drat fink

break it down

nice state of the union recap at liberal oasis.

philerupt

"In December, I will travel to Iraq and stand with her people against the threat of a United States military attack. As a member of the Iraq Peace Team, I will work with Iraqi mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, students, writers, painters, unemployed government officials, the poor, the homeless, the sick, musicians, shopkeepers, hustlers, and poets to spread the word about the devastating effects the sanctions have brought to Iraq and the further turmoil a military campaign will bring to the Iraqi people."

blowhole

"Let’s take a hard look today at the actual nature of fascism, by way of understanding not just who really fits the description in today's world, but how much danger to the nation in the post-9/11 environment they actually represent."

cowpoke

i have so much to learn about art.

bar none

as everyone knows, i am a social butterfly. or maybe thats sociopathic. but who could miss out on this event. well, me for one.

jim, how long has it been since you went bowling for bloggers?

rush to judgement

bloggers take another scalp as a drive to press advertisers away from rush limbaugh actually has some impact. nothing those corporations hate more than bad press. well, at least some of them.

gut instinct

"What targets would you consider fair game for a satirist today?"

"Assholes."

ells bells

"NEW YORK -- Daniel Ellsberg has never been a journalist, but he is one of the most important figures in the history of American journalism. His release of the Pentagon Papers in 1971 not only sparked a landmark freedom-of-the-press case, it changed journalism forever, ushering in an era of "leaks," whistle-blowers, and general skepticism about official statements."

"His book, Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers, was published to much acclaim last fall. Ellsberg is uniquely qualified to address the issue of the media and war: as a former Marine, a Rand Corp. analyst, and an adviser to Robert McNamara, Clark Clifford, and Henry Kissinger on Vietnam -- not to mention as one of the most famous newspaper sources in history. E&P Editor Greg Mitchell interviewed Ellsberg, who has long lived in the San Francisco Bay Area, last week."

all wet

"But the biggest surprise of all is that they are not even soldiers; they are spies, part of the CIA's rough and ready, supersecret Special Operations Group (SOG). Until fairly recently, the CIA, in an effort to clean up a reputation sullied by botched overseas coups and imperial assassination attempts, had shied away from getting its hands dirty. Until about five years ago, it focused instead on gathering intelligence that could be used by other parts of the government. Before that, traditional CIA officers, often working under cover as U.S. diplomats, got most of their secrets from the embassy cocktail circuit or by bribing foreign officials. Most did not even have weapons training, and they looked down on the few SOG commandos who remained out in the field as knuckle draggers, relics of a bygone era. Now the knuckle draggers are not just back; they are the new hard edge of the CIA, at the forefront of the war on terrorism. And, says a U.S. intelligence official, "they know which end the bullet comes out of."

pain in the arts

"A Spanish art historian has uncovered what was alleged to be the first use of modern art as a deliberate form of torture, with the discovery that mind-bending prison cells were built by anarchist artists 65 years ago during the country's bloody civil war."

p2 shining p

"The servers are in Denmark. The software is in Estonia. The domain is registered Down Under, the corporation on a tiny island in the South Pacific. The users - 60 million of them - are everywhere around the world. The next Napster? Think bigger. And pity the poor copyright cops trying to pull the plug."

old friends

"Anti-Europeanism is not symmetrical with anti-Americanism. The emotional leitmotifs of anti-Americanism are resentment mingled with envy; those of anti-Europeanism are irritation mixed with contempt. Anti-Americanism is a real obsession for entire countries—notably for France, as Jean-François Revel has recently argued.[5] Anti-Europeanism is very far from being an American obsession. In fact, the predominant American popular attitude toward Europe is probably mildly benign indifference, mixed with impressive ignorance. I traveled around Kansas for two days asking people I met: "If I say 'Europe' what do you think of?" Many reacted with a long, stunned silence, sometimes punctuated by giggles. Then they said things like "Well, I guess they don't have much huntin' down there" (Vernon Masqua, a carpenter in McLouth); "Well, it's a long way from home" (Richard Souza, whose parents came from France and Portugal); or, after a very long pause for thought, "Well, it's quite a ways across the pond" (Jack Weishaar, an elderly farmer of German descent). If you said "America" to a farmer or carpenter in even the remotest village of Andalusia or Ruthenia, he would, you may be sure, have a whole lot more to say on the subject."

word to the wise

The Modern Word

on the verizon

"WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Recording companies won a victory in their fight against online piracy on Tuesday when a U.S. court ordered Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ - news) to turn over the name of a customer suspected of downloading more than 600 songs in one day over the Internet."

singularity

"By analyzing DNA from people in all regions of the world, geneticist Spencer Wells has concluded that all humans alive today are descended from a single man who lived in Africa around 60,000 years ago."

latin lessons

"PHILADELPHIA - For the first time in U.S. history, people calling themselves Latino now outnumber those identified solely as black, according to new Census Bureau figures."

"While hinging on a contestable definition of race and based on inexact estimates, the national figures released Tuesday signal the beginning of an eclipse that demographers have long predicted: Latinos, not blacks, now are or soon will make up the biggest U.S. minority group."

doublethink piece

"Orwell's army is one of the most ideologically mixed up ever to assemble. John Rodden, whose "George Orwell: The Politics of Literary Reputation" was published in 1989 and recently reprinted, with a new introduction (Transaction; $30), has catalogued it exhaustively. It has included, over the years, ex-Communists, Socialists, left-wing anarchists, right-wing libertarians, liberals, conservatives, doves, hawks, the Partisan Review editorial board, and the John Birch Society: every group in a different uniform, but with the same button pinned to the lapel—Orwell Was Right. Irving Howe claimed Orwell, and so did Norman Podhoretz. Almost the only thing Orwell's posthumous admirers have in common, besides the button, is anti-Communism. But they all somehow found support for their particular bouquet of moral and political values in Orwell's writings, which have been universally praised as "honest," "decent," and "clear." In what sense, though, can writings that have been taken to mean so many incompatible things be called "clear"? And what, exactly, was Orwell right about?"

illinoise

im not a fan over her show but i bet oprah would make a formidable senator.

much ruminating on the left about the efficacy and leadership of the recent anti-war protests. i tend to think they are generally a positive endeavor as those who are powerless are given the opportunity to at least feel they are doing something to effect change. for those that think ANSWER is not the answer the next anti-war rally in new york and elsewhere will be sponsored by united for peace. maybe their speakers will stay on message and focus on this struggle and leave the grabbag of tangenial leftist complaints for the appropriate venues. for me, it wasnt about the speakers anyway. it was about showing up and registering my dismay and taking away an impression. sheer numbers spoke louder than words.

here are a few rival perspectives --

high clearing
maxspeak
nathan newman
daily kos


also downplaying the numbers v. how best to make estimates at rallies

rosebud

"On Tuesday, Mr. Rosenthal goes on trial in federal court in San Francisco on charges of marijuana cultivation and conspiracy. The charges stem from a business he ran growing marijuana to be sold for medicinal uses under the auspices of the City of Oakland's medical marijuana ordinance, one of many such municipal statutes in California."

"If convicted on all counts, Mr. Rosenthal, who is 58, faces a minimum sentence of 10 years in prison; the conspiracy charge carries a possible life sentence."

"The trial has riled his many fans in the marijuana community, but its implications are far broader. At its core, Mr. Rosenthal's prosecution exposes a deepening rift between the State of California and the Bush administration over the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes, with no middle ground for compromise in sight."

allied front

"France's opposition to a war, emphatically delivered here by Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin, is a major blow for the Bush administration, which has begun pouring tens of thousands of troops into the Persian Gulf in preparation for a military conflict this spring. The administration had hoped to mark the final phase in its confrontation with Iraq when U.N. weapons inspectors deliver a progress report Monday."

garden party

i dont ever trust drudges sources but this smoking ban is almost enough to make me start smoking again.

ahoy hoy

just had the old jewish landlord up to adjust my leaking radiator for the umpteenth time. i had some music playing on the computer and he looked at it quizzically. and then he said, "the computer, it sings?" now i have to light some incense. like old habits, smells linger.

theres a light that never goes out

"I'm anticipating a tough week. But rather than shutting down entirely, I'm just going to change format. This week, all week, I'm posting nothing but original politically-themed "How many 'x' does it take to change a lightbulb?" jokes. Stay tuned."

law schooled

"Does the DMCA “alter the traditional contours of copyright protection”? Yes, it does, in two respects. First, it creates a new property right that allows copyright owners to do an end run around fair use, effectively shrinking the public domain. Second, it extends that property right to prohibit the use and dissemination of technologies that would protect fair use and vindicate fair use rights. Congress has exceeded the traditional boundaries of copyright protection, superimposing a new form of intellectual property protection that undermines the “built-in free speech safeguards” crucial to the holding in Eldred. Hence, under the logic of Eldred, the DMCA is constitutionally suspect."

mousekatears

"When the Court ruled against Eldred, the Disney Corporation issued a collective sigh of relief. Before the Bono Act passed, Mickey Mouse was set to enter the public domain in 2004, with his best-known animated pals following shortly afterward. One reason Disney put its weight behind the 1998 legislation was to keep Mickey and the gang on the plantation; Eldred's backers subsequently adopted Free the Mouse as an unofficial slogan."

"Mickey's own reaction to the decision was less enthusiastic. Telling his keepers that he was going on an "ice run for the boss," the mouse made his way to a dive bar a few miles outside Disneyland, where he gave reason an exclusive interview."

writers on the storm

"The Eldred decision, in the words of University of Buffalo law professor Shubha Gosh, "deconstitutionalizes" copyright, pushing it father into the realm of policy and power battles and away from the principles that have anchored the system for two centuries. That means public interest advocates and activists must take their battles to the public sphere and the halls of Congress. We can't appeal to the Founders' wishes or republican ideals. We will have to make pragmatic arguments in clear language about the effects of excessive copyright on research, teaching, art and journalism. And we will have to make naked mass power arguments with echoes of "we want our MP3" and "it takes an industry of billions to hold us back."

l.a. phantitis

"Ridgel added: "Your sniveling letter makes me sick, young man; you are a superstar because you are a black Republican, and you love it. Now I wonder if you can make it as just a Republican ... like the rest of us. And don't try any of that Jesse Jackson, Maxine Waters racist garbage on me."

looks like a snoozer

the subconscious takes center stage on the sci/fi channels new show dreamtime where dream analysis gets the couch treatment.

telefrission

pretty good weblog story on pbs's media matters tonight. couple of interesting points -- instapundit's glenn reynolds was talking about whether or not big media companies would allow enough freedom for webloggers on the same day that his msnbc weblog goes live. i wonder what kind of latitude he got.

also they ran an la times infographic which listed the number of webloggers in 1999 at 23 and estimated 200000 at present. while it may be true that at one point in 1999 there were only 23 weblogs, i know that at the end of the year there were approximately 400 blogs listed on eatonweb. i dont know if i have a point just that their precise imprecision annoyed me.

pot party

"The Green Leaf Party sits on the liberal left and wants all the appropriate things—peace with the Palestinians, separation of synagogue and state, and lots of social benefits. But everyone knows what they really want—the legalization of marijuana."

picture perfect

"Image Gate is The New York Public Library's first full working version of its new digital image database. Image Gate provides free and open access to thousands of The New York Public Library's digitized images, taken from the Research Libraries' collections. At its inception, the Image Gate database contains approximately 80,000 images spanning a wide range of subjects. This number will grow as The Library digitizes more images; this phased rollout will end in 2004, when the site will include more than 600,000 images."

copyulation

"After an hour or so of scribbling in a notebook, Wearing showed us her idea. It was obviously shocking, but it also seemed to synthesise, in three short words, the point we were trying to make. This wasn't Wearing saying fuck Cilla or the Guardian saying fuck Cilla, but the voice of Mean TV passing judgment on a cuddly matriarch from another age of television. And Wearing's casual use of the F-word seemed to capture precisely the coarsening of TV culture that Stuart Jeffries would write about inside."

le carping

"America has entered one of its periods of historical madness, but this is the worst I can remember: worse than McCarthyism, worse than the Bay of Pigs and in the long term potentially more disastrous than the Vietnam War. "

caught in the web

i had a dream about weblogging last night. wonder if my brain needs a few fresh inputs. went outside to put a pressed shirt in my van for some function i was to attend the next day and someone was shooting a movie on the street. thought it was low budget kidstuff but then i recognized a voice in the dark. the lighting was insufficient. they were literally shooting in the dark. my front door creaked open as i went to go inside and the guy behind the camera swung around to see where the noise was coming from. turns out it was kevin smith. he kind of glared at me for a moment and then turned back to what he was doing. and as i was going upstairs i thought about posting the encounter on my weblog. then i walked up one too many flights, and after retreating the key to my door didnt work. and while i was trying a bunch of different keys, my friend al who i havent seen in ten years shows up, smiley as usual. i was glad to see him but instead of embracing i hand him some boxes im holding and go back to work on the lock. i never do get in before waking up.

mini meme

blog hot or not

making a statement

the atlantic monthly's real state of the nation issue

salty dawgs

its gettin' salty in herre.

out to lunchin'

someone was murdered half a block from my apartment and i had to hear about it from my parents.

chalk lines

"Known as the "Sheetrock scandal" because tests determined that the substances were shredded Sheetrock, pool chalk or gypsum instead of cocaine and methamphetamines, the situation has been a major embarrassment to both the Dallas Police Department and the Dallas County district attorney's office."

"More than 80 cases have been thrown out against nearly 50 suspects, and the city faces an expected deluge of civil law suits for false imprisonment."

skid row houses

"The tenements and storefronts tucked along the border between the East Village and the Lower East Side will soon be in the shadows of four mammoth eight- to 14-story buildings. The historical Bowery skid row will get a major face-lift as the development of the long-planned Cooper Square Urban Renewal area finally commences in January. Earth movers are already poised at the first construction site, just below Houston Street, where developers Chrystie Venture Partners will start work after decades of halted planning and deliberation with the Cooper Square Committee."

it was them

guess its my turn to post alternets top ten conspiracy theories of 2002

north of the border

"At the outset the Bush policy was dominated by people whose expertise is not Asia but weapons proliferation. Now the lead role has reverted to Colin Powell and the diplomats. They have renounced "tailored containment" and forsworn military options so vociferously that Mr. Bush now sounds like Jimmy Carter. True, his motives for this show of restraint may be questionable — he doesn't want to distract attention from Job One in Iraq — but it's a welcome change from the gunslinger talk. We've also started paying more attention to North Korea's neighbors, whose cooperation is essential. Japan, Russia, China and especially South Korea, whose new president floated to power on a wave of anti-American sentiment, all believe Mr. Kim can be induced to sober up and maybe even join the world. Most important, we've agreed to "talk" to the North. (But not "negotiate." It's basically the difference between foreplay and sex.) Whether the Bush folks have come entirely to their senses is hard to tell, but Mr. Galucci describes them as "lurching in the right direction."

spin the bottle

I am :

A Canadian
(who is) Living in Korea
(and is) Somewhat grumpy
(and) Fond of a drink now and then.

pie in the sky

some scuttlebutt on the hotel going up on rivington st

also ls.com's 2002 les awards. (top honors for alias)

road rage

wasnt someone talking about these parodies of the drug profits/terrorism ads not being accepted by the networks because they werent necessarily factual? couldnt that be said about almost all advertising political or otherwise?

heres the pull quote from this nytimes article --

"some local affiliates say they will not run them. At the ABC affiliate in New York, Art Moore, director of programming, said, "There were a lot of statements being made that were not backed up, and they're talking about hot-button issues."

watch out for those hot button issue, youll get burned every time.

boys with toys

defensetech - defense technology weblog

ad aware

"a leading television producer and two major advertisers have joined forces to present a live variety show with no commercial interruptions. Instead, the advertising messages will be incorporated into the show."

follow through

"I found myself onstage at the Herbst Theater in San Francisco unable to finish reading the passage, unable to speak at all for what must have been thirty seconds. All I can say about the rest of that evening, and about the two weeks that followed, is that they turned out to be nothing I had expected, nothing I had ever before experienced, an extraordinarily open kind of traveling dialogue, an encounter with an America apparently immune to conventional wisdom. The book I was making the trip to talk about was Political Fictions, a series of pieces I had written for The New York Review about the American political process from the 1988 through the 2000 presidential elections. These people to whom I was listening—in San Francisco and Los Angeles and Portland and Seattle—were making connections I had not yet in my numbed condition thought to make: connections between that political process and what had happened on September 11, connections between our political life and the shape our reaction would take and was in fact already taking."

clicque clack

"Iraq's totalitarian system has been a menace to its own people, the region, and the world at large. Leaving the monster in its place is an invitation to future catastrophe. This may sound like an endorsement of the war camp. Not at all. Warmongering is as shortsighted as philanthropic pacifism. The former deliberately neglects the possibilities of a political solution to the problem; the latter does not recognize the existence of the problem. Both are locked in an ideological cage."

machine heads

"Why have conservatives have to dominate the punditocracy? That’s a larger discussion that I’ll devote several upcoming columns to. But let’s start with this one lesson: Political discussion on television operates within very narrow parameters. Partisanship is fine. Attacking the very nature of capitalist America, as far-left social critics are wont to do, is not. And that gives the conservatives an advantage before anyone’s even opened their mouths."

cold cuts

"Genoa Police Admit Framing Global Justice Protesters"

lefts right

democratic leadership council playbook -- foreign policy division

you dropped the bomb on me

"can saddam be contained? history says yes."

chompin at the bit

"New Chomsky Interview: "U.S. Is A Leading Terrorist State"

drug stories

"It is in this sense that Marcus Boon, in his theory-afflicted but nonetheless lively study "The Road of Excess" (Harvard; $29.95), says that Thomas De Quincey, with the 1821 publication of "Confessions of an English Opium Eater," "invented the concept of recreational drug use." More precisely, De Quincey invented the discourse of recreational drug use: the whole way of thinking about drug-taking as a hobby and an escape into what Baudelaire, writing about drugs in 1858, was to call our "artificial paradises."