drat fink

college entrance exam

"In the case of Mr. Bush and Mr. Kerry, electors will be named by each state's political parties. But Ralph Nader is running as an independent. When he petitions to get on the ballot in each state, he must name his own slate of electors. While he is free to nominate a distinctive slate of names, he can also propose the very same names that appear on the Kerry slate.

If he does, he will provide voters with a new degree of freedom. On Election Day, they will see a line on the ballot designating Ralph Nader's electors. But if voters choose the Nader line, they won't be wasting their ballot on a candidate with little chance of winning. Since Mr. Nader's slate would be the same as Mr. Kerry's, his voters would be providing additional support for the electors selected by the Democrats. If the Nader-Kerry total is a majority in any state, the victorious electors would be free to vote for Mr. Kerry."

balls to the wall

more ny mets blogs

flushing local
shea hot corner
jeremey heit
always amazin
yanks, mets and the rest
mets forever

over mediated

media news blogs

paid content
cable newser
lost remote

press passe

another nick denton enterprise -- defamer

culture schlock

"In February 2004 I posted a challenge on the Get Your Bootleg On forum to all-comers to take a track each from the seminal Clash LP London Calling and bootleg it. That is, remix it, add to it, subtract from it - put your own tributary spin on it. Within hours all 19 tracks had new masters (and mistresses), each charged with the task of making that track their own."

l(oser). ron?

"Ribisi was in the audience earlier this month for Beck's set at a benefit concert at the Knitting Factory in Los Angeles, joining with the couple's fellow Scientology pals Juliette Lewis, Danny Masterson and Erika Christensen.

The newlyweds' honeymoon won't last long. Beck is due to head back into the studio, and the just-about-bursting Ribisi is expecting the couple's first child in May."

via aeki

clinton gore news network

al gore -- media mogul?

gouge away

finally getting through daniel ellsbergs memoir about the pentagon papers. heres a conversation between kissinger and nixon upon its release. how great is it to have those audio tapes?

one bit of trivia i just picked up was that neil sheehan, ellsbergs contact at the new york times, actually stole a copy of the papers from ellsberg. ellsberg had let sheehan read everything but only selectively released pages to the times until they had assured him the papers would receive the type of coverage he hoped to garner. ellsberg only mentions this anecdote as an aside at the end of a chapter with no editorial remarks so ill assume for the moment that it ultimately made no impact on their subsequent release. but i wonder what was sheehans ultimate motivation? maybe he was worried the times wouldnt print it and he would lose access to the documents. or maybe he thought that ellsberg could be arrested by the fbi at any moment and the documents would be lost. guess we will have to wait for neil sheehans memoirs to find out. meanwhile, heres an interview with sheehan.

wholesome american values

"This basic cluelessness explains a great deal, I think. It allows Americans to continue drawing a sharp distinction between their traditional domestic institutions and norms (pluralistic, legalistic and at least nominally democratic) and their behavior abroad (brutal, authoritarian, and, at its worst moments, downright fascistic.) It's a kind of imperial adaptation of what historian Pierre van den Berghe labeled 'herrenvolk democracy' -- in which egalitarian norms within the privileged class or race are combined with paternal and/or repressive treatment of subject peoples."

passion play

lovely