MSNBC’s Al Sharpton takes a rather unique approach to finding his ideal candidate, borrowing a page from none other than Dr. Frankenstein. Here are the bits and pieces he’d take from several of the GOP candidates (Notably absent? Huntsman’s everything.) to form his version of the ideal Republican presidential candidate:

It’s Friday, poodles! And that means that most of us are but a few hours away from passing out in our own or a stranger’s bodily fluids enjoying a few serene, precious moments amidst our own personal whirlwinds of work, family and responsibilities. The weekend is an oasis, if you will, in our busy lives. Which is why today is the perfect time to reveal an exclusive glimpse at the AOL Huffington Post Media Group’s own “Oasis.” Located in the Dream Downtown hotel at 355 West 16th Street, the Oasis is open to the public as part of the annual NYC Wine & Food Festival. It offers visitors an opportunity to “unplug and recharge” as they enjoy activities and treatments like yoga, massage, reflexology and aromatherapy, in addition to myriad events focused on helping us bring more peace, balance and health to our daily lives.

In its continued bid to take over the world (or, at least, to give you things to read while you should be working on expense reports), Aol is trying out a new tactic: Hiring supermodels. The company has tapped Heidi Klum to act as a very expensive content partner. As part of the deal, Klum will offer advice on coverage and will provide video content on everything from love and relationships to parenting to fashion and beauty. Aol won’t comment on the particulars, but the partnership is reported to set the company back a cool million, in addition to the 50 percent in ad revenue Klum will receive from the venture.

As the relatively recently-formed Aol / HuffPo hybrid prepares to fold Aol News into the Huffington Post, the company has revealed that it will replace Jai Singh with longtime “HuffPostian” Nico Pitney as the sites’ managing editor.

Its no surprise to anyone that Huffington Post and Aol News will be merging, but what surprised us, is that in the days to come, Aol News will no longer be producing any original content, and will instead be entirely serviced by Huffington Post. Since Aol CEO Tim Armstrong and Arianna Huffington jointly announced plans [...]

As it turns out, Jonathan Tasini, the journalist and union leader behind the lawsuit filed against the Huffington Post, Arianna Huffington and Aol for not paying its contributors, also keeps a blog off his own – called Working Life – that offers interested writers the opportunity to produce content… for free.

Jonathan Tasini, the journalist who spearheaded the much-discussed lawsuit against the Huffington Post, Arianna Huffington and Aol for lack of payment to bloggers, spoke to paidContent, appropriately enough, about his reasons for filing.

While the Huffington Post immediately released a response to the lawsuit filed against it by a group of disgruntled bloggers seeking payment – calling the suit “baseless” before having read it, its founder, Arianna Huffington, has now issued a more in-depth criticism of the document.

Well, now it’s official: Several Huffington Post contributors have come together to launch a lawsuit against the site. The suit comes after weeks of very public complaints about the lack of monetary compensation bloggers have received in the wake of HuffPost’s $315 million deal with Aol.

Researchers from U.C. Santa Barbara’s Carsey-Wolf Center developed a survey to find out just how individual Huffington Post bloggers feel about the site’s payment system – especially in light of its $ 315 million Aol deal.

First PopEater, then the world. Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington, who recently sold the brand to Aol for $315 million, is taking steps to expand the Huffington Post beyond the U.S.

Aol / HuffPost wants freelancers with professional journalism backgrounds to come on board as staffers. According to TechCrunch, the company does not view the ability to blog – not even about adorable kitten antics – as synonymous with journalism. Who’da thunk?

Well, this was bound to happen: On the heels of its $315 million Huffington Post deal, Aol has announced that it will shut down 30 of its blogs, electing to absorb some of these into other brands, including a few existing HuffPost verticals.

The aftermath of AOL’s $315 million acquisition of the Huffington Post has–as expected–resulted in layoffs for more than 200 AOL employees in the U.S., according to TechCrunch. The HuffPo deal, which closed on Monday, means Aol is shedding employees across various properties, the majority of them in editorial.

Worldwide, the layoffs total about 1,000–the majority (about 750 workers) in India, where TechCrunch reports 600 employees will be fired, and another 150 shifted into contractor’s roles.

It’s an ultra high profile gig: providing social media services to one of the most widely followed Twitterers in the world, and catapulting you right into a nonstop reality show being covered by 24/7 tabloid and mainstream media. Run for your life.

Charlie Sheen posted his ad for a social media intern Monday (“hardworking, self-motivated, creative, resourceful and social media savvy individual to work closely with him to leverage his social media network”), and the response–as expected–has been intense. Aol’s David Moye reports thousands have already applied. But is it a smart career move?

The Huffington Post has announced a slew of new hires this morning, marking the first wave of hires to its reporting team since teaming up with Aol. Chances are, you’ll recognize some of the names in the bunch.

For instance, Michael Calderone (pictured), formerly Yahoo’s senior media reporter, has been named HuffPost’s new senior media reporter.

Michael Arrington took to TechCrunch (which, you may recall, was acquired by Aol late last year) to discuss a memo from Aol CEO Tim Armstrong on changes facing the company in the wake of its recent, and much-publicized, acquisition of Arianna Huffington‘s Huffington Post. As past of the move, Huffington will oversee editorial across several of Aol’s blogs.

The memo comes on the heels Aol’s former president media David Eun announcing that he is resigning from the company, which Armstrong chalks up to the realization that “there wasn’t a fit for what he is looking for at this point in his career.”

Late last week, Paul Miller, the editor of Aol tech blog Engadget, announced his departure in a farewell post in which he professed concern over the future of Aol. This weekend, the site’s associate editor, Ross Miller, also left.

Comedy Central host Stephen Colbert has jumped on the online news aggregation bandwagon with the launch of his new site, “The Colbuffington Post.”

On his “Tip of the Hat / Wag of the Finger” segment last night, Colbert explained that The Huffington Post is worth every penny of the $315 million Aol shelled out for it, but noted that a good portion of HuffPo’s coverage deals with none other than Stephen Colbert, placing him in the unique situation of growing angry while looking at pictures and videos of himself. Why, then, shouldn’t Colbert get a cut of HuffPo’s sweet, sweet Aol money?

The Huffington Post is known for, among other things, not paying its contributors. Following news that Aol had purchased HuffPo and taken on its founder, Arianna Huffington, as the head of editorial across several of its blogs, some wondered whether this meant either that HuffPo / Aol would now begin compensating its writers. The answer, for now at least, seems to be simple: Hell no.

The post-Super Bowl news drop that AOL and the Huffington Post were merging into the most bizarre internet media conglomerate in recent memory took most of those in the news world by storm, and the Fox News Watch panel appeared as confused as anyone else. While many questioned the size of the merger and the potential impact on content already part of the AOL media network, the main question for the Fox News Watch team concerned Arianna Huffington‘s recent comments on objectivity– namely, that she practices it.

Given that Arianna Huffington was appearing on Real Time with Bill Maher just days after her Huffington Post got bought up by AOL for $315 million, it seemed a near-lock that subject would be the highlight of their conversation. But instead, the most eye-opening part of their chat might have been what Huffington didn’t say – namely, that she wouldn’t rule out voting for someone other than Barack Obama in the 2012 presidential election.

Surveying the media landscape in the aftermath of yesterday’s $315 million deal bringing the Huffington Post to Aol, the Los Angeles Times‘ Tim Rutten has concluded journalism is “the loser.” Using plenty of colorful images (“To grasp the Huffington Post’s business model, picture a galley rowed by slaves and commanded by pirates.”), Rutten describes the merger as a means to “push more journalists more deeply into the tragically expanding low-wage sector of our increasingly brutal economy.”

With many still buzzing about the deal between AOL and The Huffington Post, the speculation over what website might be gobbled up next is running rampant, with even a New York Times blog suggesting that Gawker Media could be next. There are many reasons why this is not likely to occur, one of which is that Gawker’s founder Nick Denton exhibits an entirely different, less spotlight-hungry personality than Arianna Huffington.

Aol’s Politics Daily blogger Matt Lewis reacted to news of his employer’s new purchase and, in a sense, new hire by making a firm decision: He’s leaving. Not only that, but he’s leaving for perennially bow-tied pundit Tucker Carlson‘s conservative-leaning news and opinion site, the Daily Caller.