he was that Senator from Illinois. David Geffen and his boyfriend landed plum seats at Obama's table, along with Sen. John Kerry, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, Ambassador to India Tim Roemer and PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi. Oprah, notably, will be absent. But she sent Gayle King in her stead. All in all, it's an impressive list of powerful people who you'd expect to get to do things like eat dinner with the president, with the exception of one: M. Night Shyamalan. Who let him in?

State dinner guest list includes Washington, Hollywood stars [The Hill]

  • Posted 11/24/09 at 8:19 PM
  • Ink-Stained Wretches
Washington Post Closes Bureaus In New York, L.A. and Chicago

The Washington Post plans to put plywood on the windows of its Los Angeles, Chicago and New York bureaus at the end of the year, leaving the paper with one domestic office in D.C. In a clear cost-cutting move, the paper will re-assign six reporters to Washington and lay off three news assistants. "The fact is we can effectively cover the rest of the country from Washington," Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli said. [Washington Post]

  • Posted 11/24/09 at 6:20 PM
  • Bons Mots

‘Close the Deal, You C—s!’

The website for GDS International, an "events and publishing company" headquartered on Wall Street, contains a highly energetic and entertaining recruitment video, in which staff effusively praise the company for providing "continuing support" to employees through their "really innovative" training techniques. And those techniques are innovative indeed, a lawsuit filed by 26-year-old former GDS employee Lobna Abdelrehim reveals.

Salespeople were also often given "pep talk chants" by their managers, such as "Stop being a f—ing p—y" and "Close the deal, you c—" on the open sales floor, the suit says. »

It’s Good to Be M.I.A. and Ben Bronfman

“I try not to let any of that stuff penetrate my sphere of consciousness,” the musician and heir to the Seagram's fortune, who lives in Bed-Stuy because he chooses to and not because he has to, told the Observer, whilst "sitting on the edge of a wicker couch in the dim light of the Bowery Hotel Bar’s back patio with a glass of Malbec and a Winston." What stuff was he talking about? We don't know. Most stuff, probably. That's the best part about being rich, that you get to think about what you want to think about, and not have "stuff" gunking up your brain all the time, like will I get fired and if so will I have to live in New Jersey and/or and did I pay my cell-phone bill and can I keep not knowing who Adam Lambert is or is it important that I know? Meanwhile, Bronfman's fiancée, the entirely hot and likable Grammy-nominated singer Maya Arulpragasam, a.k.a. M.I.A., "was across town doing a photo shoot for Vogue."

The Bed-Stuy Bronfman [NYO]

  • Posted 11/24/09 at 4:31 PM
  • Ink-Stained Wretches
Time Inc. to Close In Style Weddings

Time Inc. will fold In Style Weddings, Gawker has reported, and a spokesperson has confirmed to Daily Intel. This is sad news for the people who will be laid off, for the wedding industry, and for the magazine industry. But it may be good news, at least, for celebrity marriages! So many cover subjects of In Style filed for divorce that the New York Times once reported that it was cursed. [Gawker]

  • Posted 11/24/09 at 4:15 PM
  • Sad Things

Dead Census Worker Killed Himself

Suicide — that's the conclusion of state police and the FBI after completing their exhaustive investigation into the mysterious death of census worker Bill Sparkman, who was found hanging from a tree with his hands bound and the word "fed" scrawled in marker across his chest. It's believed that Sparkman was trying to make his death look like a murder because his life-insurance policies didn't cover suicide. "This is one of the most thorough death investigations that turned out to be suicide that I've ever seen," said Kentucky State Police Captain Lisa Rudzinski.

Census worker killed himself, tried to make it look like homicide, officials say [Lexington Herald-Leader]

Earlier: We wondered whether Sparkman's death was the result of politically motivated violence, and then reiterated that that was only one plausible theory.

  • Posted 11/24/09 at 3:55 PM
  • The Greatest Show of Our Time

Gossip Girl Caption Contest (UPDATED)

Part of Vanessa's weave achieves sentience and reaches out for Dan's sweet, supple skin.

Part of Vanessa's weave achieves sentience and reaches out for Dan's sweet, supple skin.Photo: Giovanni Rufino/The CW

Has the absence of a new episode of Gossip Girl last night, plus the added dampener of no new reality index this morning, left you feeling listless and empty? Purposeless? Adrift in a sea of Real News? As though the narrative of your own life has been interrupted? Well, God. What kind of shallow loser are you? Ha, just kidding! We missed those overly made-up CW hussies, too. Which is why today we've decided to hold a Gossip Girl caption contest. Above is a shot from next week's episode (which appears to be Thanksgiving-themed, despite the holiday being this week — minus 10 in advance). Come up with a caption or a short description of what could be going on at this probably awkward holiday meal and stick it in the comments. The winner, which we'll announce by 1 p.m. tomorrow, gets the Claw, courtesy of Daily Intel.

And the winner is... »

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Chris Rovzar and Jessica Pressler
Managing Editor
Jessica Coen
Articles Editor
Nick Catucci
Assistant Editor
Dan Amira
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