Check-it: You know about the whole paying thing fuck-it. This 6 degrees of seperation thing is super powerful. That's why network marketing exists today. My personal network says something like 800,000 people or some shit. If we post this bulletin all over friendster we could possibly pressure Friendster to not charge.
Supposedly Arianna (or her campaign) wrote that, I just got it on my Friendster bulletin board.
You still think that's her? I have my doubts. I'm removing the charlatan! At least Saddam doesn't use foul language in his posts.
Posted by Jonathan,
12:16 PM
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Friday, September 12, 2003 Arianna wants to be your Friendster! Looks like this is for real. Arianna Huffington not only wants to be governor, she also is looking for new Friendsters. You'll need to have a Friendster account to view her profile. My favorite part: listing "calculating the gas I save in my hybrid Toyota Prius" in her interests.
Posted by Greg Klein,
7:04 PM
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Road Rage in Maryland I always disliked my home state's Motor Vehicle Administration: now I have an even better reason to complain. Maryland's MVA has approved anti-abortion license plates.
Today's New York Times offers a highly informative article about how the NYSE approved CEO Richard Grasso's grotesque $140 million bonus. But the article is missing a key word, and the word is "corruption." Turns out the compensation board that approved Grasso's grotesque bonus contained executives from big companies that had a keen interest in insuring that the NYSE did not act against stock-market manipulation. [more]
Posted by Timothy,
3:59 PM
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Davis Leaves Battered Woman Behind Bars Flozelle Woodmore, convicted at the age of 18 for the second-degree murder of her abusive boyfriend, was denied parole yesterday by Gov. Gray Davis. Her case, decided in 1987, was argued before the effects of battering on women and the so-called "Battered Women's Syndrome" were recognized by California law. LINK
Posted by Laura,
1:22 PM
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Come and Knock on Our Door
John Ritter also died today. It's a shame. Poor guy; he was only in his 50s.
Posted by Jonathan,
11:41 AM
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The Man in Black One of the greatest Americans of the last century died today.
When Johnny Cash spoke out against the Vietnam war, as he did so eloquently in his song "Man in Black," it wasn't a new voice, it wasn't some hippy band from the Village or the Bay Area. By all expectations the man should have represented, perhaps better than almost anyone else could have, what war proponets liked to call the silent majority; he came from poor, white, southern hill country.
Cash spent much of his career putting on shows at prisons across America, knowing that these men, down on their luck, were the discards of society. The only version of "Boy Named Sue" that is ever listened to today was recorded at one of these shows--the voice of the prison PA system can be heard at the end of the song.
Johnny Cash was 71.
Posted by Clint,
10:17 AM
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Thursday, September 11, 2003 Electoral College Fun
Some interesting facts from The Economist's most recent cover story(it costs $3 to read online, so sorry, no link) on the general election in 2004. There are 78 electoral votes (in 2004) available in the 6 states that Bush won by less than 5% in 2000 (NH, NV, MO, FL, OH, and TN) and only 58 votes in the six states that Gore carried by less than 5% (MN, WI, IA, PA, NM, and OR). So good news there. The bad news? Because of demographic shifts captured by the 2000 census, if Bush were to carry the same set of states from 2000 this time around he would get 278 electoral votes rather than the 271 that he got.
Posted by scott anderson,
11:29 PM
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USA Today/Gallup Poll There is a new USA Today/Gallup Poll out showing dubya's approval rating continuing to drop (down 7% since the last poll two weeks ago). A couple of other interesting things from the poll:
1. 51% of respondents support how Bush is handling "The Situation with Iraq" yet only 40% say that Bush has a plan for Iraq. Now I imagine that there are some people who think he has a plan and disagree with it. This means that at least 11% of respondents say Bush has no clear plan and think that this is good. I don't know how to reconcile these two stats other than just to say that polls need to be taken with a grain of salt.
2. Dick Gephardt 15 17 Howard Dean 13 15 Joe Lieberman 12 13 John Kerry 11 13 Wesley Clark 9
The first column is obviously with Clark in the race, the second without. Clark's 9% is even more impressive given that he is still only at 25% name rec (which I would imagine includes some people who have him confused with Ramsey Clark). The more surprising thing to me is that Clark seems to draw equally from all of the top 4 candidates. Conventional wisdom would say he would draw more from Kerry since his military experience would no longer carry the weight. It has to be crushing to Graham and Edwards (both polling at ~5% with or without Clark) that an undeclared candidate who is unknown beyond blogs and cable news is already ahead of them.
Posted by scott anderson,
11:17 PM
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Buchanan, in Surprise Move, Blames Immigrants One million illegals, many of them young, single males, will soon be on the roads of California. Inevitably, the toll of traffic dead will soar and California families will pay in the lives of loved ones so Davis can collect enough Hispanic votes to serve out his term.
He also referenced California's Democratic polity as "Gray Davis and the Amnesty Eight," which would make a great name for a band. As would "The Nativists are Restless."
Posted by T. Wood,
5:28 PM
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Anna Lindh I was just reading this obituary from the BBC. It sounds like she was a wonderful women and an outspoken defender of human rights. As the obit says:
Among other EU foreign ministers - usually men in dark suits - Anna Lindh shone. Not only because of her blond hair and bright smile, but because she was unconventional - for example, she once quoted Bob Dylan in a speech to the United Nations
We need more polticians like this in the world.
Posted by scott anderson,
1:08 PM
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Sweden, Assassination, and the Euro The foreign minister of Sweden, Anna Lindh, was attacked with a knife yesterday afternoon by an unknown assailant. She died an a hospital early today. She was widely popular, and was assumed by many to be the front runner to be the country's next prime minister, which would have made her the first female PM in a country where almost 40% of parliament is female. Swedish politicians never have body guards. In the 80's a PM was shot in the back of the head while walking home after a movie. Lindh was stabbed in a department store.
This Sunday Sweden is set to vote in general referendum whether or not to join the Euro. The leadership of the leading Social Democrat party favors using the currency, but a no vote looked certain. (Denmark also voted no on the Euro in the late 90's fearing a loss of national independence and identity, and the possibility that the country's generous welfare state could be jeopardized by a centralized European economic management).
Lindh had been campaigning strongly for a yes vote on the Euro. While unseemly to speculate on, a martyr of her stature may have changed the equation.
Posted by Clint,
8:52 AM
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Coming back to an old story, Newsweek (Periscope Section, Asian Print Version, 15/9/2003) reports that ...U.S. sources say that captured iraqis insist Saddam's top strategic objective was to persuade the United Nations to relax sanctions... Saddam ordered intensified efforts to destroy blueprints and "dual use" technology"... Some U.S. officials even think Iraqi defectors who surfaced before the war saying Saddam was still making WMD were double agents dispatched by Saddam to spread disinformation to deter his enemies...
Posted by Nikhil,
7:21 AM
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Wednesday, September 10, 2003 EDIT: For some reason, the link wasn't working earlier... here it is again.
Posted by Nikhil,
11:19 PM
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Bob Riley tried to do right by Alabama but the votes weren't there and it's a shame. Here's the New York Times article. Governor Riley, a former Gingrich Republican in the House, who never once voted to raise taxes in the Congress, saw the problems that his state faced and tried to do the right thing to solve them. Because the tax code is part of the state constitution, restructuring it had to pass a state-wide ballot referendum. So the Bible belt Republican took it the polls with the endorsement of the state Democratic Party Chair and the Teachers Union. The article reports that with most precincts reporting, the vote was 68% to 32% to kill the referendum.
Posted by Graham,
4:48 PM
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Apology to Kalb A week or so ago, I trashed a comment of Kalb's in a post of mine on irrational Clinton hatred. I think my substantive criticism was more than fair. I continued my arguments in the comments and have yet to hear an answer, for example, on how the suicide of Vince Foster shows that Clinton is grade A scum. But in the course of doing so, I characterized him as a global idiot. That was not fair of me and have no reason to think that, and it was wrong of me to do so. I engaged in a type of attack against which, to my knowledge, he has not engaged towards others. The 'Kalbian logic' as I have called it, is horribly flawed. But he's willing to try to defend it. You may think Clinton is scum. But it is silly to claim that the unsubstantiated charges and hatred around Clinton show that Clinton is scum. That is bad reasoning and worthy of ridicule. If anything, ridiculous charges against Clinton show the level of lingering irrational hatred of Clinton among right-wingers, not that Clinton really did them and is grade A scum. But one comment, written quickly, or even one point continually defended does not mean one is, or should be called, an idiot. Smart, rational people can make arguments that are unreasonable at times. In fact, almost any intelligent person will say stupid things at least once in a while, especially in a format that enourages quick responses. I realize it is not much of an apology to in effect say to Kalb that i think your comment was idiotic, but I don't think you are. But for what it is worth, I apologize.
CNN has been toiling for months behind the scenes to develop a prime-time program that could offer an alternative to the conservative spinsters led by O'Reilly on Fox. (NYT magazine ran a great peice about this on August 17th but it is too old to link too at this point). For about a year Connie Chung filled this roll but her show created much infighting at CNN due to its tabloid nature. In August they moved morning anchor Paula Zahn to a 2-hour time slot between 7 and 9 which was quickly paired down to an hour and then went on a brief hiatus. CNN promissed a freshly styled news program which would be based heavily on content and interviews rather than opinion- the formula that has worked so well for Fox. After pushing back the start of the new show for several weeks "Paula Zahn Now" kicked off yesterday with a mightily impressive lineup. Tonight she featured interviews with Condoleeza Rice, John Kerry, George HW Bush, Hans Blix, and Bill Mahr, plus a Christine Amanpour interview with Hamid Karzai.
And what does Fox do to counter?
They host the Democratic Presidential Primary debate, and the one sponsered by the Black Caucus no less.
This effectively yanks the rug out from under CNN by stealing any anti-O'Reilly audience they had hoped to get. It was an amazing marketing move. Granted Fox can't host a Bush-Bashing debate every night but CNN won't be able to repeat that slate of guests either.
And I have to disagree with Scott. I think the debate was one of the worst ones yet. The moderators (other than Juan Williams who is great) had terrible questions. Examples included "What is your favorite song," and "Do you support the President's $87 billion budget request for Iraq?" which was followed immediately by "How will you vote on the President's $87 billion budget request for Iraq?" Give me a break. The apparent lack of security guards in the auditorium allowed for hecklers and protestors to interupt the candidates- for awkwardly long stretches- at least 5 times on live television. It was embarrasing. The whole event looked like student council election assembly gone wrong (including the excessively bright stage lights).
Leave it to Fox to steal the show and then make the Democrats look like a bunch of amateurs.
Posted by Jordan,
1:20 AM
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Tuesday, September 09, 2003 My Thoughts on Tonight’s Debate
Aside from the unruly crowd, I thought it was the best debate/forum so far. All of the candidates did a pretty could job with the exception of Lieberman and Kerry in my opinion. I'd be interested in hearing what you all thought of the debate.
Kucinich – He’s a one trick pony, but was hitting his stride tonight. Has learned not to shout all the time and definitely has improved as a candidate. Great on foreign policy questions, pretty good on domestic questions. Still isn't going anywhere, but I thought he did pretty well. Edwards – Calm and steady, impressive as always. Seems poised to make a run now that he doesn’t have to stay right to keep his seat in NC. Tough to follow Sharpton, but he did a good job. Sharpton – Great line on Bin Laden having “more videos out than a rock star.” Tried to keep the order. His usual charismatic self. Moseley Braun – Only used the word “fritter” twice. Had some great responses. One of her best performances. “Boat” line from closing statement is getting a little old. Graham – Came out swinging on foreign policy questions, but was entirely unmemorable on domestic issues. Dean – Didn’t particularly stand out in general, made Lieberman look like an asshole. Great line on Trent Lott. Wyclef Jean answer seemed a little contrived. Seems to have lost some of the fire that brought him to the front of the pack. Gephardt – Only called Bush a “miserable failure” once. Fiery on foreign policy, but got whacked a fair amount for giving Bush a blank check in Iraq (and rightfully so). Wasn’t particularly strong on domestic responses. Kerry – He got called out by Ed Gordon for dodging a question, and seemed to be on the defensive for much of the night. Not his best debate.. Lieberman – Taking some cheap shots at Dean, I don’t think it will help him, but I guess he’s got to try something. Good response on the civil rights question, but it was his only good one of the night. I don’t understand how he thinks he will ever win the democratic nomination when he gets booed at every democratic function he attends.
Posted by scott anderson,
9:45 PM
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Prediction: Clark Will Run
The "Draft Wesley Clark" movement, previously unaffiliated with the General got a major boost at their last meetup event when Clark released a vidotaped message to his supporters. You can watch it and read the transcript here.
Clark declares that this was the last "Draft" meetup and that he will announce his decision by next week. Watch the video. He's speaking like a candidate trying to rally his supporters (a la Dean meetup videos). My favorite line of the spiel:
Each and every one of us working together, working on behalf of the causes we believe in and helping to make this country strong and great and good.
Wow, this is what America needs. Someone who can make the country great AND good. You go Wesley.
"With this long period, I'm inclined to think that the Iraqi statement that they destroyed all the biological and chemical weapons, which they had in the summer of 1991 may well be the truth," Blix told CNN television.
Posted by Clint,
6:37 AM
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Help stop media consolidation MoveOn is putting on a big show on Wednesday to encourage the Senate to vote for a roll back of the new FCC regs losening ownership requirements. The goal is 100,000 online signatures by tommorow. Sign and let a bunch of people know.
Posted by Clint,
5:55 AM
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A catalouge of lies and delusions In this opinion piece Jay Bookman, an editorialist for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, makes a valuable start in compiling a few quotes from administration officials who said, either by gross miscalculation or deception, that the occupation of Iraq would be a cakewalk.
I hope someone makes a comprehensive collection soon.
Posted by Clint,
5:47 AM
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Monday, September 08, 2003 Boston Sports, Perle, and Rumsfeld Ok, so my hopes of greatness for the New York Jets this year were mostly smashed along with several bones in Chad Pennington's left wrist, and yes, the Jets were embarrassed last Thursday by a handfull of players that were stolen from their roster via free agency by Washington. However, the New Yorker in me had to laugh when I read this post mortem of last Sunday from the perspective of a Boston sports fan. Nothing can assuage the suffering of a Jets fan like the Patriots and the Dolphins both losing on one day. And the Dolphins lost to the the Texans. That's essentially the next best thing to a Jets win. Moving right along, Katrina vanden Heuvel has the goods on the backtracking and mixed explanations of Perle and his neocon henchman when it comes to the trouble with finding Democracy, or WMD, in Iraq. And Rumsfeld sounds like a Goldwater-Nixon style right-winger when he starts talking about how criticism of Bush hinders the war on terror. Give me a break, it's like hailing the silent majority when complaining about anti-Vietnam War protestors, only it's more arrogant now.
Posted by Timothy,
7:21 PM
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Battle of Algiers If you haven't seen it yet, see it now. A great movie by the Italian director Pontecorvo, made in 1965 and one of the landmark films of historical neo-realism. And it grows more relevant everyday. The Petagon recently screened it. It was screened in Dartmouth's Film 030 this spring. It was written up in the Atlantic Monthly months after September 11, 2001. It's at Jones. Go.
UPDATE: Great description and discussion of the movie in this piece. I'm serious about this folks. Go see it.
Posted by Clint,
9:03 AM
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Rolling Thunder hits NH If you're in Hanover, no excuse to miss this event.
Posted by Clint,
7:31 AM
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Big September 11th commemorative event... ...taking place outside of Copenhagen city hall. Check it out.
Probably not what you'd expected.
Posted by Clint,
6:43 AM
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Sunday, September 07, 2003 The Idiocy of the Corner Calpundit has the goods on the National Review's blog
Posted by Timothy,
7:36 PM
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Another MEChA link roundup Kausfiles links to this L.A. Times story (See instapundit's comments here, and calpundit's attack here:"And now for the logical conclusion: therefore, the race-baiting of the neonativists should be taken seriously and Bustamante should be forced to publicly renounce all this stuff that everyone knows he doesn't believe anyway.")
This blog attacks some bloggers and the media for still mistranslating "Por La Raza todo. Fuera de La Raza nada" as "For the Race everything. Outside the race, nothing." and lays out reasons why he thinks this is so. Nathan Newman points to this post attacking Fox News for smearing MEChA with false accusations of violence.
Nathan Newman defends MEChA here and his early post on MEChA drew interesting comments. Ted Barlow reposts a Calpundit commenter saying that Juan non-Volokh wrongly and unknowingly characterized MEChA; non-Volokh had linked to the webpage of a group that formed a dissident campus MEChA group, because they had felt the chapter that left the established MEChA group was not radical enough! Barlow and Newman get some digs in, but are a little silly by asking about membership in the Young Americans for Freedom and the Texas GOP and "El Plan de Philadelphia". It is interesting to think what one accepts when one belongs to a group, but with the possible exception of the one on Young Americans for Freedom, I don't think any of these satiric posts make their point stick well.
Tacitus has a post about guilt by association and notes in comments: "It's perfectly just to ask state GOP members if they agree with their own platform." There's a lot of interesting stuff in that thread, including a link to this story and this claim. Ornicus had said that passing on right-wing racist memes in effect legitimizes them. Tacitus says that is an example of guilt by assocation (as oppossed to something like guilt by associating oneself). Ornicus' David Niewart says that wasn't his intent, but Tacitus says that was the effect of Ornicus' post. Wasn't Ornicus' original point about effects?
Atrios has put "Por el Partido Demócrata todo. Fuera del Partido Demócrata nada." on the side of his blog. Daily Kos has "I am MEChA" across the top of his webpage. Kos wants the GOP to keep attacking MEChA. Be sure to view the comments on Kos for a long debate on MEChA talk against gringos and foreign invaders.
Posted by Timothy,
6:15 PM
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Terrorist group and Forces of Evil It's clear to me know why Hamas has been able to disrupt the peace process and create chaos among the Palestinian leadership. They are being led by none other than the wizard, Saurman.
The similarities in these two sagas are striking. See Saurman bio below: "Saruman came to Middle Earth (aka the Middle East) as the Chief of the Istari, and was the head of the White Council. But for many years, Saruman concealed his secret desires for power and glory. He desired to have the One Ring (...kind of like the One Palestine...), and spent many years building armies, in preparation for war. Saruman despised Gandalf (not unlike Hamas' leadership's disdain for Mahmoud Abbas)...he knew who was the more powerful, and he knew he could never sway Gandalf to aid him in his evil plots.
The holy war over "The Passion," Mel Gibson's movie on Jesus Christ, is raging on all fronts. The Anti-Defamation League is condemning Gibson's latest defense of his movie, made in an article by Peter Boyer in the new New Yorker.
Part of the brouhaha stems from Gibson's interest in Anne Catherine Emmerich, a 19th-century Augustinian nun in Germany who recounted visions of Christ's Crucifixion that some regard as anti-Semitic. Gibson, who carries a piece of her habit as a relic, asks: "Why are they calling her a Nazi? Because modern secular Judaism wants to blame the Holocaust on the Catholic Church. And it's revisionism. And they've been working on that one for a while."
"To me, this [comment] is classic anti-Semitism," ADL National Director Abraham Foxman told us. Foxman, who survived the Holocaust because Catholic clergy baptized him to shield him from the Nazis, added, "I think [Gibson] is on the fringes of anti-Semitism."
Gibson also lays his lash on New York Times columnist Frank Rich. Responding to remarks about the Holocaust made in The Times by Gibson's father, Hutton Gibson, Rich accused the actor's camp of using "PR spin to defend a Holocaust denier." Mel Gibson says of Rich, "I want to kill him. I want his intestines on a stick. ... I want to kill his dog." (Rich told us, through a Times spokeswoman, "I don't have a dog.")
The article says Gibson reluctantly took out a scene in which Caiaphas, a Jewish high priest, says of Christ, "His blood be on us, and on our children." The passage, from the Gospel of Matthew, has been interpreted by some as implicating the Jewish people in Jesus' Crucifixion. "I wanted it in," Gibson tells Boyer. "But, man, if I included that in there, they'd be coming after me at my house, they'd come kill me."
Posted by Timothy,
4:01 PM
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Dean Wisphers One sign that Dean is pretty sure he is going to win the nomination: he is raising 25,000 a peice on behalf of the DNC for their Presidential Trust that the nominee will get. Check it out. Also, Dean is coming out strongly for Gray Davis in California. Smart move?
