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Tuesday, Jan 20, 2004

keepin' it surreal

the iowa caucus results might seem surreal but for the real fake deal one must turn on the tv and watch the wbs The Surreal Life. i wouldnt bother to even mention the show except for the presence of pornstar ron jeremy. how is it again that pornstars have almost crept up the ladder of legitimacy in the eyes of corporate america. obviously the answer is money as the companies that control the info pipelines make fat bank from porn-per-view. and as a result we now see pornstar exploits inching into the mainstream, into realm of sanctified celebrity culture.

oh yeah. it turns out ron jeremy is the most articulate person on the show. im not sure of what that is an indictment but someone assuredly should be put away for it.

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Monday, Jan 19, 2004

workingmens blues

“The refuse of the rich man's kitchen is carefully stored by the cook, and sold to dealers in ‘second-hand’ food, who in turn retail it to the poor.” Excerpted. Originally from Harper's New Monthly Magazine, vol. 74, iss. 442, April, 1887. By Lee Meriwether.

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diamond mind

clever stunt. clark is auctioning off his infamous argyle sweater for charity. the bidding on ebay is up above $5000.

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remember me?

"The Guardian reports that Britain's Katherine Gunn may face two years in prison for whistleblowing on American dirty tricks at the United Nations. She made public a memo that reveals US intentions to spy on the UN delegations of the six "swing vote" nations in the run-up to a vote on the Iraq war."

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Sunday, Jan 18, 2004

shed his grace

"(AP) The federal government is planning to overhaul its employee drug testing program to include scrutiny of workers' hair, saliva and sweat, a shift that could spur more businesses to revise screening for millions of their own workers."

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swingers

"There is a widespread misperception that the course of a presidential campaign flows directly from the candidate's persona. Naturally, a Howard Dean campaign would differ in style and atmospherics from one featuring Wesley Clark or John Kerry or Richard Gephardt. But with so little room to maneuver, the Democratic formula for victory will depend less than ever on the identity of the nominee. Instead it will be dictated by geographic and demographic necessity—how best to cobble together the necessary 270 electoral votes. The candidate must carry a sufficient number of swing states, and success in each one will depend on highly specific combinations of constituencies and issues—many of which can already be identified. In other words, just as the genetic blueprint for human beings and chimpanzees is 95 percent identical, the campaign blueprint for the Democratic candidates will be nearly the same, regardless of which becomes the party's nominee."

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ken e bunksport

another article by ken pollack. this time for his peeps at the council on foreign relations.

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Friday, Jan 16, 2004

mcgruff

"Jan. 16, 2004 | LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Howard Dean received significantly more criticism on network newscasts than the other Democratic presidential contenders, who were the subjects of more favorable coverage, according to a study released Thursday"

via campaigndesk


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dean's list

"The second complaint involves Dean's personality. The argument is that he is too combative. This always struck me as odd. How can Democrats object to a combative person running against an incumbent president who tells the world: "Bring 'em on!" Do they think they can beat Bush with a wimp? With some guy who says, "On the one hand this, and on the other hand that?" I, for one, relish the sight of Howard Dean - his wrestler's neck bulging - taking on the president after Bush tries to tell us that record deficits don't matter, that Saddam Hussein bombed the World Trade Center or that a time of constant terror alerts is a safer world. Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin, in endorsing Dean, called him the Harry Truman of the 21st century. Truman was a feisty little plain-speaking man - and a great president."

via talkingpointsmemo


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desk job

CampaignDesk: Critique and analysis of 2004 campaign coverage from Columbia Journalism Review

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