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January 8, 2008

The 'Hillary tears up' video; New TV to get 2 Web sites; Tax rebates for all?

Talking with a group of 16 undecided voters at a coffee shop in Portsmouth, N.H., Hillary Clinton showed another side.

Hillary Clinton Tears Up During Campaign Stop

If you haven't seen the primary source, there it is.

"It's the economy, stupid": Bush convenes Plunge Protection Team. In the Telegraph (U.K.), Ambrose Evans-Pritchard dissects:

Bears beware. The New Deal of 2008 is in the works. The US Treasury is about to shower households with rebate cheques to head off a full-blown slump, and save the Bush presidency. On Friday, Mr Bush convened the so-called Plunge Protection Team for its first known meeting in the Oval Office. The black arts unit - officially the President's Working Group on Financial Markets - was created after the 1987 crash.

If true, shouldn't this be in a U.S. paper?

The Times today, reporting on President Bush's speech yesterday at the Union League Club in Chicago (Bush Admits Economy Faces Challenges), mentions a proposal that might be part of the Democrats' stimulus package: "...a $500 across-the-board rebate, possibly to be returned to taxpayers in their paychecks through the payroll tax system, as well as a plan to restore the $1,000 per child tax credit to many low-income families that currently do not qualify for it."

But "aides to Mr. Bush say he will not make a decision about whether to offer a stimulus package, or what it should contain, until later this month, in time for his State of the Union address scheduled for Jan. 28."

Greener grass: The Telegraph's Speakers Corner invites readers to answer a question in comments. Currently, the question is, Would you rather live in the UK or the US? Here's a clip from one answer:

...As previous posters pointed out, the US wins in terms of weather, standard of living, good service, affordable housing, outdoors lifestyle, and can do attitude.

The UK wins in all other things that make it different from the US. Not having the mental and intellectual level of a deranged teenager. A sane and level-headed justice system. No lunatic bible-thumpers trying to pass of their pet religion as science. A working healthcare system: no people left to die outside hospitals because they can't pay. Not the endemic US throwaway mentality when it comes to employees and the constant pushiness of anyone who has any sort of authority over others in the workplace...

I've never lived in England, so I have no idea. As a tourist, I thought the pubs closed early and marveled at the age of some people's houses.

Crippled Web TV: Japan's Matsushita to develop Internet plasma TVs with Google, YouTube - report

Matsushita's Net-enabled TVs will let users access YouTube's video-sharing site and Google's Picasa photo-sharing site by simply pressing a button on the remote control, the Nikkei said.

An Internet TV that only gets two Web sites?

Meanwhile, news out of the Consumer Electronics Show suggests the rest of the industry is going the other way: Cable TV plans to standardize technology Initiative could open door so TVs, gadgets work regardless of provider. From AP,

PHILADELPHIA - Facing pressure from regulators, the cable TV industry plans to make good on a promise to standardize its technology and open the door to televisions and other gadgets that don't need cable boxes to receive video-on-demand programs and other interactive services.

An industry initiative, to be renamed "tru2way" after a decade in the works, is expected to allow electronics manufacturers to make TVs and other gear that will work regardless of cable provider. By making devices compatible, the standard also could encourage the development of new services and features that rely on two-way communication over the cable network....

Literary lushes: Top 10 Drunk American Writers, at Alternative Reel is a simple vertical slideshow on one page, well done.

Photos and quotes from most of the usual suspects, all but one dead. (Harry Crews) is in there, but not Dorothy Parker.)

Posted by Sheila Lennon  at 4:26 AM | Permalink

Comments

Posted by: janet on January 8, 2008 6:58 AM