drat fink

out of the way

"The political split in the US over outsourcing notwithstanding, till very recently the fund-raising and vote-seeking campaign for the Republican Party was done partly out of India. And this was handled by two call centres located in our own friendly neighbourhood in Noida and Gurgaon."

youve blogged a long way, baby

"Two years from now—give or take—Elizabeth Spiers, the founding editor of the gossip Web sites Gawker and The Kicker, will publish her first novel. Around the same time, Glenn Reynolds, who writes the political Web log Instapundit, will also have a book in stores. So, too, may writers from the blogs Hit & Run, The Black Table, Dong Resin, Zulkey, Low Culture, Lindsayism, Megnut, Maud Newton, MemeFirst, Old Hag, PressThink, I Keep a Diary, Buzz Machine, Engadget, and Eurotrash. Suddenly, books by bloggers will be a trend, a cultural phenomenon. You will probably read about it in the Sunday Times. And when that happens the person to thank—or blame—will be Kate Lee, who is currently a twenty-seven-year-old assistant at International Creative Management."

piece of cakewalk

laura rozens blog - war and piece

tag, youre it

"Shock and awe were what our military promised the Iraqis. And shock and the awful are what these photographs announce to the world that the Americans have delivered: a pattern of criminal behavior in open contempt of international humanitarian conventions. Soldiers now pose, thumbs up, before the atrocities they commit, and send off the pictures to their buddies. Secrets of private life that, formerly, you would have given nearly anything to conceal, you now clamor to be invited on a television show to reveal. What is illustrated by these photographs is as much the culture of shamelessness as the reigning admiration for unapologetic brutality."

free for all

"Helpful Farber-Invented Tip: there's an easy work-around for pulling up old Times articles if they're within the frame that the Link Generator has them. Go to the abstract of the article; copy the headline; drop it into Google (carefully putting it within quotation marks); pick up the original URL from Google, drop it into the Link Generator."

via digby

dupes!

so funny it hurts.

silence is golden (gotta be applebees!)

"The Brooklyn-based orchestral pop ensemble The Silent League originated as the solo identity of singer/pianist Justin Russo (Mercury Rev, Hopewell, Grand Mal) in the late nineties. While a keyboardist with Mercury Rev in support of the critically acclaimed albums "Deserter's Songs" and "All Is Dream," Russo was secretly stealing away every available moment to write and record his own fragile, epic, and highly personal statement: "The Orchestra, Sadly, Has Refused." The resulting debut record by The Silent League -- hailed as a "a masterful blend of sepia-toned chamber pop and sunny-sinister piano balladry" (Bang Magazine), "impressive" and "heavenly" by the Village Voice -- features performances from friends and allies Sam Fogarino (Interpol), Sean "Grasshopper" Mackowiack (Mercury Rev) and Bill Whitten (Grand Mal)."

mp3 breathe

serious shrinkage

i have really failed myself at strategic planning. thank god i am nowhere near the pentagon when decisions are being made. not that i could do any worse. do republican politicians have any shame?

speaking of shamelessness, i have purchased a new tv and have just had installed directv. my strategic failure was not getting three tvs hooked up for free instead of two. my neighbor is taking one line (thats legal right, like file sharing) but at the moment i have two lines hooked up. so while my new tv is hooked up in the front room, im currently watching tv2 in the back room. just this morning i put my computer monitor on the middle shelf of a metroshelving unit (which is an upgrade from the box (that jim claims is his) was on). i have the tv on the shelf above it as i type from the reasonable comfort of a late 80s cheap leather scandanavian recliner. had i been shameless like a republican, i would have ordered all three and not considered that it was at all odd to have three hookups for this size apartment. of course the guys installing it could care less and i forgot what whores americans are for tv. probably wasnt unusual at all. i asked him if he had directv. he said that he had three cable hookups that were all illegal. land of the free, home of the brave.

maybe some french kicks one more time

better never than late

why would i ever tell anyone who is chronically late to take their time in coming over? what sort of temporally challenged masochism am i practicing?

street scene

"Mike Skinner, the musical mastermind behind The Streets, once again melds hip-hop, dub, ska, UK garage beats, and his unique rhyme style to deliver a sound like nothing else. Instead of the snapshot imagery of the last album, "Original Pirate Material," "A Grand..." is one continuous narrative, following Skinner through a day of victories, defeats, and battles. "On the new album Skinner steps away from scene affiliations and into more exploratory spaces. The result actually comes off more genuinely hip-hop than his debut…A 'Grand' suggests that Skinner is less England’s Eminem that its Beck, someone whose distinctive way with sound, song, and gesture is as much a part of his voice as his lyrics. A rap Ulysses."

mp3 fit and you know it