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Friday, August 08, 2003

Protect us from those terrorists! NYPD Blues. Five months ago, citing terrorism concerns, U.S. District Judge Charles Haight lifted limits on how the New York Police Department can initiate an investigation. Yesterday he restored the rules. According to Newsday, Haight said he changed his mind following the disclosure that on Feb. 15th the police had arrested 274 people protesting the war in Iraq and questioned them about their political beliefs, entering their responses on what the department called a "demonstration debriefing" form. Among the questions: "Do you hate George W. Bush? Do you think anything would be different if Al Gore were elected? What is your opinion of the war in Iraq? Don't you think it was necessary for us to get involved in World War II?" [Hit & Run] Turning the police into an arm of the Republican party... 9:46:30 AM  Permalink  comment []

I'll Tell You the Story of Jimmy the Kid Terrific piece on NPR this morning about the great Jimmy Rodgers, the first country music crossover star. Must listening. Jimmy's falsetto yodel feels to me as just pure singing, words fail him, he's just got to cut loose, that voice cutting right through all other noise around it. (The larger Honky Tonks, Hymns & The Blues site is a great reference to all the music NPR is discussing in this series; well worth the time.) 7:43:01 AM  Permalink  comment []

Bush Misuses Science Data, Report Says. The Bush administration persistently manipulates scientific data to serve its ideology and protect the interests of its political supporters, according to a House committee report. By Christopher Marquis. [New York Times: Politics] 7:38:43 AM  Permalink  comment []

In Search of Blog Business Models Dana Blankenhorn on The Guardian's piece on blog business models:  But there is a bigger stop sign in front of all of this, and I speak from experience here. A real business consists of three elements -- someone to organize it, someone to market it, and someone to produce whatever it is being sold. 7:35:56 AM  Permalink  comment []

Satire and Cynicism no longer possible As I mentioned yesterday, no matter how cynical you get these days, it's impossible to keep up with reality. And it's almost impossible to be satirical: the Onion's headline from early 2001, "quoting" Dubya as saying "our long national nightmare of peace and prosperity is over," shows that it's almost impossible to be satirical. That is a truer statement than anything Dubya has ever really said. So now we're having this joke election in California. A sitting governor could lose his seat to a movie star, even though he actually gets more votes than the movie star! For to keep his seat Davis has to get 50% + 1 of the votes. But to be elected new governor, the movie star (thankfully, not the car alarm maker) only has to get more votes than anyone else! Given that there will be around 500 names on the ballot (not mine, alas), this means that the new "governor" could be elected with, say, 10% of the vote, but the old one turned out with 49% of the vote. And this is supposed to be represenatitive government? Coming from the Republican party, which apparently seeks to grab and hold power at any cost, this isn't a surprise. Look at their track record over the last few years. They impeach a president for a lie of 8 little words which are inconsequential, but turn around and use a series of big lies to justify a war and mammoth deficits. In California, the Republicans want to recall a governor for lying about the budget deficit, but in Washington DC, lying about the budget deficit is part of the job. In 2001, the Republicans get the Supreme Court to help them "elect" a president who receives fewer votes than his opponent, by insisting that we don't count votes! And this same Republican party which couldn't criticize the likes of Sean Penn and  Janeane Garofalo this spring for talking about the war, now thinks that Arnold Schwarzenegger is fit to be governor of the world's sixth largest economy! After that, California is no surprise. Wonder what this crowd has in store for the fall of 2004? But for the cynical among us, maybe it does free us from the heavy weight of better hopes. 7:26:58 AM  Permalink  comment []

Attack of the Gores.. Al Gore calls the Bush administration on their lies, says he won't run but will pick a candidate in the near future. Insightful excerpt: "Robust debate in a democracy will almost always involve occasional rhetorical excesses and leaps of faith, and we're all used to that. I've even been guilty of it myself on occasion. But there is a big difference between that and a systematic effort to manipulate facts in service to a totalistic ideology that is felt to be more important than the mandates of basic honesty." [MetaFilter] 7:17:20 AM  Permalink  comment []

© Copyright 2004 Steve Michel.